Shadows the truth of the day.

Rating: 2/10 (15 August 2006)

Before you brush this review off as someone that is just looking to cause problems or badmouth a movie let me give you my background. I live in NJ less than 5 minutes from the city. My family is heavily in twined in the Port Authority of NY/NJ. My grandfather is a retired Lieutenant and my uncle has been a PAPD officer for 12 years and I have both friends and family that worked in the world trade center in the PA executive offices.
The movie itself concentrates on two PAPD officers, Will and John. It follows their ordeal up to the point of rescue. OK. Seems good. But what about the 2700+ people that were lost on that terrible day. The writers spent too much time basing the movie on two men and their "story of triumph" that the true events of the day were left in the shadows.
There were times during the movie that I almost forgot what I was watching because it seemed like these were the only two men (along with their families) affected by the tragedy. The ordeal seemed no different than that experienced by the miners that were rescued in pennsylvania several years back. There was no rescue of other people even mentioned until the ending credits, at which time they finally acknowledged that people were actually lost.
The movie gives the impression that September 11th and the days following was an uplifting experience because two men were found alive. It fails to document all that was lost and never recovered. If a movie must be made about such a tragedy then the movie should show it like it is. There should be no dramatic rescue with uplifting music. The day was terrible, the events were terrible, and the story was terrible. Lets not make the worst day in our country's history into an uplifting "happy ending" version of titanic.
Throughout the movie there were 3 mentions of lost people other than the main characters. The first of an unnamed elevator operator, the second was a quick clip of "missing person" posters, and the final was the ending credits that gave the true numbers. Those three scenes are what September 11th was. It was not a love story. It was not a triumph. And more than anything it was not material for a Hollywood movie.