Mostly because I need to hear what others think.
When I told people that I had seen United 93, the general reaction was first “what movie is that? – Oh, the one about the airplane…” usually followed with “I don’t think I could see it.” or “It’s too soon.” or “I think it’s wrong to exploit the families like that.”
I even got all of the above reactions from one person, over breakfast on Sat morning. This friend (and she is a friend, or we’d not have been going to breakfast together) also said that not only was it too soon, it was *way* too soon. As evidence, she trumpeted something she had read somewhere, where the writer had listed out various attacks and how long it took for them to come to film. In all cases, it was well over five years.
To which I replied: We’ve only been attacked on our own soil twice since the invention of movies. The first time was Pearl Harbor, and Frank Capra gave us the “Why We Fight” series very shortly thereafter, to help people understand what was going on in Europe and Asia. The second time was 9/11 (unless you want to count the 1993 bombing), and it took us almost 4 years for this movie.
She quickly back-pedaled, and said the article was about disasters, more than attacks, but she still didn’t think it was right, and that it irritated her that someone was going to make money off a film about 9/11. My response to that, of course, was did she think the film-maker should do it for free?
That’s not what she meant, she said. So then she said she did’nt think it belonged on the big screen. She goes to movies for entertainment, and this isn’t entertainment (I had to agree with her there. I would never call this movie “entertainment.”)
She said it should only be on television, not the big screen, and that ideally, PBS should be the ones to do it.
I chose not to respond to those comments, and we changed topics about then. Interestingly enough, other than a History Channel show on the engineering behind why the towers collapsed, I’ve not watched any of the TV shows/movies about 9/11, because I don’t trust TV to do it right. And I certainly wouldn’t trust PBS to give a balanced, non-partisan, non-judgemental show about it.
I agree with Sgt Mom – I’m not looking for flag-waving, “America can do no wrong” propaganda. But I would like to see movies that explore that day, and the days since. I’d like to see movies about our Marines in Fallujah, movies about pulling down Saddam’s statues, and building water treatment plants. Movies about Afghan girls going to school in public, instead of hiding their learning. Movies that celebrate courage and compassion, going ahead even when scared. Shoot, I’d like to see a movie about Friday nights at Fran O’Briens, and the differences it made in the lives of the wounded veterans.
How about a Rick Rescorla movie?