9/11 made-for-TV movie mostly panned by Chicago Trib critic

[greatauntoftriplets]

'9/11' delivers emotional kick
Pro-Bush portrayal ends up too preachy

By Sid Smith
Tribune arts critic
Published September 5, 2003

Historical drama, especially when the history in question is barely history at all, is always troublesome. Political viewpoints invariably slant the material, and figures we see every day in reality make for laughably unreal portraits no matter the skill of the actors.

"DC 9/11: Time of Crisis" (7 p.m. Sunday on Showtime), a telefilm arriving in conjunction with the upcoming second anniversary of the Sept. 11 catastrophe, is interesting in the way it succumbs dreadfully to the former complaint while remarkably escaping the second. You'd think an actor would have great difficulty playing a sitting president -- all those John and Robert Kennedy impersonations struggled long after their subjects were dead -- but one reason to indulge in this modest little movie (there aren't many) is to watch Timothy Bottoms adroitly portray George W. Bush.

Bottoms, who has endured something of a checkered career since his early days as '70s wunderkind in "The Last Picture Show," is really astonishing here, slyly mimicking Bush's mannerisms only to a point and then creating a well-chiseled, detailed and sympathetic character that beautifully walks the line between actual fact and dramatic requirements.

Bottoms portrayed Bush in a much different light in the Comedy Central satire "That's My Bush." Here he avoids, almost mysteriously, the pitfalls of the vaudeville impersonator, thereby giving the film the soulful anchor it needs to deliver its rah-rah, unabashedly pro-Bush emotional punch.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0309050013sep05,1,2159185.story?coll=chi-leisuretempo-hed

[Cha]

1. I can't believe they are making a movie out of 9/11...

will their commercial asses know no end? And I'm sure it's nothin' like the real truth, either! Cause that's just the they operate.

[Pocho]

2. YES, YOU KNOW HE WAS ON TOP OF IT.