I report and link. You decide. - J :)
From a Libertas article, An Advance Review of ABC’s Outstanding The Path to 9/11:
LIBERTAS Exclusive! An Advance Review of ABC’s Outstanding The Path to 9/11
I recently attended an advance screening of ABC’s outstanding, epic miniseries The Path to 9/11 (airing this September 10-11), and I came away enormously impressed. Writer/producer Cyrus Nowrasteh, director David Cunningham, and the whole production team did a magnificent job in presenting the complex events leading up to 9/11 with accuracy, fairness, and artistry. The writing, acting, directing, editing, cinematography, and overall story-telling are first-rate. The Path to 9/11 is fast-paced and thoroughly gripping the whole way. I was not bored for a minute - and neither will you be. The five-hour miniseries (aired over two nights) is based on the 9/11 Commission’s report, and also on ABC News correspondent John Miller’s book The Cell. ABC is going to air the first three hours on Sunday night September 10, and the final two hours (which culminate in a shattering depiction of 9/11) will be shown Monday night, September 11.
[…] This is the first Hollywood production I’ve ever seen that honestly depicts how the Clinton administration repeatedly bungled the capture of Bin Laden. One unbelievable sequence in the miniseries shows how the CIA and the Northern Allliance had Bin Laden’s house in Afghanistan surrounded and were about to capture him, but Sandy Berger refused to give them the order to go ahead, and actually hung up the phone on the CIA agent on the ground! The miniseries is also amazing for depicting the Patriot Act as crucial to the safety of this country, and for showing how political correctness and bureaucratic inefficiency are Islamic terrorism’s greatest friend.
I really enjoyed the acting in The Path to 9/11 as well. Harvey Keitel is strong, sympathetic, and quirky as FBI agent John O’Neill, and Donnie Wahlberg is also sympathetic and believable as CIA agent “Kirk.” The standouts though were the wonderful South Asian and Middle Eastern actors who played both the good guys and the terrorists. I would name the actors, but the Path to 9/11 listing on imdb.com is missing a number of cast credits, and the ABC site is equally uninformative. The actor playing Ishtiak, the Pakistani informant who helps the CIA capture Ramzi Youssef, is terrific - he’s really sympathetic, and such an unexpected, shy guy to be playing a hero. I heard behind the scenes that he’s actually a doctor living in London, who does theater on the side. The actor playing Ahmed Shah Massoud (the heroic leader of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, and one of America’s strongest allies) is also terrific, very noble and charismatic (he’s quite handsome too, and seemed to be the particular favorite of the ladies at the screening). The terrorists and Taliban are also very well cast; each character is three dimensional and non-stereotypical in his villainy.
The Path to 9/11 starts with the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, and covers the international terrorist conspiracy that unfolded over the next eight years and led to 9/11. The miniseries is shocking for taking a pro-American, anti-terrorist approach that is all too lacking in Hollywood’s depictions of the War on Terror (Syriana, Fahrenheit 9/11, and V for Vendetta anyone?). At a time when the resolve of this country in fighting the War on Terror seems to be flagging, The Path to 9/11 - much more than Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center - will remind the nation why we’re fighting this war. The Path to 9/11 provides the context and the history that World Trade Centerinterview yesterday with writer/producer Cyrus Nowrasteh (who incidentally spoke at the 2005 Liberty Film Festival). This quote from Cyrus will make evident why I’m so excited about this miniseries:
Nowrasteh: This miniseries is not just about the tragedy and events of 9/11, it dramatizes “how we got there” going back 8 years to the first attack on the WTC and dealing with the Al Qaeda strikes against U.S. embassies and forces in the 90s, the political lead-up, the hatching of the terrorist plots, etc. We see the heroes on the ground, like FBI agent John O’Neill and others, who after the ‘93 attack felt sure that the terrorists would strike the WTC again. It also dramatizes the frequent opportunities the Administration had in the 90s to stop Bin Laden in his tracks — but lacked the will to do so. We also reveal the day-by-day lead-up of clues and opportunities in 2001 right up to the day of the 9/11 attacks. This is a terror thriller as well as a history lesson. I think people will be engaged and enlightened.
[…] Nowrasteh: The 9/11 report details the Clinton’s administration’s response — or lack of response — to Al Qaeda and how this emboldened Bin Laden to keep attacking American interests. The worst example is the response to the October, 2000 attack on the U.S.S. COLE in Yemen where 17 American sailors were killed. There simply was no response. Nothing.
Fortunately, Cyrus and the miniseries producers have gone out on a limb to honestly and fairly depict how Clinton-era inaction, political correctness, and bureacratic inefficiency allowed the 9/11 conspiracy to metastisize. Let me say here though that The Path to 9/11 is not a partisan miniseries or a “conservative” miniseries. It simply presents the facts in a honest and straightforward manner (the producers backed up every detail of the miniseries with copious amounts of research and documentation), and the facts are that for seven years, from 1993 to 2000, the Clinton administration bungled the handling of the world-wide terrorist threat. The miniseries is equally honest in depicting the Bush administration. It shows a couple of points where administration officials, following in the tradition of the Clinton years, do not follow certain clues about the terrorist plot as zealously as they should. Nonetheless, The Path to 9/11, by honestly depicting the unfolding of events over eight years, makes it pretty clear that the majority of the conspiracy leading up to 9/11 was hatched during the seven years of the Clinton administration, and that since Bush was in power for only seven months when 9/11 occurred he can hardly be blamed for the entire thing.
The Path to 9/11 does a fantastic job in bringing to life the complex web of international characters and organizations that lay behind the events of that tragic day. ABC has created a miniseries that is truly epic in scope - a richly textured tapestry that weaves together an fascinating array of people, places, organizations and events here in America and around the world. I was really impressed by how vivid every character was, however briefly he or she may be on the screen - and how quickly, clearly, and economically Nowrasteh and Cunningham depicted complex events. I absolutely loved the on-location work they did, and the great character actors of every nationality that they brought together. It was really fascinating to see the crowded urban slums of Pakistan where the CIA captured Ramzi Yousef, the desert fortresses of the Taliban and Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, the Manila nightclubs where the 9/11 hijackers planned their attacks, the Tanzanian locales where the embassies were blown up, the meetings of the terrorists in Spain, and the various locations across America where the conspiracy came together.
Let me just wrap up by saying that what I really loved about The Path to 9/11 was the following: the honesty with which it told the story behind 9/11 with all its political ramifications; the epic scope and sweep of the story; the vivid and interesting characters of all nationalities that were brought to life; the great use of international locations; and the outstanding cinematography and editing (the miniseries has a great documentary-realist style that comes from director David Cunningham’s background as a documentarian. Cyrus Nowrasteh tells me that they had five cameras going at all times, which accounts for the great natural moments between the actors, and the swift pace of the storytelling).
[…] Every American, and everyone alarmed by Islamic terrorism around the world should see this miniseries. The Path to 9/11 should get every Emmy award and Golden Globe award out there - if this town is willing to be fair and open-minded.
[…] This entry was posted on Friday, August 18th, 2006 at 2:00 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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