Big Disappointment

Rating: 4/10 (9 August 2006)

I was expecting something very different. If you're going to tell this story, show the horror. First and foremost there should be the carnage, the horror, and the immediacy of it all. Instead of one man jumping to his death, show dozens raining down. Tell it!!! The air was PINK!!! All we see are a few reaction shots. We see minor injuries instead of a "Gone with the Wind" devastation of acres of screaming men, one of the highest impact shots in movie history. If you're going to tell the story of World Trade or Rwanda, you don't pull punches just so kids can see it.
There should also be dozens of heroes saying "I'm going in!" as a hundred others rush forward behind them. There should more than one or two comments about getting "them." When Kennedy was killed we were instantly ready to quit college and jobs to fix bayonets and get "them." There is merit in intermittently bringing the story very personally down to two lives and families, but this is way too narrow and calm. Micro instead of macro. Both can be done alternately, personal then broadly. Way too much down time, at least 30 minutes of conversation between two trapped men.
However, once again we're going to see "king's new clothes" reviews, people afraid not to like something noble.
In spite of it all I WAS in tears a number of times.