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August 16, 2006
What color blind usually means
‘World Trade Center’ omits Black soldier
After hours of firefighting, assisting survivors and in some cases, praying over the dead, Thomas ran into another marine, Staff Sgt. Dave Karnes. Thomas presented a plan for a search and rescue mission of the area and he and Karnes tried to enlist other soldiers on site to help. When they were told the mission was too dangerous, they decided to go by themselves.
“I found a couple guys, but it wasn’t enough, to them, to start a search and rescue,” he said. “I remember myself and staff Sgt. Karnes saying, ‘We’re going to start the search and rescue with or without you, because someone needs us.’”
The World Trade Center movie tells the story of the rescues of New York Port Authority police officers John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno from Ground Zero, as well as that of the men who rescued them. In real life, the officers were rescued by sergeants Karnes and Thomas. In the film, however, they were rescued by Karnes and PFC Dave Thomas; a composite character, played by William Mapother, a white actor, who is meant to represent Thomas.World Trade Center producer Michael Shamberg said that they knew about Sgt. Thomas’s role in the rescue, but were unable to find him when creating the film. He said producers didn’t discover Thomas was a Black man until after they had started the movie. He also said that in spite of the fact that the film was co-written by McLoughlin and Jimeno was consulted for authenticity, no one ever asked them for a physical description of the man who helped save their lives.
“Frankly, we goofed--we learned when we were filming that he was an African-American,” said Shamberg. “We would change it if we could. I actually called him and apologized, and he said he didn’t mind. He was very gracious about it.”
Shamberg also apologized for another African-American officer, Bruce Reynolds, who was also portrayed as white in the movie.
Posted by Mike at August 16, 2006 08:45 PM
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