Touches You

Thanks for the memories!

I wanted to but couldn't!

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

This chilling account on the men who carried out the 9/11 attacks is a poignant, harrowing look at the events prior to the most barbaric act of terrorism in United States soil. Director Antonia Bird bravely conducts this film as a docudrama, not taking sides and showing the terrorists as human beings who strongly believed in what they were up to carry on. By following Ziad Jarrah's later years, Bird shows us how it was easy for radical Islamic fundamentalists to brainwash a weak, vulnerable young boy and turn him into a war machine capable of piloting a 747 that was to crash on the capitol. The scary anger the most radical Islamics have towards the United States is shown early on, and The Hamburg Cell will surely upset a lot of people, since it proves clearly that months, even years prior to 9/11 it was well-known fact for the CIA that Al Qaeda had plans for terrorist attacks on American soil and these attacks would be carried on through hijacked commercial airlines.Scarier than the attack itself is how Bird portrays the transformation that goes on with Ziad Jarrah,a good-looking boy coming from a traditional rich Lebanese family who came to Hamburg, Germany,to study, circa 1996, and how he fell under the spell of radical Islamics that already through the early nineties had plans for a major strike against the Ocidental World.The acting is great: Karim Sallah shows so much just with his troubled eyes!you see the inner turmoil happening inside his soul as he is put upon a terrible task and must choose between what he believes as right (giving his life in the name of Islamic cause) and a life of happiness with the woman he loves, Aysel.Director Antonia Bird has great sense of atmosphere, and although The Hamburg Cell revolves around the events prior to 9/11, it is a tense, nerve-wrecking countdown journey that will leave you breathless. The film culminates on a hair-raising sequence that is scarier than any horror movie,as the Hamburg terrorists makes their way to the respective airports, a moment carried with a sense of dread and death punctuated by a thrilling soundtrack that evokes what it must have been to the terrorists and the innocent passengers that fateful morning. The last image is a haunting look at how little we know about the people surrounding us, as a terrified Aysel watches through TV, along with the rest of the world, the day that we definitely entered in a era of horror and uncertainty, not knowing yet that the man she believed she knew was one of the people behind this holocaust of deaths and suffering. Ziad Jarrah was the pilot aboard United 93, the flight that didn't reach its target. It was the last plane supposed to be thrown against its target (the Capitol). As the world watched the towers and the Pentagon burning, United 93 was still on the air. However, when passengers phoned their loved ones and were informed about the events on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, they realized that if they didn't take matters on their own hands, they were going to be killed. So, the passengers got together and stood up against the terrorists. Fight ensued on board, and although not taking over the control of the plane, the brave passengers fought bravely the terrorists and stopped them reaching the Capitol. The plane crashed in the woods near Shanksville.This event is masterfully, beautifully shown in Paul Greengrass's United 93. Jarrah wrote a day prior to the flight a letter destined to Aysel, latter intercepted by the FBI, in which he clearly said good bye to her. Although Jarrah's family latter claimed that they were sure that their son was just a passenger and never a terrorist aboard the fateful flight, investigations proved undoubtedly that Ziad was the pilot of United 93 and one of the Hamburg Cell members. This film is a though-provoking, harrowing account on the scariest terrorist attack ever, and the last scene, Ziad Jarrah walking through the white corridors to the plane, will forever live as one of the most chilling movie moments ever.Also recommended: United 93, The Path to 9/11, Inside the Twin Towers.

I was waiting for a public service announcement at the end saying, "Terrorists- they are not bad people, just mis-informed". Ugh. You know, I am a well educated person; I am in no way "close-minded". Don't serve me a platter full of dung and tell me it is actually desert. I don't like it when writers and/or directors pull the emo trip on their audience, especially with this particular subject. Hitler was a bad guy, I don't see any films about him being mis-understood.These terrorists (and don't forget to call them what they were) were not mis-informed. Nor was this something that they did out of panic, instinct, or defense. This was one of the most well planned, and yes, thought out, murders in history. There's more blame insinuated on the American leaders then the terrorist (who are indeed made out to be martyrs). For a film maker to put out such a piece of propaganda, in hopes to make people understand what these poor mis-guided people had to go through, reminds me of why I own a DVD player- I don't have to worry about crap like this coming through my video monitor.On a technical level this film worked. In fact, if this tragedy had not happened, and this was just a story it probably wouldn't have bothered me as much. But I know the reality of this, and unfortunately there are people who are actually forgetting the truth and reality behind it. Film can do that. Which, is why i'll stick to my own viewing collection. What's on tonight's list...I think i'll watch "Cannibal Holocaust"...

I like the fact that this film is non-Hollywood in it's delivery. It's unglamorous, but still quite sophisticated in capturing the monochromatic lives of the terrorists-to-be. It presents a concise timeline of events in a pointed and deliberate manner. It doesn't pretend to be absolute or correct, and it knows it's an estimation of how things might have went down.Inevitably, Hollywood will roll out its own 9/11 films and they will be glossy and full of big budget bloat, but this humble effort will remain as testament to the idea that a simple film can be as compelling and inviting to interpretation without the need for dramatic flair and elaborate crane rigs.

It was the most dramatic event of the decade and probably as significant in the history of the new century as the Great War was in the old one. So how was it possible to produce such an up-tight, self obsessed, bad movie about it. Oh sure, some the camera work is effective...tight, gritty images of bad guys up to no good. But it never really comes to-get her. We don't realize who these people are, why they're doing what they're doing or much else about them. Nor is the surveillance of them in Germany and the US ever clarified. Is the film sympathetic to Al Quaeda? Not really. But many will jump to that conclusion. We all know how events unfolded on 9/11. Yet in this movie they are muddled and confusing. It could have been so much better if it had also taken up the story of some of the passengers and some of those killed in the collapse of the WTC.