Is “United 93″ Too Soon?
A movie version of the story of Flight 93, the flight that fought back against the terrorists on September 11th, is coming out soon and the trailer has already begun to run in some areas. Of course, there are a large number of people that say they “aren’t ready” for a movie like this to hit the streets. In fact, there are reports that people actually covered their eyes when the trailer appeared on the screen. You can view the trailer for United 93 here, and then decide for yourself…is it too soon? Most of the answers I’m reading are “Yes,” but I can’t say I’m in that camp. I think that people feel like they have to say that they “aren’t ready” and “disgusted” or other people will think they are some kind of monster. You covered your eyes when the trailer ran?! Give me a break! What is that? You can’t even watch a trailer that basically shows a few clips of the towers? I don’t buy that for a second. That smacks of someone going overboard on an emotion because that’s what they think everyone else wants to see. I would put down solid money that there will be a huge amount of people that want to see this movie, but won’t because they are experiencing or imagining outside pressure that “its too soon” or something of the like. I’m not saying that the events of September 11th are ripe for parody or anything of that nature (that takes 22.3 years) but I think we can all be mature and watch a serious movie recounting the events from that day.
Its ok if you want to see that movie, there is nothing wrong with that. It doesn’t make you insensitive or a monster, it just makes you honest. The director even asked every one of the families involved in the Flight 93 saga if they were ok with the making of this movie, clearly they all gave their permission, so what’s the problem? Here’s a hint: there isn’t one. I’m willing to take it a step further and say I really want to see this movie. I was disappointed that the upcoming Oliver Stone 9/11 movie seemed to bow to the pressured of these “too soon” zombies that Stone is reported to be basically making a movie about a story that happened with the vague backdrop of the events that day and nothing more. I’m excited to see what a director and screenwriter that have some balls are going to do with this story and this subject matter.
The blog UNEASYsilence ends their melodramatic post about this with the sentence: “Do you think that this movie is tasteful, considering it is NOT a documentary? You can view it at your own risk and judge.” Of course its tasteful, I didn’t see anyone laughing in the trailer…I didn’t see anyone get hit in the crotch for comedic effect. Don’t mistake “distasteful” for “disturbing” though. Of course its disturbing, its a disturbing story, like many other movies and other stories, but the question is what was distasteful about that clip? Please someone help me out! Moving on, No, its NOT (thank god you capitalized it, I wouldn’t have figured it out otherwise) a documentary, but other than some dialog that they had to create, how far off the mark do you see them going with this? Hell even the conversation in the air traffic control tower scene seemed pretty spot on, we all had that exact same reaction to what was happening right? Yes, please “view it at your own risk“, come back here and let me know if you are “disgusted” or “horrified” or if you covered your eyes, or if you received a phone call after watching it that said you were going to die in one week. Please let us know, because I really don’t think there is anything about that trailer that justifies anything but intrigue.
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Mark
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Mike