Flight 93 highjackers
Posted on 04/17/2006 11:50:17 PM PDT by goldstategop
Universal's new movie, "United 93," is about United Airlines Flight 93, hijacked on 9-11 by Islamic terrorists shortly after leaving Newark, N.J., for San Francisco. The terrorists intended to fly the plane to Washington, D.C., and crash it into the Capitol. Instead, the passengers fought back and forced the plane down in Pennsylvania, thereby saving the lives of any number of people on the ground in Washington and saving America from a devastating blow to its image.
Incredibly there is some controversy about this film. Apparently many Americans are not "ready" to see a film about 9-11 "so soon" after 9-11.
If this is so, it is an ode to the weakening of the American people.
Five years after the most devastating attack on American soil, people are asking if Americans are ready to see a film -- not some fictional, politically driven, reality-distorting film by Oliver Stone, but a film based on the phone conversations of the passengers and flight attendants, on the flight recorder tape, and approved by the families of all 40 passengers -- one of the most terrible and heroic events in American history.
Did anyone ask in 1946, five years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, whether Americans were prepared to see a film about the Japanese attack?
If anything should be controversial, it is Hollywood going AWOL while its country fights the scourge of our time, Islamic totalitarianism. For five years, America has been battling people who are dedicated to destroying every value that Hollywood claims to care most about -- freedom, tolerance, women's rights, secular government, equality for gays -- and Hollywood has yet to make a film depicting, let alone honoring, this war.
Finally, a major studio comes out with a film reminding Americans about the nature of our enemy, about what really happened (to the best of our ability to reconstruct) on one of the 9-11 planes, and the press wonders if Americans are "ready" to see the movie.
Universal invited me to see a preview, and unless they change it (or don't drop a few gratuitous, politically inspired words that appeared right after the film ends), I believe it is just about every American's duty to see this film. There is no gratuitous violence -- if anything, Universal went out of its way to prevent us from seeing the reality of the throat-slashing of passengers and crew -- but there is unremitting tension and sadness, since we all know what will happen to these unsuspecting people, and we know this is real, not fiction.
There is also American heroism. People completely unprepared for an airplane flight to become their last hour alive rise to the occasion and save fellow Americans from death and from the humiliation of having their nation's capitol building destroyed.
The only people likely to object to this film are those who don't want Americans to become aware of just how conscienceless, cruel and depraved our enemy is, or those who think that our enemies can always be negotiated with and therefore object to depicting Americans actually fighting back.
Teenage and older children in particular should see this film. If the younger teens have nightmares, comfort them. But young Americans need to know the nature of whom we are fighting. If they are attending a typical American high school or college, they probably don't know.
Congratulations to Universal Studios on making this film (presuming that, as assured to me, they removed the post-film politically inspired message). And shame on Hollywood for only making one such film in five years.
Perhaps if "United 93" turns out to be the unforeseen box office success that Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" was, the lure of major profits will exert more influence over Hollywood than even Hollywood leftists do.
In the meantime, go and see "United 93," to see why some Americans still take "Home Of The Brave" seriously; and to see why we have to win this war more than any since World War II. That's how bad our enemy is. You have an unfortunately rare chance to see that enemy at work when you see what happened to everyone who boarded United Airlines Flight 93 that left Newark on September 11, 2001.
"But I think the images of 9/11 (some of which appeared on the HBO documentary) with bodies falling to the street and other extremely graphic event should be shown more often. I also think that the news should show images of the be-headings and stonings carried about by extremists. People should be warned and given a chance to look away or turn off the TV since some people really cannot take that kind of stuff, but the images should be out there to show what we are really facing as a country."
This is the comment right after the one you intentionally took out of context. That comment simply stated that I want the media to do this in a responsible way.
You're making false assumptions. I read your post; I read it in its entirety. I believe thess images should be reviewed every 9-11 anniversary. It was an attack on our nation, not on specific families. OK?
You did not read it carefully then. You just tried to pick an argument against a view that I do not hold. I never claimed it was an attack on specific families. I stated that I don't want graphic images of victims to be exploited. There is a difference between showing images and exploiting them, which is why the words exploit and show have been give their own special definitions that are completely different from one another. For instance I don't want politicians showing graphic images of victims in a campaign poster and saying "vote for me and this won't happen to you." Nor do I want the media to show these images in excess or in ways that dehumanize the victims. That is what I meant when I stated that I think I can understand where some victims' families are coming from when they say that they don't want things released to the public. I never argued that they have power or even any say over what is released. I simply stated that I understand where they are coming from. And anyone who thinks that all Americans were affected equally, or suffered equally on 9/11 is simplistic. There was no false assumption on my part when I challenged you for erroneously asserting that I want to baby the American people because I said that it is understandable that some people might not want the graphic deaths of their children burning and dismembered bodies to be broadcast on television.
One of the people in our office received pictures from a friend in New York via email right after 9/11--like on 9/13. They were taken by the friend, and were shared with the rest of the office. There was a shot of the second plane impacting the tower, and shots of people jumping to their death. I was surprised at the outrage of people in the office when one of the multicultural sensitivity types suggested that those images not be sent out again. The outrage was against the sensitive one, not at the pictures. Many comments such as, "I want to be reminded, I never want to forget what they did." Unfortunately I had a computer crash after I retired and lost those images. Your point is well taken, but the drive by media will never permit any interference with their anti-America limp wrist us down agenda, nor will their handlers in the party.
Flight 93 highjackers
It sound like you have a good office. People should see these images. If someone is extremely sensitive to violence they should not view the images, but they don't have the right to tell other people what they are allowed to see. The only opinions of that sort that I find reasonable are people whose family members are in such images, but I still think those images should be shown to the general public. The fact that the media will show images for Abu Ghraib and not show images of terror victims leads me to agree your assessment that the media does not want to show the true nature of our enemy. If the media was telling the truth when they claim that they withhold images simply because they are to graphic or out of respect for victims, then they would not show images of the "victims" of alleged abuse by Americans. They have an agenda.
I will see the movie. I think it's my duty to the people that died. It honors them.
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