Heroes memorialized in World Trade Center

September 11, 2006 —

It was almost exactly a year ago today that I wrote a commentary about the importance of making a film about the events of 9/11. At the time, I felt the need to comment on some of the criticism I heard about the films United 93 and the unnamed Oliver Stone film that would later be titled World Trade Center. With the pictures in production and eyeing 2006 releases, people began speaking their opinions, saying the timing was all wrong and the movies in poor taste. Ultimately, they feared the consequences of making films that would profit from the worst day this country has ever seen.

My belief, however, was that such movies could help our nation regain some of the perspective I felt it had lost since that fateful day.

When I wrote the article, the four-year anniversary had just passed and I felt that surprisingly little had been said or done to commemorate it. For right or wrong, it felt to me like more attention was paid to the war in Iraq and rising gas prices.

So when I decided to see World Trade Center this past week, I went into the theater thinking about that commentary and wondering whether my hopes for the film would be fulfilled. As it turns out, they were.

World Trade Center revolved around the rescue of two Port Authority Police Officers trapped in the rubble of the World Trade Centers. Jumping back and forth between the officers and their grief- stricken families, the film is literally an emotional rollercoaster that flattens you in your seat and leaves both your mind and body aching.

In retrospect, though, it wasn't the movie making itself that made the film so dramatic, rather the fact that I saw these characters as who they were truly meant to represent: the real heroes of 9/11.

Watching the film made me think back to that day, watching the news with my family and seeing hundreds of police officers and firefighters digging through the rubble, looking for their lost brothers and sisters. It made me think of those who were told they had lost a loved one and those dealing with the uncertainty of not knowing for sure.

At the end of the day, it made me think of those things faded from time and the world of 9/11 that had begun to serve more and more as a backdrop - something still observed but perhaps not understood or appreciated.

Yet maybe the movie's greatest achievement occurred a few days later when I stopped at an intersection where firefighters were collecting money for Jerry's Kids. In times past, I may have just rolled up my window or said I couldn't spare the cash. That day, however, I reached into my wallet and gave what I had - two bucks. After seeing the film and being reminded of all the good they and others like them do, how could I not do my part to help lend a hand? And while my two dollars may seem, in a way, insignificant, if others like me around the country choose to chip in, a great amount of good can be done.

Yes, revisiting 9/11 that day in the theater was difficult and reminded us of something so terrifying we once could never have imagined it plausible. Yet the benefits that came about because of this film, even if just from one man, should justify the necessity for making them. And surely, there is no wrong in that.