Reviews

I think this movie will be important for future generations who have not had the immediate first-hand accounts and experiences our generation has had of that awful day. And this movie certainly captured those "moments" in real time very effectively as if the events were actually unfolding before our eyes. And the key element to the whole 9/11 events was "time"...and it's even more-so now in the post 9/11 times.

Of course as a movie...it needs to make money to cover the costs of making it in the first place. But I don't think "making money" was the sole purpose of making of this film.

The events that happened on that flight was unprecedented I think...it's the only one where the passengers were able to assess the situation from cell-phone calls made to relay up-to-the minute information about WTC and Pentagon, realizing to the passengers that they were on a suicide mission. They knew the evil they were facing, and they knew their fate. And the most gut-wrenching part was the fact that most passengers had time to call their loved ones and say goodbye for the last time. That's too real for words. I believe that the contact with the loved ones in the plane gave the passengers incentive, motivation and strength to plan the attack against the hijackers so that they can back to their families. The evil in that plane was real and palpable....as is the evil that was happening in New York that day...and the passengers chose to become fierce warriors to fight against it.

We must face this evil...whether we like it or not...it must be dealt with...just like what happened on that flight. It's a hard fact....a hard truth....just as 9/11 was a hard truth...but we can't look away. We must know this evil before we can even begin to destroy it.

It was a hard fact on that plane that day.....and to watch this movie might help to come to grips with the reality of this evil that actively exists in this world today....because we know the painful outcome of that flight can not be changed. We have to accept that their fate was due to an act of pure evil, done to us as well, collectively as a nation. We most certainly are at war...to deny that would be foolish, damaging and insulting to the memories of those who died for our nation on that day.

I've read "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl" when I was in high school, and found myself completely engrossed in her story, and also in the Broadway play of her life in the Secret Annexe.

However, I'm a little perplexed about how people have perceived her diary and of her as a person, seeing her as a little saint or having a message of hope for the world. I don't think that was the original intention of her diary. She wrote it mainly for herself, even though she did make some rigorous rewrites before the occupants of the Secret Annexe were betrayed, intending it to be published someday.

But I never saw her as a saint or as a messenger of hope...but as a very talented writer who could express her thoughts very well and very entertainingly in a diary. No doubt she was a very engaging writer, and she did possess an extraordinary talent with expressing herself fully with words. You really got to know her well through her diary. But the importance of her diary lies in the fact that it is a testament and an important historical document of the proof that the Holocaust did happen.

It also brought the tragedy of the Holocaust closer to home, to lose someone that we could put a familiar face and personality to, at such a young age...literally having had her young life ripped away from her and from the other occupants who were murdered in the Holocaust. It's a searing indictment of the Nazis systematic murder of over 6 million Jews, and that should not be forgotten.

But it's sad to me that her diary is being so misconstrued as anything more than that. When I look for hope, I have the Bible...the first most widely read non-fiction book in the world. God's Words in the Bible is eternal...but Anne's diary is a diary of a young girl under extraordinary circumstances, and that is it. She is not someone to be worshiped or idolized, because she was an ordinary girl with many flaws, who possessed incredible talent as a writer, and who died at age 15 from typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. She was a victim of the Holocaust, and as this otherwise excellent documentary has so vividly testified, she was Hitler's most famous victim.

Besides the Anne Frank's story...the stories from her family members and friends and survivors of the Holocaust were engrossing, vivid and powerful. I especially enjoyed Miep Gies' testimony, and marvel that she is still strong and alive today. Hannah Goslar's testimony was also very interesting. And I also liked hearing from Otto Frank. But I also agree that the moving picture of the young girl with the dark hair and the familiar big eyes at the end was particularly memorable.

Another thing about the Holocaust that I kind of disagree with the documentary...is that I don't believe it was just a matter of discrimination...but rather something deeper and more profound, and that was just an act of pure evil. Pure evil. Nothing else but pure evil.

Excellent documentary of Anne Frank and of the Holocaust that should be watched.