Unlike many reviewers who didn't like this film due to their distaste for leftist ideology and/or the media, I'd rate The Post no higher than four stars due to its presentation of a potentially exciting story in the most boring manner possible, with nothing added by the big-name director or actors. C'mon Spielberg!
Reviews
2 Reviews
September 11
(2002)
Are we going to continue burying our heads in the sand?
10 October 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Unsurprisingly, there seems to be a huge divide between reviewers here as to whether this film is a tribute to or an indictment of America. Perhaps less surprisingly, voters appear to be more aligned with reviewers who hated the film and found it un-American, meaning that I fully expect to get seriously down-voted here. With the passage of time (15 years later) though, it is clear to me that this group is missing the point. Yes, "September 11" seemed rather unpatriotic upon its release, but with the aid of the aforementioned distance, we can now look back on it more clearly and better accept its honesty and realism. For the most part, I admit that I too was left with the impression that the overarching message here is that America should become aware that equally horrendous acts of terror exist the world over and maybe even that the American government had it coming due to the terrorism it has and continues to inflict upon others. What is so terrible about at least considering the merits of this argument and striving for a better understanding of the more global view this film strives to present?
To me, the overall product actually surpasses the sum of its parts specifically because it amounts to a collective effort for worldwide soul-searching. Of course, there are stronger and weaker segments here. With one exception (Mira Nair's straightforward and heartfelt storytelling), the quality of the short films increase up to Ken Loach's masterful love letter to Chile as presented through the heart and pen of an exiled Chilean in London. This is where we're reminded of the atrocities of the American government's direct involvement in the murder of democratically elected Salvador Allende and thousands (not just hundreds) of Chileans beginning on September 11, 1973. Oh, the bitter irony!
Leading up to this apex, we also get two small-scale bittersweet short films by France's Claude Lelouch and Burkina Faso's Idrissa Ouedrago. Some dismiss these segments as being the two least related to the tragedy of 9/11, but I beg to differ, particularly if you enjoy personal and highly innocent stories mirroring grand-scale events.
Minus Nair's tale of a Pakistani mother mourning the loss of her son who was wrongfully suspected of being a terrorist when he was actually at ground zero helping to save lives, the quality goes down somewhat after Loach's contribution midway through. The weakest film here is Israeli director Amos Gitai's cacophonous contribution depicting the aftermath of a car bomb going off on the streets of Tel Aviv (not Jerusalem, as mistakenly identified by some reviewers). While perhaps a somewhat effective anti-media propaganda piece, it lacks subtlety and screams for attention solely based on production techniques. Similarly chaotic is Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's experimental segment, which is essentially just a plain black screen (turning white at the very end) interspersed with just a few one or two second images of people jumping out of windows at the twin towers and a purposely overbearing soundtrack consisting of phone messages being left for loved ones by soon-to-perish victims. Perhaps too "collegiate" artsy for its own good, it nevertheless silently poses the poignant question at its end, "Does God's light guide us or blind us?" Great food for thought! This would have been a lot more effective as the closing segment in "September 11."
In closing, it is so disappointing to hear that this film was banned in the US until it became available on DVD. That, to me, brings to mind the stubborn and misguided refusal of our government to address gun violence/regulation every time we experience an unnecessary episode of mass murder in America. Let's not bury our heads in the sand and deny the harsh realities of modern life!
To me, the overall product actually surpasses the sum of its parts specifically because it amounts to a collective effort for worldwide soul-searching. Of course, there are stronger and weaker segments here. With one exception (Mira Nair's straightforward and heartfelt storytelling), the quality of the short films increase up to Ken Loach's masterful love letter to Chile as presented through the heart and pen of an exiled Chilean in London. This is where we're reminded of the atrocities of the American government's direct involvement in the murder of democratically elected Salvador Allende and thousands (not just hundreds) of Chileans beginning on September 11, 1973. Oh, the bitter irony!
Leading up to this apex, we also get two small-scale bittersweet short films by France's Claude Lelouch and Burkina Faso's Idrissa Ouedrago. Some dismiss these segments as being the two least related to the tragedy of 9/11, but I beg to differ, particularly if you enjoy personal and highly innocent stories mirroring grand-scale events.
Minus Nair's tale of a Pakistani mother mourning the loss of her son who was wrongfully suspected of being a terrorist when he was actually at ground zero helping to save lives, the quality goes down somewhat after Loach's contribution midway through. The weakest film here is Israeli director Amos Gitai's cacophonous contribution depicting the aftermath of a car bomb going off on the streets of Tel Aviv (not Jerusalem, as mistakenly identified by some reviewers). While perhaps a somewhat effective anti-media propaganda piece, it lacks subtlety and screams for attention solely based on production techniques. Similarly chaotic is Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's experimental segment, which is essentially just a plain black screen (turning white at the very end) interspersed with just a few one or two second images of people jumping out of windows at the twin towers and a purposely overbearing soundtrack consisting of phone messages being left for loved ones by soon-to-perish victims. Perhaps too "collegiate" artsy for its own good, it nevertheless silently poses the poignant question at its end, "Does God's light guide us or blind us?" Great food for thought! This would have been a lot more effective as the closing segment in "September 11."
In closing, it is so disappointing to hear that this film was banned in the US until it became available on DVD. That, to me, brings to mind the stubborn and misguided refusal of our government to address gun violence/regulation every time we experience an unnecessary episode of mass murder in America. Let's not bury our heads in the sand and deny the harsh realities of modern life!
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