A Supercut Of The Twin Towers In Movies (VIDEO)

Last week we ran an Associated Press essay about filmmakers shooting at the time of 9/11, in which film critic Christy Lemire described the trickiness of working around the attacks:

There was, of course, the broader question: When is it appropriate to enjoy ourselves again? But studios debated how to be respectful in releasing films that featured images of those iconic, fallen buildings. They wanted to strike the right tone, but there didn't seem to be a right answer.

Some excised shots of the towers before releasing their movie to audiences. Others, like Spike Lee, honored the towers by zooming in on the hole in the sky. No one, however, was spared from making a decision.

Today's supercut is about the filmmakers working before all that, when the twin towers were a silent, inevitable presence in practically every Manhattan movie there ever was. Ten years on, it's an eerie sight.

WATCH:

Twin Tower Cameos from Dan Meth on Vimeo.

(Dan Meth via The Daily What)

Comments

[MMRDO]

12:00 AM on 09/08/2011

Escape from New York sticks out in my mind.

[LMPE]

06:43 PM on 09/04/2011

I always thought that one ghost in "Ghostbusters 2" looked like Harpo Marx.

BTW, a scene in Steven Spielberg's "Munich" digitally added the WTC ("AI: Artificial Intelligence" depicted rusted-out versions of the buildings).

[Louis Tyson]

05:08 PM on 09/03/2011

Great scenes and all, but where the hell are the Heavy Metal version twin towers?

[LMPE]

06:44 PM on 09/04/2011

Didn't Aykroyd say something to the effect of "Here, it's either kill or be killed."?

[Arielman]

11:22 PM on 08/31/2011

I think it left out "Escape From New York" where "Snake Plissken" played by actor Ken Russell lands a glider on one, to rescue the President played by actor Donald Pleasence whose crashed in Manhattan, then a penal colony. Singer and actor Bernadette Peters used to do a public relations spot on the radio to visit the "twin doozies" (off-hand reference to comedienne Kathy Griffin doing impromptu interview in the street about them) and I once did on a lunch hour working on Fulton Street. Later worked for a company on 90s floors, a Texas power plant designer and builder Ebasco's Envirosphere division on the archaeology of Fort Drum, NY, there in the Goodnow earthquake of 1983. I like this montage.

[LMPE]

06:44 PM on 09/04/2011

You mean Kurt Russell. Ken Russell is a movie director.

[Barbara Lilly]

10:47 PM on 08/31/2011

Fascinating, moving, and must have taken some real effort to put together. The fast sequence was a little too quick for me. This is a compendium that I wouldn't have minded being longer, or having it slowed down a bit so that the Towers could be enjoyed. Fascinating to see how parts of the city become part of are psyche- when they loom large, and then when their absence is so profound.

[peachpage01]

05:37 PM on 08/31/2011

Nice tribute however not all of us have had a triple espresso and have a longer attention span - would have been nice to see each clip last a bit longer. Well done though - thank you.

[Ken Volok]

05:29 PM on 08/31/2011

Forgot Brian DePalma's "Dressed to Kill" which has a scene shot in the Windows of the World restaurant atop one of the towers.

[furiousdee]

02:51 PM on 08/31/2011

Godspell (1973) - the musical number "All for the Best" concludes on the almost finished roof of the South Tower.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnIW-eIAJxE

[NYC07]

01:45 PM on 08/31/2011

Also the opening scene of the movie "Jeffery" with Steve Weber http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIgqtGFx_Ec

And the opening and closing shots of the movie "Trick" 1999 With Christian Campbell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsrJ86eS1xI