I work in midtown Manhattan, I watched the 2nd plane hit the tower with my own eyes. 9/11 really hit me hard. Partly because of that, I was against making this movie because I thought it was too soon. I was worried about exploting still open wounds in the name of making a buck.
After having seen it I have to say that the film was excellent. It portrayed the people as, well, regular people. It portrayed the terrorists as normal as well, until they attacked. It portrays them as the animals they were. Tears were flowing when the passengers finally fought back. I wished I could have helped them. They were true heroes.
It was frustrating, stirring and completely emotionally draining. When it ended I sat in stunned silence for a good 5 minutes, as did most of the other 30 people in the crowd. All throughout I kept thinking "These animals are the same as the terrorists down in Gitmo to whom the Democrats are so adamant about giving rights." It made me angry to think about that.
To sum it up, this was the best movie I have seen in years. It should win every award there is to win.
I know it's sinful, but I hate Arlen Specter.
I saw it at Times Square in New York at the 1:30 pm showing. The ticket taker said that the movie "was getting a bigger crowd than is normal for that time of day."
There were about 50 people....mostly men. Surprised to see a lot of them in their 20's.
It felt more like a documentary, with a real you -are -there immediacy to it. The movie itself feels like a missile. I don't know how the director was able to recreate the assault on the cockpit by the passengers the way he did,but I have never seen such collective rage and determination in any movie scene as I did here. I got the sense that for the actors, the scene brought out the fierce "Don't mess with us " patriotism that Americans had on that day...Sadly, almost impossible to find in New York City these days. Everyone's just ragging on Bush.
There were three television crews when I left the theater asking people for their opinions of the movie... I spoke to a Japanese television crew and told them that I thought every New Yorker should see this. I also said that I had friends who lived here who had never been to Ground Zero, which seemed to surprise them.
I really enjoyed your review. I am from Texas and 16 days after 9/11, I was in Manhattan and around 4:30 in the morning a friend and I decided to walk down to ground zero. We got past all the police/army/etc. They just let us walk by.
When we came up upon that blown up area of buildings and the smoldering ruins... I looked around in dismay and could only think that someone just made a very loud statement: "This is WAR, come and get us!"
Ground Zero is a HUGE calling card...
Very moving review. Thank you.
I hope so also; however, I'm too pessimistic about Hollywood. I doubt they'd give any recognition to any film that (1) didn't change the Muslim terrorists to Nazi's, and (2) didn't have a "strong, committed loving and persecuted" gay male couple as the heroes.
I am very selective nowadays.