"The Guys"

[mark440]

Has anyone besides myself watched the "movie" The Guys? I rented the show this week, with the description saying it was about a FDNY Captain who was trying to write eulogies for men he lost on 9/11.
The show is about a Captain from 60 Truck.
The show is not real. No such thing as Ladder 60, the men that were "lost" on 9/11 in the show are not real.

Please no one else make the same mistake I had....

*Mark

[DeputyChiefGonzo]

"The Guys" was originally an off Broadway play.

The characters may be fictional, but the emotions that are portrayed in the play and the movie are real.

[33motor]

I had planned to watch it on pay-per-view, but before I got a chance, it was gone. So, I figured I'd catch it on a rental someday. I take it you didn't like the "fictional" aspect of it. Aside from that, how was the movie? Worth watching?


On another note- Ladder 49 looks like it may be very well made from the little I have seen on some websites. I hope so, it will be nice to see a movie about the fire service that is "hopefully" more realistic. I was already in the fire service when backdraft came out, and I wasn't really able to enjoy it with all it's BS.

[mark440]

Gonz, I am very well aware the emotions are real.

33motor, the content is well, the movie itself is very slow, as you can imagine. It doesn't move very fast, there isn't much as far as different scenes go.

I would have felt better if I hadn't been "misled" to think the show was real.

*Mark

[blancety]

But Nelson came across a story so personal she could only tell it by turning to another genre altogether: playwriting. The result is the workshop production of "The Guys," a 90-minute play that opened Dec. 4 to sold-out audiences at Tribeca's Flea Theater and runs through Dec. 20. Based on Nelson's own interactions with a fire captain, "The Guys" is directed by Jim Simpson, and stars his wife, actress Sigourney Weaver in her unofficial return to off-Broadway theater, as the editor. The fire captain is played by Weaver's good friend and fellow actor, Bill Murray.

The unlikely chain of events began barely a week after Sept. 11 when Nelson was visiting her sister in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Nelson had spent the week looking for ways to respond to the tragedy. She held workshops training journalism students how to interview people traumatized by the events of the attacks, instructing them to ask permission, show empathy and avoid the stupid questions like "How does it feel?" She had even teamed up with her brother, Daniel Nelson, a child psychiatrist, who had led the Family Notification Unit at the Oklahoma City bombing, to produce a set of hand-outs and materials that found their way to journalists around the world. Still, she felt—like so many New Yorkers—somewhat helpless. She was in Park Slope to "get perspective."

That's when a friend of her sister's called concerned about a New York City fire captain she had just met. He needed a writer to help him write eulogies for eight of his men killed in the attack, and Nelson saw the opportunity to offer assistance. Because of her training, she thought she would be prepared to work with the captain. So she invited the captain over that same afternoon for the first of several sessions translating his stories into eulogies.

"It was painful to ask him questions, and it was painful to hear the answers," Nelson said. "But it had to be done. Memorial services were coming up, and I wanted to help him create eloquent eulogies that were still in his voice." From her interactions with the captain, she soon realized that though the tools of her craft were helping the captain, she was moved in a way that could not be expressed in journalism.

The Full article

There is a lot more truth in there than most stuff out of Hollywood. I know there was a bunch of discussions here about it. Most of those that had seen it gave it high marks.

Dave

[E40FDNYL35]

Originally posted by mark440
The show is about a Captain from 60 Truck.
The show is not real. No such thing as Ladder 60, the men that were "lost" on 9/11 in the show are not real.

Please no one else make the same mistake I had....

*Mark

The Guys
It's a True account of a Captain who has to give eight eulogies about his men killed in 9-11-01. Anne Nelson helps the Captain of Ladder 15 to write them. ALL REAL MEN In my opinion Sigourney Weaver and Anthony LaPaglia do a great job in this. They hit the nail on the head. This is what it was like in New York after over 3000 here were murdered. It moves slow and there are no burning Towers scenes. But,it's all about The BROTHERS... REAL BROTHERS.

[distchief60b]

captaingonzo and E40FDNYL35....

I could not agree with you more. I could nto have said it better myself. Mark440 is way way off base with his analogy.

I watched the movie and cried as the events unfolded. There was nothign misleading about this movie in my opinion. Anyone who has followed the forums would have....or could have read the opinions on it long before it hit the street.

[Weruj1]

hmmmmmmmmmm will have to check it out .......is it a rental ? I have never heard of it

[E40FDNYL35]

The Guys







THE GUYS

[distchief60b]

weruj1... I found it on the shelf in "movie Gallery" here in Florida the same day it was released. Sadly though....there was only one copy in the store.

[kentbwj]

"The Guys"

I ordered the movie from Amazon.com, because I couldn't find it locally in Ohio. I really liked it and felt that it was very respectfully done without exploiting the topic of 9/11. I would have to say that it's one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. I guess I wasn't under the impression that it was real, because I knew it came from a fictional screenplay. I wouldn't recommend watching it, though, unless you're in the mood to cry.

[elswappo]

My duty partner and myself rented this last week. Sad and made you remeber. It is slow though, a lot of the two main characters sitting around talking(of course thats what the movie is about).

[fallujahff]

I saw this movie a couple of times....

You know, someday there will be "movies of the week" and those lifetime movies and some hollywood "action" film with all those special effects but I am glad that "The Guys" was the first film because it handled the subject very very well. They used fictional men and a fictional station to be representative of the whole. (notice that the guys were a new guy, a veteran, a leader and one of those guys that seems to be able to fix anything).

This is a very beautiful film and it covers quite a range of the emotions felt after 9/11. I think it also pretty accurately examined the way people came around and began to notice "the guys" and the quite way they go about doing what they do.

My favorite scene is when the captain is trying to figure out what to say about the new guy--she asks him what happens after you get hired and he says "you open your eyes and shut your mouth". How true is this? I would say very accurate.

Don't forget--to us it describes a world that we know--for everyone else it introduces people to our world which is a hidden world. (remember, she did not know there was a kitchen). This movie is successful in showing people the "quiet" heroism that came out that day. Typical of people that perform acts of bravery, there was no concious thought involved, it just seemed natural to go out and do it. That's why in the story the last guy was off duty (as were many that day).

I loved this movie, it will definately make you think and appreciate the magnitude of the loss.

[FFDigger]

I read that the families that were in the last scene at the funeral were actual family members of fire fighter who lost their lives on 9-11. I thought it was a great movie, very touching.