From Escapism to Hard Truths in Post-9/11 Films

James Verniere - Boston Herald

For many of us, the first and most unforgettable film about the events of Sept. 11, 2001, was the one we cobbled together in our heads, using the events themselves as our footage, beginning with those devastating images of the two planes piercing the World Trade Center towers like enormous arrows.

As newspapers and TV news programs rushed to fill in the details of the attacks, we edited the bits and pieces into more complete cuts, some of them with weird, conspiracy theory twists at the end, and they have played hauntingly inside our heads ever since.

Of course, we've also had such 9/11-inspired films as Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center" (2006), Paul Greengrass' "United 93" (2006) and Mike Binder's "Reign Over Me" (2006), and ripple-effect films about the follow-up wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, such as "Home of the Brave" (2006) and "Stop-Loss" (2008), Michael Moore's scathing 2004 expose "Fahrenheit 9/11" and such documentaries as "Gunner Palace" (2004), "Why We Fight" (2005), "The Road to Fallujah" (2009) and "Restrepo" (2010).

This winter, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," a film adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's controversial 2005 novel about a 9-year-old boy who lost his father on 9/11 and starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, will open.

But you'll also find America's heart and soul in the pop-culture films we embraced in the aftermath seeking psychic healing, wish-fulfilling revenge fantasies and escapist respite from the horror.

We buried our sorrows in such escapist extravaganzas as the "Transformers," "Harry Potter [website] " and "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, Christopher Nolan's "Batman" reboots and the "Twilight" films. But the most significant of these was "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Among the most popular films of all time, they were more than just escapist fare. Based on volumes written during World War II, they were eerily attuned to our fears about a diabolical leader from the East lusting after an all-powerful weapon. (The second one, ironically, is titled "The Two Towers.")

Only a year ago, director Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker," a film in a genre shunned previously by movie audiences, was the unlikely Best Picture Oscar winner, beating James Cameron's "Avatar."

Bigelow is now making what many might consider the true ending to the 9/11 story, a real-life drama about the May killing of Osama bin Laden by Navy Seal Team Six.

When her film arrives, a 9/11 movie circle will be completed. Cut. Print.

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