On September 11, 2001, American society and American filmmaking were hit hard. Prior to that infamous day, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were an iconic landmark in the New York City skyline and used as an establishment shot. dozens of times.
Views of these twinkling skyscrapers have been a staple of nearly every movie and TV show set in the Big Apple. They have been featured in several major Hollywood productions such as ‘Ghostbusters’, ‘Home to Him Alone 2’, ‘Trading Places’ and the third film ‘Die Hard’ starring Bruce Willis.
Various documentaries have been made about the tower, such as 2008’s “Man on a Wire,” in which Philippe Petit illegally straddles a tall wire and dances between buildings for over an hour.
Then two 747s were hijacked and the image of the impressive skyline suddenly changed.
Attitudes of the American people have reverted to how to properly respect those who have fallen, both citizens trapped in towers and first responders who went to great lengths to save as many of those souls as possible. I focused.
In the years that followed, entertainment media began looking for ways to integrate and adapt this element of living history. The CBS Police Proceedings “CSI: New York” went skid. The character of Detective Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise) lost his wife in the attack.
Released in 2006, “World Trade Center” and “United 93” chronicle the events and what happened to the flight of the first responders, respectively, when they crashed on a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
However, way back in 2002, a stylized superhero film directed by then-indie horror director Sam Raimi began promotion in early 2001 with Spider-Man (2002) hinting at a release. When I did, I went in another direction.
The promotional trailer showed Spidey catching a rogue helicopter full of bank robberies in a giant spider web between the twin towers. This scene was removed from the final cut because it could be tasteless to the victim’s family.
But Marvel and Spider-Man provided an appropriate way to mourn the tragic events of 21 years ago.
The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 2, Issue 36 was the first comic book published after the disaster. It is called “Black Issue” because the cover is completely black, and the story is characterized by almost no dialogue because the reader sees this event through the eyes of the main character.
In a nutshell, it’s cool.
Spider-Man clears debris and pulls people to safety at Ground Zero. As the story reads, he mourns the loss of “innocence and innocence.” He meditates on Captain America and the similarities to Cap’s World War II experience.
But he also marvels at the resilience of both New York and Americans as a community, admonishing and condemning the actions of the “madmen” who committed the act, even villains like Magneto and Doctor Doom. , do such destruction.
Over the last 20 years, there have been many movies and TV shows paying tribute to the Towers. Some do it to reference a bygone era before the attack, while others do it to depict what happened during the attack.
Regardless of the source, it’s clear that 9/11 had a definitive impact at the heart of this media art form.
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