I was most affected by the story of Nick Chirls while watching this documentary. His story affected me because anyone, including me, can relate to his story. We all have a mother, or mother figure, that we know and love. To have her ripped from your hands would be devastating. Chris knew that his mother was in the tower as it fell. He knew that his life would never be the same and there was absolutely nothing he could do to help her. He must have felt so helpless. Then, on top of losing his mother, he lost connection with his father because his father moved on too quickly. Nick lost both parents because of this tragic event. After the recovery process began, Nick started working on Wall Street to follow in his mother's footsteps and every day he felt closer to her. Eventually, however, he had to realize that it was time to move on with his own life. "Maybe I'm not my mother" Nick ponders. He knows that he has to move on.
Moving on, the documentary made it pretty clear that moving on is the best thing to do in a situation like this. Every single character ended up moving on and being happier. Tanya was one of the first to move on completely and get remarried; Tim was the last to move on and he was physically and mentally exhausted after seven years of searching for answers. It is important to mourn for loved ones that have been taken away, but mourning only causes sorrow and grief. One cannot truly be happy again until they have moved on.
The Time-lapse structure of this film created a more personal connection with all of the characters. We became part of their lives for eight years, watching them heal, or not heal, and saw how eight different individuals handled the process. The only weaknesses are that we did not get very much detail from each person because they had to fit eight people's thoughts and feelings in an hour and a half, and also the thoughts seemed a little disjointed because of the skipping from one person to the next randomly.
Jacob, thanks for getting us going! I love your comparison here and that you noticed that Tim held on the longest and had the most trouble changing. I was so relieved when he finally had to move on, and I think he was aching to do it but his guilt was so strong it held him back. Good job!
ReplyDeleteNick did lose both parents pretty much because of the fight he had with his dad. I did not think of this until I read your post. That probably made things even harder for nick.
ReplyDeleteI also chose Nicholas as being the one who's story affected me the most because I felt he was the most relatable. His mother and him very obviously very close and seeing someone a lot like us lose someone so close really makes me be more thankful.
ReplyDeleteI think the fact that Nick's father moving on so quickly definitely made losing his mother a lot harder. He had no parent figure to rely on right after the tragedy and that would have been horrible. I was glad to see though that at the end of the movie he was getting a relationship back with his father.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. We grew to really like and respect these people who went through this tragedy. Nick's story really stood out to me as well. His courage and maturity was really apparent through the documentary.
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