NOTE: A slightly different version of this post first was published at FILMINQUIRY.COM, an independent film magazine.
Recently, I had the chance to tour the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York City, which, as you can imagine, is quite a somber experience. Amid the thoughtfully presented exhibits, I started wondering about 9/11 as portrayed in film. Now, when I say “portrayed” I’m not talking tangentially, as when 9/11 is used to jumpstart plot (e.g., Zero Dark Thirty, Reign Over Me, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, to name but a few), but rather films that use the terrible events of that day as their plots.
No, I’m not about to describe some long-ago fling so get your mind out of the gutter. Rather, I’m going to wax nostalgic about the incredibly fecund 28-day period in the fall of 1994 that saw the release of three terrific films, all personal favorites of The Conflicted Film Snob and, in his humble opinion, all still as vibrant, entertaining and relevant as they were—good Lord, could it really be?—22 years ago.
Back on April 18, 1945, as the 
Let’s pretend for a moment that you didn’t pass high-school English by the skin of your teeth and you actually spent some quality time with the poems of 
Lonesome Dove