Thursday, August 03, 2006

Is it too Soon?

I'm not usually a person who watches "predictable" movies. Especially if I already know the outcome and basically how the events unfolded. For example, I've never watched the movie Titanic because I knew the ending:The Titanic sank. I didn't watch United 93 because how can anyone correctly portray the events if nobody survived? Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for historically based movies. I'm a huge fan particularily of war based movies. Let's be honest here...I'm all for movies as long as they entertain me, not be predictable and not be allot of hogwash. But...if it's historically based, it needs to be relatively accurate. I don't like allot of "Hollywood interpretations" because I feel it distracts from the movie. I know B.S. when I see it.

I get excited whenever anything history comes along and catches my attention. I should own stocks in the History Channel because that's my favorite station in my limited televison viewing. Today I was cruising through MSN.com and found a Newsweek article covering Oliver Stone's new movie: World Trade Center. It premeires August 9th and apparently I've been so wrapped-up in other issues I forgot about it. Must be my CRS kicking in again.

I'm a little hesitant to view this movie. Even 5 years later it still hits close to home. I remember that morning vividly as if it was just yesterday. My son, who was 5 years old, was surfng the channels like Daddy had taught him. He stops briefly and yells, "Dad, downtown is on fire!" For him it was a "downtown", it just wasn't Indianapolis. As I entered the room I immediately recognized the Twin Towers. I wisked my son off to kindergarten which was only two blocks away. When I returned home, I watched in horror as the events unfolded. My phone rang and the boss told me to stay home. Nice of him although I already had a day of vacation planned. lol I also fielded calls from my friends who are/were in the National Guard and from friends wanting to know if I'd heard about those friends. Although today I reflect back to my "vacation day" and have mixed emotions of whether it would've been better working or staying home watching the news.

I cannot express in words my emotions following September 11th nor the feelings presently. I, to this day, still get choked up whenever I hear Alan Jackson's song "Where Were You". I can relate how America must've felt on December 7, 1941 when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. I'm thinking the Islam Extremists should review their history lessons. I'm confident this quote still rings true today within an American's heart and soul. Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is credited with saying, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."

If we have lost popularity within our own Nation with our War Against Terrorism, where is the media propaganda? Why not show allot of the news reels, unedited, of that horrendous day in our Nation's history? People become complacent when they aren't continually reminded of why this Nation is fighting the battles. People are failing to realize that Islamic Extremists are slowly becoming the Communists of the Cold War Era. And let us not forget the idealogy reminiscent of the Nazi Regime. Will this movie spark whatever resolves we have buried within ourselves so we unite, once again, as the sleeping giant?

Below are some movie reviews and articles concerning World Trade Center. I will be viewing the movie but not on August 9, 2006 when it opens at the box office. Yes I realize this one has a predictable outcome. But after reading these reviews and articles, it's not all about the Twin Towers.

Townhall Movie Review
"Whatever one thinks of Oliver Stone, the man knows how to make movies. This is one of his best. It deserves an Oscar in so many categories. It also deserves the thanks of a grateful nation. Go and see it beginning Aug. 9 and make him a large profit so he might consider inspiring us again, as his predecessors so often did during Hollywood's Golden Age."


Blog Critics Movie Review
"It is refreshing to see Stone return to his Platoon form. This film involves no crazy camera techniques or a flair for his JFK conspiracy side, but the film is above and beyond anything he has done since JFK. While World Trade Center will most likely be labeled a controversial film for its subject matter, it gives no reason to be tagged as such. In the screening that I attended, the last hour all I could hear was sniffling and stifled crying. This film hits the heart, and hits it hard. No one will be able to deny that this is one of the best films of the year."


IMDb
The above link has all the pertinant facts about the movie. A comment was left that hits home about how the movie portray events. While the comment isn't derogatory, it's a genuine expression.

Natural Born Heroes
"In Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center," on the morning of September 11, 2001, a Port Authority cop named Will Jimeno is doing his everyday job, shooing away prostitutes and panhandlers from the bus terminal, when he hears a loud rumble overhead. The camera pans, not up at the sky, but down the street, to reveal the shadow of a low-flying plane climbing the face of a building. Stone never shows the planes crashing into the Twin Towers. He's letting us know, right from the start, that we will see history unfold as it happened on the ground, from the perspectives of ordinary men and women."


Will you be viewing this movie?

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