Prayers

Rating: Null/10 (28 April 2006)

When this film was over a silence hung over the theater unlike any I had ever heard. My eyes watered as I left the hall, and I said a quick prayer as I exited; simply in honor of all the people who died on September 11th.
There is a sequence in this film where the passengers are portrayed praying, as are the terrorists. The languages and prayers are spliced together through a series of short scenes that depict the emotional impact that everyone was feeling.
That is what this movie is about. It does not deal with conspiracy theories. In fact, to do so would be more untrue than any other lie that the film-makers have been accused of telling. This movie is about what the people around the country were feeling as the tragedy of that day unfolded. No one was sitting there thinking, 'I wonder if our government was in on this?' All the people on that plane were thinking of only one thing: survival. That is what this movie portrays, and it addresses several themes in doing so, such as god, faith, unity, and the will to survive. These are not 'American' themes. They are human themes. The terrorists in the film are not portrayed in a horrible, demonizing light. In fact, the audience is ushered to feel sympathy for them in certain scenes. This movie was not made as propaganda, or as a means to make money. If one simply views the film, this becomes apparent. If any 9/11 movie is an attempt to make money, I would say it is Stone's 'World Trade Center.' This film was a prayer, not propaganda, and not propagating falsities. It was something that came from the heart, and after viewing the intense performances and believably real reactions, that also becomes apparent.