By Jeremy Reynalds
Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (ANS) -- Almost five years ago, a horrified world stood still–transfixed when terrorists used four planes as weapons of mass destruction against thousands of innocent Americans.
ABC Television is commemorating the tragic day and its aftermath by premiering a made-for-television movie titled, “The Path to 9/11”.
The movie tells the story of 9/11 from the CIA, FBI, White House and terrorists’ perspective and is based upon the 9/11 Commission Report.
“The Path” stars Harvey Keitel, Patricia Heaton, Donnie Wahlberg and a cast of almost 250 actors from 14 countries. It was filmed in Toronto, Morocco, New York and Washington DC.
Director David Cunningham (To End All Wars) said by e-mail, “(It is) one of the few films ever to be allowed to film at the CIA headquarters at Langley. I ... spent a year-and-a- half working on this show along with an amazing team film makers.”
According to ABC, “The miniseries will take viewers behind closed doors at the CIA, the FBI and the White House and into the world of Richard Clarke, Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice, Dick Cheney, Sandy Berger and CIA Director Richard Tenet, among others. Viewers will follow the international manhunt for elusive bomber Ramzi Yousef (Nabile Elouahabi, ‘Eastenders’) and meet several key players in the 9/11 saga. (They include) John O’Neill, the career FBI agent who spent years zealously chasing bin Laden; then-ABC newsman John Miller (portrayed by Barclay Hope, ‘Stargate SG-1') who interviewed bin Laden; Emad Salem and other key Muslim informants who aided the U.S.; and Ahmed Shah Massoud, commander of the Northern Alliance, a crucial American ally and the person bin Laden feared most.”
Cunningham said he would like the movie to be “a cultural event that will impact the nation.”
A Time magazine reviewer called the movie “One of this year's most powerful 9/11 stories.”
He added that “The Path” “is in fact, ultimately about how little has changed since that day... Fast paced and shot with handheld cameras, ‘Path’ plays like a somber, dysfunctional ‘24,’ with all the grit.”
The reviewer praised Cunningham as giving the movie “a verite look, without emotional tricks like zooming in on fraught moments ... The last few minutes inside the planes, the towers and the conference rooms on 9/11 are tastefully handled, though no less chilling. But they're beside the point. What matters is what happened before and what happened – and didn't – afterward. An epilogue notes the commissions' report card, issued last Dec., which found that most of its recommendations -- securing weapons of mass destruction, delegating antiterrorism funds by risk -- have been carried out badly or not at all. That endnote is the scariest thing in the miniseries.”
A Houston Chronicle reviewer said “The Path” “may be the most comprehensive and powerful retelling of stateside terrorism yet.”
The movie will air on Sept.10 and 11.
Note: Director David Cunningham is the son of Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth With A Mission (YWAM).
