Where there only white people affected by the disaster?!

Rating: 5/10 (1 October 2006)

What i hoped to gain from this movie was understanding. This tragedy was so far away, that i couldn't relate to it. Even though i have been on top of the WTC, the events on 9-11 didn't shake my world. It was just something far away. I hoped this movie would have gave me some insight. It did not.
The opening is chaotic, just as i imagine it was on that day. what happened? was there one or where there two planes? chaos and doubt with the people involved. Good! up until then i was positive.
Then the search-party becomes trapped, and the focus shifts on the families and the rescue-workers. Still OK. The scenes with the relatives where quick and short. It made me feel a bit unruly, again, just as i imagined those people would have felt.
I did not relate to the characters. Even the death of one of them (where did he shoot at?)did not make me go 'oh no!'. Did the director think we automatically relate to these people because we know so much about the disaster already? The death of this team-member later on in the movie, with some more background on him, could have had far more impact on the viewer. Then they have had lost someone they knew. Now i didn't care, because i did not know the guy.
the characters in the story are shallow. The doubts, the pain is only there because you can see them act it out. It's not there because you feel it. For instance, i still wonder what's up with the marine or the paramedic. I see them, i know what they are doing there, but not WHY they are there and what their doubts are.
Then the movie skips two years, and everybody (the survivors) is happy and fine. Are they?! What about the people who lost relatives in the crash or due to the contamination of the site? What about the feelings and doubts of the survivors and the impact on their live and the people around them? This movie seems to focus mainly on the feel-good value, instead of the tragedy it was, and i think still is.
But the weirdest part is, and i'm probably be the last guy who would play the political correct card, where are all the black people gone off to? New York, and the only black people i see are a cop who answers the phone, a cop/guard who says a line and stumbles away and a woman in a hospital who lost a relative. I could be mistaken, but to me all the rescuers where white (there was a black cop returning to the station, and even he was white from the ash).
The movie ended with the line that everybody learned to depend on each other in those terrible times. I was glad they said that, cause i did not learn that from the movie.