What you saw on TV was planes crash into two buildings and the two buildings collapse. You didn't FEEL anything -- regardless of what the media or others may have fooled you into believing -- And had no idea what people in NYC, or their families were truly feeling that day either unless you were there, or had family members who were part of the tragedy. I hate to be harsh, but this is something the age of all access media (24/7) has fooled us into believing: If we see it, we somehow are emotionally attached to it which is completely FALSE. Especially, with something as horrific as 9/11.
This movie tries to take what happened that day and turn it into something extraordianary and hopeful in the face of such evil and it does it brilliantly because there WAS great heroism that day... And not just two planes crashing into two buildings and the buildings collapse like everyone's collective experience is mostly comprised of.
If you want to make the case you are arguing, we should never make films about anything historical, terrible or great, since it is bound to be a sensitive subject to anyone who may have been involved in the event, or had family/ancestors involved in the event as well. If we followed these rules, history books would be filled with nothing but "How great __________ is" and show nothing of the struggles and real life hardship which went into making those great moments and photo ops.
For example, all we would have would be the picture of the soldiers raising the flag on Iwo Jima... But not know thousands of American and Japanese soldiers died in order to have that flag raised AND because it was a vital battle during WWII's Pacific Campaign to end the war as America marched toward Japan. You can apply this to 9/11 because as I said, all you witnessed on TV was death and destruction and unless you had family who were effected by the actual death and destruction it is still an emotionally detached event in the strictest sense of the word.
This films tries to bridge the gap between the collective emotional detachment and give audiences a real sense of attachment of what went on that day. The only other way I feel this can be done is if you were A) There on the morning of Sept. 11th, 2001, or B) Have visted Ground Zero in NYC and can physically touch, hear and smell what is left in the wake of such terrible evil... And surprisingly, there is a sense of hope, heroism and triumph, aka the real human spirit which never gave up that day because the city just could not give up in any sense of the word.
He is a director who respects his source material and usually makes films with a lot more substance than most mainstream, big studio directors do. His last film, Alexander, may have been terrible, but that has more to do with casting and the script and just plain no interest from the general public... But if you've seen films like JFK, Platoon, Nixon, Wallstreet and others you'd realize he is a very good director who does interesting character studies and films about subjects he feels are important even when the rest of society does not.
