Understanding 9/11 Through Cinema

Scene from The 25th Hour
Today marks the 15th anniversary since the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11, 2001. It's impossible not to notice the ramifications that only one day had on the rest of America's civility for the years going forward. There's more uncertainty in the air, and cinema is only beginning to talk more openly about the day's impact. As the premiere form of storytelling with visceral images and ability to make sense of the unimaginable, it is how audiences in decades to come will likely understand that fateful day much like how modern audiences watch Platoon to understand the Vietnam War, or Mrs. Miniver before that to understand World War II. The following is an attempt to understand the impact that 9/11 had on cinema by exploring how it told the story of one day, and the coping that would come in the years to follow.


The Day Of
World Trade Center (2006)
Dir. Oliver Stone

The more that September 11, 2001 becomes a memory, the more novel it seems to have movies act surprised as the events unfold. The first tower goes down, leading to speculation of a freak accident. Then the second one happens in close proximity. To the police and fire fighters of Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, the details were unfolding as they were driven by bus to ground zero. The disbelief that the passengers aboard share is something integral to understanding how bizarre the actual moment was. By the time that they see the towers billowing with smoke, the shock of a possibly fake story wears off and the terror that would engulf America's future became abundantly clear. Who attacked the Twin Towers? Who.

While everyone's lives were impacted by that day, Stone is one of the first major American directors to show it from the real heroes of that fateful day. It was the fire fighters and the police officers who risked their lives to find survivors within the fallen towers. It was against all odds, especially with leader John McLoughlin (Nicholas Cage) and Will Jimeno (Michael Pena) risking their lives only to be pinned underneath fallen rubble, waiting for their fellow man to finally rescue them. As the credits roll, the unfortunate statistics play out counting the casualties from around the world. Then there is the more unnerving statistic. The real life McLoughlin and Jimeno were two of the 20 survivors of the collapse. The prologue counting their thankfulness for friends and family only drives home the fact that 9/11 was a unifying moment; bringing out the best in everyone in favor of keeping evil from winning.

Though what is more striking in the story is that as McLoughlin and Jimeno lay under rubble, doing their best to stay hopeful, their families are grieving for them - unsure if they will ever see them again. It is a feeling that everyone felt that day, whether they were victims or helpers. The need to have loved ones survive that day was more important than seeking revenge. It was the driving force of both sides. The families wanted them home just to confirm their safety, while those pinned under rubble were mostly thinking of their loved ones as a form of guidance. As buildings fell and the future looked even more uncertain, the one thing that would resonate was family and country.

United 93 (2006)
Dir. Paul Greengrass

While World Trade Center does an adequate job of depicting the chaos of the events on the ground, director Paul Greengrass would look at the passengers aboard the flight United 93. What's more uncertain than being under falling rubble was being aboard a plane, clueless of the events happening in New York. While the film cuts between flight control on the ground and the airplane in motion, most of the energy comes from what happens aboard. Played by a cast of unknown actors without a real central protagonist, the film seeks to show how everyone came together to overtake the potential disaster. Among the three major attacks, United 93 was the only one to miss their target, and it was thanks to what can easily be described as a cross section of people working together to overcome terrorism.

The film is a bit exploitative and churns out terror for the sake of knowingly watch a plane crash into a field. However, Greengrass' skill is in making the events feel real. Much like how the families in World Trade Center were uncertain who would live, the passengers would never know about the Twin Towers collapsing. All that they would know is that they stopped their plane from hitting the Pentagon. While risking their lives, they saved the world that day. It came at the cost of tragedy, but it showed a selfless side to panic. There was an action done. While, like most of the actors, these names may otherwise never be ingrained in our public consciousness like the fire fighters and police officers, their unifying status is enough to suggest that they all are heroes who kept terrorism from winning entirely.

Epilogue: Everything Since
W. (2008)
Dir. Oliver Stone

Only two years after directing World Trade Center, Oliver Stone made a biopic about the president in charge on that fateful day: George W. Bush (Josh Brolin). With Bush still in office, there's no way that it could be a complete portrait of one man. Still, the politically averse director behind JFK and Nixon had to have something important to say if he made a film about him, right? To say the least, W. isn't entirely just about the 9/11 Attacks or the subsequent War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's about the man who would be president - and the road is just as lopsided as the film's tagline: "A life misunderestimated."

To summarize, Bush was a frat boy with privilege. His father, former President George H.W. Bush, set a standard that would be impossible to live up to. To some extent, the film is more about the young Bush's need to impress his family and do his daddy proud. The film cuts between his early years and his time in office. While there, he has meetings with his staff who help him draft the plans for the war and let him go about the controversial mission. The film in some ways is a loving portrait to one of the most maligned presidents of the past century. However, Stone does his best to do an incomplete biopic that explains how one man decides to run for president and why he would be decisive to go to war.

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Dir. Kathryn Bigelow

While a large portion of this story is fictionalized, including protagonist Maya (Jessica Chastain), the notions underneath the surface are probably the closest that cinema has come to scratching the raw nerve of America following 9/11. The goal is simple: find and kill Osama bin Laden. However, it is a move that is so difficult due to his reclusive nature and the lack of enthusiasm that the government begins to share surrounding the plan. Maya is the only one who cares, and her procedural-style epic to get him turns almost into a sadistic asexual love story about America's need for closure. Somehow killing him will make the world safer. It isn't clear why, but Maya believes that it's the only available answer.

The film may get flack for being inaccurate, but it's not about the facts. It's about the tone and climate of which Maya is desperate to get her answers. She tortures presumptive terrorists for answers. She yells at anyone that defies her. She spend sleepless days thinking of what she did wrong. Most of all, she becomes disturbed when she finally does come face to face with bin Laden's corpse. She has obsessed over that moment that she almost has no other identity to pull from. What will she do next? It may be a quaint depiction of America's relationship to terrorism, but it perfectly summarizes the various moods and drives that society has instilled in everyone who believes that killing evil will solve everything.

American Sniper (2014)
Dir. Clint Eastwood

The Hurt Locker (2009)
Dir. Kathryn Bigelow

Brothers (2009)
Dir. Jim Sheridan

What is more taboo than making a film about 9/11, is making a film about The War on Terror. Considering that the war is still going on and is a hot button issue depending on who you are, most of the films have been met with very divisive moods. The Hurt Locker received praise for depicting the haunting nature of the Iraq War. However, writer Mark Boal received flack from actual troops who believed that he was presenting the details wrong. Similarly, American Sniper continues to receive flack for a variety of reasons, including hyperbole around Chris Kyle's (Bradley Cooper) actual sniper count. Most others were still feeling the tensions around the ongoing wars and the belief that the film painted anyone who wasn't white and American in unfavorable light (a fact made more explicit thanks to Kyle's actual racism).

While American Sniper, The Hurt Locker, and Brothers aren't the only films about the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, they all share the common sense that made Oliver Stone's Vietnam War movies so important. They weren't just about the glorious cinematic nature of war. They were about the individual, and the sense that war was essential despite causing psychological trauma, commonly referenced as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In each of these cases, there's a sense that war veterans will never be fully understood because of the struggles that they can't explain to anyone who hasn't been out of the country. In Brothers, Capt. Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) gets captured in Afghanistan before being returned a neurotic mess. He screams at authority and is unable to connect with his loved ones. Likewise, American Sniper's Kyle returns home only to realize that he has the drive to keep fighting, as if the war created an unfulfilling addiction.

The most indicative moment of these three that connects 9/11 to the wars is found early on in American Sniper. Kyle is a simple Texan who likes to drink and have fun. However, there is a moment where he stares at a TV and finds the Twin Towers in flames. He changes. He wants to help his country. He does so with a gift that consumes him. He finds it hard to live his life when he returns to his family. His PTSD is more insular and triggered by simple sound cues. The Hurt Locker shows bomb being defused as a tense process, which of course would make soldiers' lives more tense. While each of these approach the wars differently, they show the vast variety of how American soldiers have participated in the war.

The 25th Hour (2002)
Dir. Spike Lee

It should be noted that this is the first major film to be released about 9/11 following the attacks. While it doesn't immediate strike audiences as being about 9/11, one cannot help but feel reminded of the Twin Towers and their absence. As Monty Brogan (Edward Norton) enjoys one last night of freedom before being hauled to jail, he begins to understand the joys in life that he will be missing. There is a moment in the film where an apartment overlooks the barren field where the towers were. It's only a haunting reminder of the short time that has passed since. Even if the film then on lacks buzz words, there's the sense that the film is exploring the loss of innocence, and a past that was far more free and cathartic.

The film opens with a title sequence that features two lights depicting where the twin towers stood. They look monumental, even if their transparent image over the city drives home their absence. It's a story about a New York that is trying to recover from loss. Brogan is a brash man who is frustrated, but he comes to terms with his inevitable fate over the night as he parties and imagines what his life could be if he escapes. It isn't the most direct 9/11 film in that it doesn't talk about the events directly. However, it's impossible to be reminded of how the country changed in the way that Brogan and his friends go about their evening, realizing that nothing could change the fate to come.

Reign Over Me (2007)
Dir. Mike Binder

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)
Dir. Stephen Daldry

While the tragedy does have its share of active participants, it does seem like there are few films willing to explore the grieving process. There are endless films that wish to explore soldiers and war or how the government is corrupt, but what about those who simply want to find a way to live their lives? Reign Over Me sees Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler) befriend Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) in an attempt to get over the grief that losing his loved ones has caused. It's a jubilant drama, and one that attempts to show how things have taken a mental toll on Fineman, resulting in him finding joys in escapism. He breaks down in a courtroom case before singing the one song that gives him solace: The Who's "Love, Reign O'er Me."

Likewise, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close shows the juvenile side where Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn) copes with losing his father (Tom Hanks) in the Twin Towers. He yells at his mother (Sandra Bullock) and befriends a mute (Max von Sydow) on a quest to complete his father's scavenger hunt. In doing so, he finds ways to connect with the outside world and move on. However, he still finds some solace in a recording of his father's last conversation, which happened to take place as the towers were falling. Both films depict grief from opposite ends of the spectrum. While neither show the long term effect, both show the necessity to not be overcome by tragedy, and to just let life be lived.

Man on Wire (2008)
Dir. James Marsh

For the most part, this documentary isn't necessarily about 9/11. It's more about the majestic power that the Twin Towers had when they were still with us. They represented something powerful Philippe Petit, and he sought to perform a tightrope walk routine over the city. For the most part, the story is about his quest to do it. However, the closing act is a self-reflective look back on the towers and what they meant not only to Petit, but to New York as a whole. While not exactly a poignant look at how things have changed after 9/11, it best explains the symbolism that buildings can have, and how they represent a challenge to overcome.

Four Lions (2010)
Dir. Chris Morris

If you don't laugh at this, then the terrorists win.

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