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"The 9/11 Commission Report"
DVD
No one in America over
the age of about six or so is ever going to forget September 11th.
Though we just passed the five year mark, it's still as fresh as
if it happened to us only yesterday. It's going to feel like September
12th for the next twenty years or more--most of our lifetimes, it'll
feel like a fresh wound.
Which is why there's at least some muttering when the dramatizations
come out. "United 93" made some of us think "too
soon, man...too soon", even though it only just made its appearance
in video stores recently. The ABC version, "The Road to 9/11",
was cause and crusade among Democrats screaming for equal time.
And so, of all the unlikely places, The Asylum takes its run at
the 9/11 concept. And with solid results.
So what we have here plotwise is pretty much self-explanatory. Scott
and company will be dramatizing events detailed in the 9/11 Commission
Report, and except where someone's already been convicted of a crime,
the names will be fictional.
Which is sort of a surprise--with the possible exception of Asylumized
(I told you people, I was taking credit for that one) knockoffs
of “The Da Vinci Code” and “Pirates of the Caribbean”,
The Asylum's been pretty much dedicated to horror flicks like a
Marvel fanboy's dedicated to Wolverine. But I suppose with that
anniversary hanging over the country like the Sword of Damocles,
it was time for The Asylum to venture in on its biggest knockoff
of all.
History.
Though, The Asylum took the moral high ground with this one--putting
Leigh Scott on direction and writing detail is like the Yankees
sending in Jeter--and that's a definite point in their favor.
Debate all you want about the correctness of doing even partially
fictionalized dramatizations of--quite possibly--the single worst
and most nation-altering event we've ever seen, but when you come
right down to it, the only thing we're concerned with here is the
quality of the film. And it has quality, and in spades. "The
9/11 Commission Report" is a surprisingly clever piece of historical
dramatization.
"The 9/11 Commission Report" watches like the ultimate
iteration of "Law and Order", shot on a stage that encompasses
the whole world. Bouncing around from Manila to Tel Aviv and Pakistan
and everywhere in between, Scott's work rebuilds a history filled
with vague suspicions and hindsight and puts it into a stark, clear
perspective that should probably qualify for course credit in most
American history classes.
Even better, "The 9/11 Commission Report" gives a convincing
insight into the enormous net of complex, interrelated issues that
resulted in the worst possible end. Yes, in retrospect, the horrors
of 9/11 might well have been stopped...but at what costs?
Philosophical issues and hindsight notwithstanding, "The 9/11
Commission Report" does the job more than handily of illustrating
the vast network of events that led up to that great tragedy.
The ending plays out like an action movie, almost, with a really
tautly-paced sequence leading up to the rescue of a Taliban captive
who serves as a US informant. Of course, we all really know how
the movie ends--most of us saw it already five years ago. And the
last five minutes of the movie will give a good long look at that
horror once again.
The special features include audio options, a behind the scenes
featurette, cast and crew commentary, and trailers for "Halloween
Night", "Snakes on a Train", "Pirates of Treasure
Island", "666: The Child", and "The 9/11 Commission
Report".
All in all, "The 9/11 Commission Report" is a stark, gripping,
and ultimately chilling display of the events surrounding and leading
up to the United States' single biggest non-natural catastrophe.
The 9/11
Commission Report
***
DVD
Directed by Leigh Scott
Written by Leigh Scott
Starring Jeff Denton, Rhett Giles, Eliza Swenson, Sarah Lieving
Produced by Sherri Strain, David Michael Latt
85 mins
NR
2006
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