[Mark]

But, But,,,the Boston Globe had this to say:
DC 9/11' is too pro-Bush, and too late

By Mark Jurkowitz, Globe Staff, 9/6/2003

If "DC 9/11: Time of Crisis" could ever be cut down to a bite-size portion, it would make the best
presidential reelection ad ever conceived, one that would force every Democratic challenger to
abandon the chase for the White House.

Most Americans, of all political stripes, would agree that in the frantic days after the
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, George Bush's steely leadership and deft tone helped stabilize
a nation knocked out of its equilibrium and stripped of its comfortable preconceptions. This
Showtime "docudrama" promises to give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the administration's
machinations and deliberations in the days right after 9/11. Instead, it proves a slick piece of
propaganda that deifies the president and portrays the wheels of government as turning with
well-oiled precision in the face of the gravest crisis to confront the country in a generation.

Whether visiting the injured, ordering an ultimatum to the Taliban, perusing Psalm 23, or affirming
American values in a misty-eyed conversation with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice,
Bush (Timothy Bottoms) is unbowed, unflappable, and unwavering. He is, to put it in Hollywood
terms, part John Wayne and part Gary Cooper, with a little Jimmy Stewart tossed in for good
measure.

Based on interviews with many top White Hou se players (including Bush himself) and
interspersing real footage with filmed re-creations, "DC 9/11" is crisply paced and entertaining
enough. Some of the actors, including Bottoms, bear a striking resemblance to their characters.
John Cunningham, for example, does a particularly good job capturing the aggressive energy of
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. (But George Takei as Transportation Secretary Norman
Mineta? He'll always be Sulu from "Star Trek.")

One also can't discount the emotional power of some of the indelible moments from those days.
Even in a film this worshipful, the depiction of Bush's first trip to visit the survivors and rescuers at
ground zero in New York will bring a lump to your throat.

But the biggest problem facing "DC 9/11" is that the effort feels stale. Anyone even vaguely
interested in the subject has had plenty of opportunity to learn from a number of media sources
how the Bush administration formulated a new foreign policy out of the ashes of the World Trade
Center. And now that we're struggling with the bloody and difficult reconstruction of Iraq, battling a
resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, and searching for allies to help shoulder the burden of our new
geopolitics, a shiny post-mortem of the days following Sept. 11 feels dated and darn near
irrelevant.

One of the more provocative moments in "DC 9/11" occurs in a meeting when administration
hawks Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney joust with Secretary of State Colin Powell
(portrayed here as a squishy multilateralist) over the threat posed to US security by Saddam
Hussein. In light of all that's happened since the towers fell in New York, maybe that could have
been the opening scene of a much more interesting film.

DC 9/11: Time of Crisis

Directed by: Brian Trenchard-Smith

On: Showtime

Time: Tomorrow at 8 p.m.

[maica]

Whether visiting the injured, ordering an ultimatum to the Taliban, perusing Psalm 23, or affirming American values in a misty-eyed conversation with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Bush (Timothy Bottoms) is unbowed, unflappable, and unwavering. He is, to put it in Hollywood terms, part John Wayne and part Gary Cooper, with a little Jimmy Stewart tossed in for good measure.

And this is what gets under the dims skins more as much as anything else that is happening today.

Remember how apoplectic Terri McAuliffe went at the release of a photo of President Bush on Air Force One!