9/11 & the Films Which Followed

It's been nine years since September 11th went from another day of the year to a discussion you can have with virtually every American about where they were, what they were doing, how they found out and the days which followed.

I was living in Chicago having a horrible argument with my soon to be ex-wife when her boss called asking if she knew what was happening. We turned on the radio (we were in the car) and the news was reporting that the south tower of World Trade Center was collapsing. The Sears Tower was evacuated shortly after this news. People left downtown Chicago in droves, myself included. All U.S. airspace was shutdown. Not all planes in the air were accounted for and there were wild rumors the terrorists still had control of some of them. And the day went on from there.

Over the years following 9/11, many films were released ranging broadly from the bombastically made Hollywood version (World Trade Center) to a conspiracy driven one (Loose Change) to one just in bad, bad taste (Postal). I think United 93 best captures the chaos, fear and some of the heroism from that day. Spike Lee's 25th Hour was a film which indirectly expressed the anger, grieving and the slow healing of NYC after the fires went out and people realized our world was changed forever.

The above photograph was taken by Nathan Benn. Never forget.