On Native Soil
On 9/11 I had a friend of mine drag me out of bed and plop me in front of a television, where I stayed all day. It’s my Kennedy assassination. No matter what happens, I’ll never forget where I was when I heard the news. What I think has been forgotten by myself and most others in this country, is just how horrified we all were. I know, it’s easy to get distracted with so many important things coming up, like Brangelina and little Suri Cruise.
On Native Soil is a 9/11 documentary, that uses the 9/11 Commission report as a framework to point out all of the mistakes that allowed this tragedy to take place. Director Linda Ellman mixes poignant news footage with interviews from experts, victims and their families to paint an accurate picture of that day. The interviews give a good sense of what was going on inside the towers and are, quite frankly, hard to turn away from, meanwhile the news footage is at time hard to watch, but entirely appropriate.
The great success of this film is the fact that it is entirely non-partisan. It just goes through all the events and failures and lays them out there for you to see. Most viewers are gong to take away that this was no one person or administration’s fault but it was a general breakdown of responsibility from the top to the bottom. Personally, the worst example of this is listening to the way FAA officials nonchalantly passed off responsibility during the plane hijackings. It’s absolutely frightening.
One of the few complaints I have about this film is that we have one narrator too many. Maybe it’s because of Field of Dreams, Dances with Wolves, and The Untouchables that Kevin Costner’s voice just sounds like America or maybe its because of endless clips of him saying “Back and to the left” from JFK have beat my resistance down. I don’t know, but short of having a soundtrack by John Mellencamp his voice over is perfect. However, for some reason Hilary Swank also does some of the narration and it just seems awkward. It’s not as though she does a bad job, it’s just that after you’ve been listening to Costner for a while, she jumps in and it jarringly pulls you out of the film.
I should warn any potential viewers out there that this isn’t an MTV production. On Native Soil is basically and two hour educational documentary and may be a little too dry for some people. That being said, it will remind you of how angry you used to be and how very little has changed to keep one of our nation’s greatest tragedies happening again
The Grade
- Story: N/A
- Acting: N/A
- Visuals: B
- Originality: B
- Enjoyability: B+
- Overall: B
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