The two movies dealing with 9/11 showcase the heroism of private citizens who are called upon to rise above the self-imposed limitations of their daily lives and fight the evil that confronts them.

If for no other reason than to prove that I can express a thought in less than 50,000 words, I’d like to share an observation I came to last week after seeing Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center.

First of all, this is a great movie and I highly recommend it.  Knowing Stone’s penchant for conspiracy theories and less than honest portrayals of historical facts, I was a little concerned that we’d be treated to another version of Bush Lied People Died. 

Instead, I saw a balanced, moving look at the events of 9/11 that focused on the “big picture” while telling the heroic story of two Port Authority policemen who were trapped in the rubble of the collapsing towers.  Even the brief clip of Bush’s speech to the nation that day showed him in a strong light, instead of highlighting some perceived weakness or confusion through selective editing.

The only PC moment came when Stone showed the world’s stunned and horrified reaction, which included a brief glimpse of the Arab street.  In place of the dancing Palestinians that we all saw on TV before Arafat quickly put a stop to their gleeful celebration, their subdued, disbelieving reaction was no different than any other group around the world.  However, this was maybe five seconds out of a two hour movie, and is only worth mentioning to show that the overwhelming thrust of the story was accurate, positive and uplifting.

So what’s the purpose of this article, other than to tell you that it’s safe again to see an Oliver Stone movie? 

Well, I got to thinking that except for some cable TV docudramas and certain pseudo-documentaries by our friends on the Left, the two post-9/11 movies that have been made on this subject (United 93 and The World Trade Center) have shown the strength and character of the American people when confronting Islamo fascist terrorism.

I say “American people,” instead of the “American military,” because it struck me that unlike past wars we’ve not been treated to any movies about US soldiers.  I thought surely after seeing pictures of US special forces riding horseback in Afghanistan in the opening days of that conflict, or watching real-time satellite phone video from war correspondents following the American military in its sweep through Iraq, that we’d by now have seen at least something about the war itself.

But there’s nothing.  Not even another Three Kings rip-off of Kelly’s Heroes.

Mind you, I wasn’t holding out for a modern day Thirty Seconds over Tokyo, Pride of the Marines, or Paths of Glory.  This is the 21st century, and we all know that patriotism during wartime is an antiquated virtue. 

Only Fox is old-fashioned enough to call a homicide-bomber a homicide-bomber.  CNN, the New York Times, and the Big 3 networks consider themselves to be world news organizations that happen to be based inside the United States.  They intuitively recognize that there are always two sides to the story of a man wearing a high-explosive vest who kills a school bus full of children.  As dedicated journalists they want to bring us the complete story, not just the superficial accounting of a deliberate act of murder that labels freedom-fighting child killers as nothing more than abject terrorists.

What surprised me though, is that we haven’t even seen an updated version of M.A.S.H. or Full Metal Jacket.  Not to mention another Apocalypse Now.  We did get Steven Spielberg’s Rodney King redux (also known as Munich), which taught us that opposing terrorism only brings on more terrorism.  That’s why Israel withdrew from Gaza in an exchange of land-for-peace, and now enjoys an uninterrupted period of tranquility and friendly relationships with its Middle Eastern neighbors.

The day is coming, though, when we’ll all be treated to the first major Hollywood release that deals with the Iraq war itself.  There’s so much material to choose from, it’s difficult to predict exactly what the subject will be.  I’ve narrowed it down to a couple of possibilities:  Abu Ghraib, the rape and murder of an Iraqi family by a US soldier, and the Bush Oil Buddy-Cheney Halliburton connection.  Other than things like this, I can’t think of anything of significance that’s been reported by the mainstream press upon which to base a motion picture.

But for now, it is interesting to note that the two movies dealing with 9/11 have been balanced and historically accurate.  They showcase the heroism of private citizens who are called upon to rise above the self-imposed limitations of their daily lives and fight the evil that confronts them.  They don’t negotiate, or seek UN resolutions, or wait for someone else to come in and do the job for them.  Instead, in a microcosm of the spirit that made this country great, they rise to the occasion and kick butt themselves.

In these two movies — United 93 and The World Trade Center — Hollywood has found its heroes.  Not the President and his Administration who provide leadership in the face of self-serving world condemnation or domestic partisan opposition, or the men and women of the armed forces who volunteer to put their lives on the line for us.  They find it in the common man, the ordinary US citizen who knows the difference between right and wrong, and who won’t be cowed into submission because some Islamo Nazi worships a different God and thinks we all should die if we don’t convert to Islam.  Or at least abandon the Jews.

But the real irony in bypassing the military to pay homage to the volunteer “citizen soldiers” of United 93 and The World Trade Center is that the men and women who joined the military, and who have gone to war to protect our freedoms, are the true examples of what Hollywood has now chosen to glorify.  

I take nothing away from the heroism of those people on United 93 and in New York City on September 11, 2001.  When confronted with a threat to their lives and freedom, they reacted as we expect all Americans to.  They defended their country, and their families, with little thought to their own personal safety.

This is what the men and women of the United States military do every day.  And unlike their civilian counterparts who were thrust into battle, these brave “citizen soldiers” volunteered for duty knowing full well that the possibility of injury or death came with that decision. 

We owe them a lot, whether Hollywood ever acknowledges them or not.