World Trade Center - The Movie.

I watched The World Trade Center (movie) today.

For those of you that aren’t aware, I am very emotionally involved in the collapse of the twin towers. I lost Mark’s mom on September 11^th. I lost Mark five years later because of it. I was in NY on September 13^th after taking a grey hound bus across Canada to Toronto and hitch hiking a ride across the border with a Canadian Blood Services team.

I was able to spend a lot of time at ground zero with Mark, Dominic, Toby, Jesse, and Matt (aka: The Boyz) helping to do whatever was needed. I made food, handed out water bottles, DNA tagged body part remains, assisted with first aid for the men and women working in the wreckage, organized WTC security ID cards that were found, helped put up missing posters, helped clean rubbish and scrap metal…and once I was allowed onto the actual wreckage site. I was allowed (with NYFD assistance…) to climb some of the wreckage and just sit and cry surrounded by the insanity of it all. It was like being lost in a world of smoke, fire, and ash, and though there were people working on the site, there was this horrendous silence.

I helped Mark move, packed his apartment which was three blocks away from the WTC site and bought him new furniture for the home on Long Island that I found for him, I carried a leather hide-a-bed couch SIXTEEN bloody blocks because we were not allowed to get a moving van any closer. I planned my 2^nd mom’s funeral and held Mark, Dominic, Jesse, Toby and Matt together as the insane Italians descended.

I have had to spend a lot of time with the insane Italian’s since 9/11 and while I am able to recognize that they are all truly crazy, they are also some of the most amazing people I will ever have the pleasure of knowing and calling “family”. They are the family that I choose, not the family that I was born to, that makes them all the more special.

The first anniversary of September 11^th I went back to New York to be with my Boyz and participate in the memorial service(s). I held Mark’s hand as he climbed the rickety stage stairs and read his mother’s name out loud. I was able to reconnect with some of the true hero’s (and heroine's) I met and worked with and was held closely while I grieved the horrendous loss of it all.

I have lost everything I held dear and true because of the events of 9/11. I will never forget September 11^th or anything that has happened since. It is too soon, and I am still to raw to be objective about the movie I watched today…so without further ado, here are my thoughts about it.

In some ways, watching this movie was almost like watching a cartoon…the graphicness of the buildings collapsing didn’t really seem to affect the actors emotionally. They seemed much removed and not at all emotionally involved.

Maggie Gyllenhaal was a complete disaster in this movie. It was like watching a robot try to be human. It pissed me off.

Michael Pena (aka: Will Jimeno) was…well…almost as bad as Maggie Gylenhaal (who was playing his “wife” in the movie.) but at least made an attempt to stretch his emotional abilities as an actor. It still came off as very poor and weak.

Nicholas Cage…as soon as I heard he was going to be the “lead” (John McLoughlin) in the movie I thought “aww, Jesus…seriously?!?!” and sadly, my opinion hasn’t changed. There was no sense of panic, urgency, despair…nothing…but he did have ONE speech at the very end of the movie that touched me.

“9/11 showed us what human beings are capable of. The evil, yeah sure, but it also brought out the goodness we forgot could exist. People taking care of each other for no other reason than it was the right thing to do. It’s important for us to talk about that good. To remember. Because I saw a lot of it that day”

- Nicholas Cage as John McLoughlin.

I hated the idea of this tragedy being made into a movie, regardless of how tasteful it was done, but I was willing to at least make an attempt to embrace it. I know Hollywood is going to continue to attempt to profit from this insufferable nightmare. I know they will continue to slot pathetic actors and actresses into true hero’s roles and watch them fail miserably. This will be the last movie or gimmick from Hollywood regarding September 11^th that I spend my money on.

Hollywood should’ve asked the REAL hero’s from that day to play the parts. I recognize that most of the men and women who were a part of the initial few days after the Towers fell would most likely not want to be involved in a project attempting to re-create that day. They probably go to sleep with it every night and wake up with it every morning. I know I do.

This movie could’ve been amazing. It could’ve been about the undeniable ability that the human race has to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and continue to lead true, honest, real lives as best as they can. Instead it was about…nothing.

Hollywood made no attempt to show how the world rallied around the events of September 11. They made two very weak attempts to portray how many people from all over the globe came rushing to the aid of New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. They showed none of the candle light vigils, none of the shocked and horrified people grieving on the streets, only a few of the missing posters from a hospital wall, none of the fire house and police house memorials…they didn’t tap into the emotional investment people felt (and still feel) because of this event. It was all very clinical and much removed.

The only honest and raw part of the movie came at the very end when they ran the NY Port Authority list, the NYFD list, and the NYPD list, of the fallen hero’s from that day.

This movie was made to soon, and it was made badly. No wonder it completely flopped at the box office. I hope the Hollywood money makers take that into consideration the next time they try to exploit something so very painful.