World Trade Center

When I first heard a number of months ago that Oliver Stone, of all directors, would be making one of the first major motion pictures about 9/11, I thought that I would probably never see it. It's not that the subject matter is too touchy for my sensitivities. It was more a matter of assuming that Stone's filmography left me assuming that he would use arguably the saddest day in this nation's history as a platform for his politics.

After reading very positive reviews about it, Lesley and I made plans to see Stone's "World Trade Center" last night. It was quite ironic that we saw it last night, hours after news that England's MI-5 captured terrorists planning to hijack and explode airliners heading for America.

The reviews were right. The movie is amazing as a story and art as well as necessary to see. Let me preface that I will not write any spoilers in this post and ask any commenters, if any, to not spoil it for others, although I will add that tissues are a must.

The movie is about both the heroes of the Port Authority Police Department who entered the WTC to save others as well as the cruel uncertainties that their families endured awaiting word of their trapped men. The movie starts by showing the protagonists starting that fateful day in their normal manner, as we all did that morning. The film never shows the planes actually hitting the buildings. It just shows the shadow and loud noise of the first plane as it approached the WTC.

Watching the first part of the movie, when various players heard of the first and then second strikes and the uncertainty they faced while trying to determine what happened and what to do, brought back to me vivid memories of that day. I was sitting in my office in suburban Detroit, getting ready for a 9:30 deposition, when I heard on the radio that an airplane hit one of the towers. Like many others, I assumed it was just an errant small plane that couldn't have caused too much damage in such a massive building. When the second plane hit, we all knew it was much worse and sinister than that.

The deposition witness fortunately did not appear that morning, for reasons totally unrelated to what was unfolding in New York. I was for once not annoyed at someone wasting my time. There was no way I could concentrate on business that day. In addition to knowing that our nation was under attack on our own soil, it was happening in a city in which I lived for seven years and still visited often. It was specifically happening in buildings into which I had entered countless times. I thought immediately of two of my best friends who worked in the immediate vicinity of the WTC. I of course could not reach them by telephone. A very good friend died the prior year. That was the saddest time of my life. Contemplating not only the loss of two more good friends but also having no way of knowing their fates made me a nervous wreck. Thank God, I learned that night that both had escaped any harm. Millions of others went through the same panic that day. Some were not so fortunate.

The rest of the movie dealt with the trapped officers, their families and the rescue efforts. Stone managed to direct and produce the movie in a manner that was tasteful and neither exploitive or political. He merely portrayed some of the things that make this nation so great-the strength of love and family, sacrifice and courage. Nearly 3,000 people died that day. Were it not for our heroes, the total would have been much greater. The movie serves as a stark reminder that those who serve and protect this nation deserve our utmost gratitude. Members of the military and police as well as firefighters make sure that we can enjoy not only our safety but our freedoms. After the movie, I saw an older gentleman in the hall wearing a baseball hat that read, "Once A Marine, Always A Marine-Semper Fi". As I have done for the past few years whenever I have the opportunity, I approached him and thanked him for his service. He thanked me back and offered his hand for a not surprisingly very firm handshake. I looked him in the eye and said, "No, really, thank you." I meant it.