Posted on 04/06/2006 11:01:48 PM PDT by goldstategop
On April 28, Universal is set to release "United 93," a full-length feature film about the events surrounding the fateful flight crashed by passengers in a field in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001. Previews in Los Angeles and New York have already drawn intense scrutiny and emotional reaction. Time reported that audience members in Hollywood shouted "Too soon!" as the trailer was screened; a New York theater actually pulled the trailer after audience complaints.
The preview itself is straightforward. The first minute or so consists of typical flight commuting talk as passengers board flight 93 -- "unfortunately, it looks like it's going to be about a 30 minute delay," "we're currently number one for departure," etc. Cut to air traffic controllers viewing the two aircraft plowing into the World Trade Center towers. Back aboard flight 93, pilots are informed of the terrorist attacks. Suddenly, an Arab man rips open his shirt to reveal a red tool-belt; the passengers are stunned, terrified.
They begin to organize. "We have to do it now, because we know what happens if we just sit here and do nothing," one man tells his family over an Airfone. As the passengers gather to plan their final act of heroism, the screen informs us, "On the day we faced fear … We also found courage."
Is it too soon? It may be too late. Since Sept. 11, the press has buried all photos and video of the horrific attacks. Five years later, the War on Terror is at low ebb, with the latest Gallup poll showing Americans are more worried about health care than about terrorism. Only 39 percent of self-labeled independents consider terrorism a major worry, along with 47 percent of Democrats and 52 percent of Republicans. It is no wonder that President Bush's support base for the War on Terror has declined dramatically over the last few years -- Americans, encouraged by the media's silence, are simply complacent about terrorism.
We can't have it both ways. If terrorism is a major worry, we ought to confront the problem. If it isn't, there's no harm in reminding Americans that the threat still exists, that proof of the seriousness of the threat can be found in a giant crater in the center of New York City, as well as a large hole in a Pennsylvania field and a newly-restored section of the Pentagon.
For too long, Hollywood has been silent, and Americans, attempting to slip back into a pre-Sept. 11 reverie, have accepted that silence with gratitude. Sept. 11 was a painful wound, but that is no excuse for forgetting it. Those for whom Sept. 11 was most painful -- family members of those who died in Flight 93, for example -- have unanimously supported the picture. Carole O'Hare, whose mother died aboard Flight 93, told Time why she supported the filmmakers: "This story has to be told to honor the passengers and crew for what they did … But more than that, it raises awareness. Our ports aren't secure. Our borders aren't secure. Our airlines still aren't secure, and this is what happens when you're not secure. That's the message I want people to hear."
During World War II, moviegoers were constantly treated to newsreels depicting the damage at Pearl Harbor, along with current events on both the Pacific and European fronts. Hollywood churned out hundreds of World War II pictures, the vast majority pushing for further American involvement in defeating Germany and Japan and celebrating the heroism of men and women involved in the war effort.
Since Sept. 11, by contrast, TV news channels specifically dedicated to explaining current events have stopped showing the Sept. 11 footage. We're told that the news media censors such horrible pictures out of sensitivity to the families of the victims. At the same time, the media pleads for more pictures of body bags coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq. Apparently, sensitivity only extends as far as the media's antiwar agenda. Meanwhile, Hollywood has been silent about Sept. 11 and the War on Terror, other than to claim that war in the Middle East is driven by thirst for oil ("Syriana") or that President Bush is a war criminal ("Fahrenheit 9/11"). Chances are that Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center" will follow in the footsteps of such artistic misinformation.
It is about time Americans were reacquainted with the cost of complacence. It is about time Americans were shown the face of our enemy -- it is time we were reminded what they fight for, so clearly visible in the burning towers, the plummeting bodies and the exploding airplanes of Sept. 11. Accurate depictions of the bravery and evil that we saw on Sept. 11 are necessary.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
read later
I don't know if I want to see Hollywoods version of 9/11. Just don't trust those people.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Give "The Flight That Fought Back" a try.
It is a Discovery Channel DVD, and well worth your time.
I don't see what it could hurt. The nation on a whole needs a wakeup call.
"I don't know if I want to see Hollywoods version of 9/11. Just don't trust those people."
I'm with you...I don't want to see some slogged-up Hollyweirdized bash of Bush and the GOP and Christianity or anyone else the freaky left thinks is behind 9/11. I don't want to see Hollywood praise their Islamonut brothers.
Just like most other movies coming out of Lalaland lately, they can't seem to get their stories right.
You're not kidding.
Unfortunately, it will take another hit on America for it to sink in with the folks with amnesia.
2001 was too soon for this film. But certainly in 2002 it should have been produced and distributed.
"Let's remember Pearl Harbor . . . "
And they wonder why we don't go to the movies..
> Two words come to mind: NEVER FORGET!
Two more words come to mind: NEVER. AGAIN.
A fellow Kiwi, Alan A Beavan, died on Flight 93. By all reports a good mate and a staunch bloke. A well-respected environmental lawyer based in California and a Karate Black Belt.
I hope he managed to snap a couple terrorist necks before Flight 93 augered in, somewhere in Pennsylvania. He would have died fighting...
RIP Alan. God Bless your Warrior Spirit and be with your Family. Kiwis remember. We Never Forget. And we Never Forgive. Deaths like yours must happen NEVER AGAIN.
KA MATE, KA MATE!
Ka Ora, Ka Ora
KA MATE, KA MATE!
Ka Ora, Ka Ora
TENEI TE TANGATA PUHURU HURU
Na'a nei Tiki Mai Whaki-Whiti Te RA!!!
A UPANE! KA UPANE!
A UPANE! KA UPANE WHITI TE RA!
HI!!!
"DieHard the Hunter"
I'm suprised they didn't recast the terrorists as white-power skinheads.
Well, here in the Philippines, you can usually buy first run movies as quickly as a Chinese can go to the theatre and tape a copy for you and duplicate it on a VCD (mpeg4)...
;-)
so if Rush really wants to see it, have him send me 60 cents for the vcd and 35 dollars for fedex, and I'll send it to him as soon as it's being sold.
Maybe they feared being sued by Dick Wolf for stealing his well worn idea. Every "ripped from the headlines" story-line whitewashes the perps.
Good chance he might have been one of the guys who stormed the cockpit. One of the others was a American exec, Jewish guy named Jeremy Glick, who had been a judo champion ten years previously.
I cannot understand the controversy. I've never known there to be a parking meter on history.
UPDATE
Sensitivity screening
Though complaints few, Regal responsive to complaints about "United 93" trailer
By CARLY HARRINGTON, harringtonc@knews.com
April 7, 2006
As the soon-to-be-released movie "United 93" rekindles 9/11 memories and moviegoers try to digest film clips from that fateful day, Regal Entertainment Group reports few complaints about the film's trailer.
"United 93" is about one of the planes hijacked by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001, and a trailer, or preview, for the film has received national media attention since it started showing at theaters across the country last weekend.
The AMC Loews Lincoln Square 12 cinema in New York City pulled the trailer Saturday after viewers complained they found it too upsetting.
Regal, a publicly traded corporation and the nation's largest movie theater operator, with headquarters in Knoxville, is not showing the trailer at its Battery Park theater in Manhattan because of its proximity to Ground Zero across the street, Regal spokesman Dick Westerling said.
"We've had discussions on the trailer, and we are being sensitive to our patrons," Westerling said. "We are watching the situation closely."
Regal has received only three complaints, Westerling said. One was made in New York, while the other two were made through Regal's customer service department.
"Over the past weekend we have had millions of people see the trailer and we have had very limited feedback," Westerling said.
But, he said, that could change since the public is becoming more aware of the previews through the media.
"United 93," which chronicles the unfolding drama of the United Airlines flight that crashed in Pennsylvania, is scheduled to make its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival's opening night festivities on April 25 in New York.
The trailer begins with images of passengers boarding the jet and dramatically builds to a scene that includes news video of a plane about to hit the World Trade Center. It then takes the viewer inside Flight 93 as terrorists begin the hijacking.
Reports of the hijacking indicate passengers banded together to thwart the hijacking after learning the plane was being redirected, possibly to crash into a Washington, D.C., target. The plane went down in a rural Pennsylvania field, killing all on board.
Universal Studios in Los Angeles said it had no plans to pull the trailer for the film.
Families of Flight 93, a nonprofit group that represents some relatives of those on board the plane, has praised the movie, and Universal Pictures has pledged to donate 10 percent of the first three days of the film's grosses to the Flight 93 National Memorial.
The trailer is being shown only before films that are geared toward a more mature adult audience, such as "Inside Man."
Westerling said it was unlikely that Regal would pull the film from viewing at any of its theaters.
"We've got three weeks to see what kind of feedback we get. We'll probably re-evaluate it as time gets closer," Westerling said.
However, a film is different from a trailer because it becomes a personal decision, he explained.
"People who choose to watch the film will be aware of the content," Westerling said.
Regal operates more than 6,000 screens in more than 500 locations in 40 states and the District of Columbia - approximately 18 percent of all indoor screens in the country.
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/business/article/0,1406,KNS_376_4602222,00.html
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