So apparently in movie theaters all over the United States, people are freaking out at this trailer for United 93.
The tarp of bullshit that's stretched over the American people is so thin and threadbare right now, that even a movie trailer can cause a twitterpation.
It must be hard to keep the hounds of reality at bay. Kiboshing the shots of flag-draped coffins was one thing. Abu Ghirab was pretty hard...there were certainly cracks there, too. But Americans as a people have been so good these last three years at denying the truth, ignoring the facts, and retreating into comfortable, unquestioned tropes of American goodness, might, and rectitude. As a Yankee abroad, it's almost unbearably poignant to me that all of that could be pierced by a piece of art. Scratch that...an advertisement for a piece of art.
Because the problem with maintaining a fiction is you have to ignore all that churning, building dissonance. And a stark story like United 93, amidst the cartoon blowup flotsam of MI:3 and the like, well - that's about as dissonant as you get. No wonder people are sobbing and freaking out into their popcorn.
I saw "The Day After Tomorrow" on one of those little screens on a plane. I didn't enjoy it. I didn't see War of the Worlds, either. Somehow, for me, all that blowing up the White House or Eiffel Tower or levelling New York -- you know...none of that is escapist entertainment for me anymore.
But then again, I've been following everything that's happened since United 93 went down that day in the field in P.A.
If you've bought into the layers and layers of fictions -- the simple view -- you probably spend a whole lot of time trying to service that tarp of bullshit that's stretched so thinly above you. And along comes Paul Greengrass, and his little movie, and it rips the cover off.
Trailers about the Rwandan genocide? A-ok. Flight 93, not ok? Would someone hurry up and make a Darfur trailer already? Maybe if they stuck it after The Benchwarmers, somebody might work up enough outrage to complain to the manager. Maybe you'll get a free movie out of the deal.
If you saw Bloody Sunday, you know what's coming from Greengrass on this one. I'm sure the movie will be hard to watch.
But then again, Americans have done entirely enough looking away over the last five years. The anger you felt that day, the trauma -- it led you to allow your government to do some pretty amazing things in your name. We can exploit for drama all the tragedies of others, but we cannot face our own? We can cause misery, but we can't revisit our own -- and maybe this time see it in the context of people who actually did a righteous thing, instead of people who have relentlessly exploited it to do the wrong things -- things that you've been complicit in ever since? I call bullshit. Sit still. Shutup. Watch the trailer.
Then read a goddamn newspaper -- preferably one that doesn't have their heads planted firmly in the sand.
Or, you know, keep watching FOX News. Your call. But don't ask me to feel bad for you crying into your popcorn.
And by the way, if you want to tell me that I hate America, my only request is that you email me, we arrange to meet, and you say it to my face, so we can sort it out proper.
27 comments:
I don't disagree with your point, but I'd like to point out where you lumped Day After Tomorrow and War of the Worlds together and say you didn't see WoTW. While it certainly has its 9/11 parallel, it at least directly avoided any destruction of landmarks as a specific goal to avoid cliches of other disaster movies. So I don't know if it's completely fair to put those two films together.
Um, I haven't seen this movie yet but I watched the trailer. If it forces Americans to relive 9/11 and spotlight the heroism of those aboard UA Flt. 93, don't you think that this movie will only help the case of the US government for its actions since then? My recollection is that, in the days after 9/11, there was a real upsurge in patriotism and support for Pres. Bush, and my fear is that movies such as this will only reignite that fervor and keep the bullshit rolling...
I think people will have a hard time with this even more when it comes out because there are no stars to save the day. At least there will be a hope that Nic Cage can save the towers in Oliver Stone's WTC.
I imagine I'll have the same feeling I had after watching Elephant.
I don't agree with the commotion but I'm not surprised by it either. I mean, there were films that took shots of the towers out after 9/11 as if the only American way to deal with a situation is to put a curtain around it and pretend it's not there.
To play Devil's advocate... there's a lot of things I don't want to see in trailers, which are advertisements that I don't have a choice about seeing. I don't want to see pets being killed, either. Or images of Rwandan genocides. I don't want anything that's going to give my 10-year-old nightmares.
We get enough 9/11 every day without being *forced* to relive the nightmare of flight 93.
The trailer is only playing during R rated movies so it begs the question, what movies are you taking your 10-year-old too? Or, are you suggesting that we treat viewers as though they were ten?
We do live everyday with the constant reminder of 9/11 so why not watch a story about courage? These people saved other people's lives; quite possibly saved the White House, and those inside, from harm. Why shouldn't we watch that; celebrate that? Instead we watch pundits scream politcal partisan at each other and listen to the President tell us Saddam had something to do with 9/11. Or should we pop in the DVD of Pearl Harbor instead?
(Steps up to soapbox)
So many things are going on in this country right now that we NEED to be reminded about those events, what transpired before to lead us to those events, and the aftermath of those events.
People are so afraid now. Yes, afraid. They want to protect everyone around them and they don't see that the truth is the only thing that can protect us.
There's an old saying in weightlifting circles that, "The steel will never lie to you. It will tell you always exactly how strong and how weak you really are."
We Americans need to embrace the steel if we are to survive. That means asking the hard questions and finding the truth, and not being afraid of what that means.
I remember as a kid learning about Pearl Harbor - not only at school but from my father and grandfather. Are kids today learning about 9-11? Are they getting the facts, the truth?
>>>But Americans as a people have been so good these last three years at denying the truth, ignoring the facts, and retreating into comfortable, unquestioned tropes of American goodness, might, and rectitude.
Maybe because you're an expat, you don't realize just how many of us are apoplectic about the brazen lies and abuse of power we're living with. Remember that nearly half of Americans did not vote for the current administration. We see the BS for what it is. We try to elect people who represent our views, but our so-called checks and balances have failed us. I feel really let down by Congress's lack of spine or their partisan pandering to the Right.
>>>Americans have done entirely enough looking away over the last five years.
Please don't paint us all with the same brush. It's hard enough to recognize that vast numbers (but not all) of Americans are ignorant and too lazy to inform themselves and apply a little critical thought to the lies and abuse of power.
>>>Then read a goddamn newspaper -- preferably one that doesn't have their heads planted firmly in the sand.
I couldn't agree with you more.
When I first saw that trailer I cringed, because I thought we were in for the biggest piece of BS ever put to film in the name of "historical reference". (any historical dramatization put on film will be seen as fact by millions, we all know it)
I, like satrgazerxl, fear that this film will prove a rallying cry for GWB.
This event has taken on mythological significance already. The talk after 9/11 was that the passengers crashed the plane into a field on purpose in order to save Washington. Yeah, that's nice and patriotic and all that, but it rings of total BS in my mind. You're gonna tell me that a group of citizens, having taken over sufficent control of the aircraft, preferred killing themselves rather than try to land the plane somehow - as opposed to the possibility that the hijackers, seeing their cause might be lost, drove the plane towards the nearest patch of soil in an effort to kill "infidels" and make a statement?
Come on...
I haven't heard the voice recorder audio or read any transcripts (are these available anywhere?) and found only a few sites that suggest they have or have spoken to people who have. It seems pretty clear that NOTHING is clear. There is a revolt, there are noises and then there is nothing.
So what can this movie possibly show?
If it shows anything beyond what is documented fact, then the whole thing becomes bullshit - if the writers/directors/producers were willing to "fill in the blanks" then the whole thing becomes fiction. I'll be watching it wondering where the line was drawn. Is THIS scene real? Is THIS one? etc.
These people were heroes. No doubt. But let's not make stuff up about what they may or may not have done.
They stood up. That's all that matters.
Don't give Bush a flag to wave.
I agree that WotW was a rough (sometimes VERY rough) response to 9/11 that simultaneously commented on Iraq.
I'll agree with the poster above who said that we're not ALL being mislead. EVERY poll indicates that public support has turned against those currently in power, and that SHOULD be borne out in November, barring the dramatic capture of bin Laden or something. And even that could backfire at this point. When my ultra-conservative, gun-toting father and his friends have turned on the president, he's got plenty to worry about.
Here's what's troubling to me: We're supposed to watch a trailer about one of the worst days in American history. We're supposed to watch a graphic description of terrified hijack victims about to die.
Then we're supposed to put it out of our minds, eat our popcorn and watch a fluffy HEIST movie.
And you complain about denial...
Amen brother.
It's weird that people that weren't there and people that don't even know any of the victims would feel uncomfortable to be "forced to relive the nightmare of flight 93" when the families of all the victims signed off on the film and WANT THE MOVIE TO BE MADE AND GET OUT THERE.
Does that make ANY sense? The families are saying "Yes, their story is important. Tell it."
Why do Americans only want movies and tv shows that feed their willful ignorance? Don't people see what the hell is happening in our world?
Argh. The trailer IS disturbing, yes. It SHOULD BE. That's the whole freakin' point.
I wrote about this today too. What I don't understand is why anyone thought we need this movie. 9/11 is still very fresh in our collective memories. The events are constantly being rehashed and re-examined. So what is the role of a fictionalized version? It doesn't make sense to me.
Sure, you can argue that we need to see heroism, and to be reminded of this and that, but I would argue that a fictionalized movie is not the right vehicle for that. A documentary, yes, but why make it into a drama? Dramas are inherently designed to manipulate, so why do we need to be manipulated?
Here's what I wrote...
First off, it has already been a documentary that was shown on the DISCOVERY channel here in the states.
We have had many tragedies, conspiracies and disasters in our history as a country that have been "dramatized" (rather than the term "fictionalized"). This is nothing new. The idea that a movie based on this -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_93
-- is somehow harmful is just plain bs. Paste this very dispassionate account into your browser and read. The facts themselves are very compelling, and lets face it - not many people are going to sit down and read the 9/11 Commission report.
Was there this much controversy over ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN?
What do I know? I think there needs to be a movie on KATRINA...
I wanted this to run its course before I commented. And I think we've seen just about all the points of views I've heard from people on this.
I agree with pretty much everything Bill says above. But there's one larger point I want to stress.
The idea of pulling this trailer, the idea that maybe the film shouldn't be seen, or we shouldn't have to "relive" the day, or that it could be "used by those who distort the truth" obscures the basic, immutable truth at the core of this:
When you suppress discussion -- any discussion, you lead to the very climate that has allowed the current administration to misrepresent their actions and policies for so long.
Saying, "I don't want to have to see that" at the theater is the same thing as tacitly buying into not talking about the flag draped coffins, or the Iraqi civilian dead, or the fact that none of the hijackers were Iraqi, or the fact that there is now a huge preponderance of evidence to suggest that the Bush administration cynically used 9/11 to sell a policy it was committed to anyway. Wanting to look away is the same thing as accepting blindly that there was a link between Iraq and Al Quaeda, that the US tortures people now, that the President, the Defense Secretary, and the Vice President routinely lies to you -- and continues to lie, and lie, and lie.
the urge to look away is natural. And it is not unique to the USA. Greengrass' film Bloody Sunday about the terrible day British troops fired on a march -- well, that film was greeted by many British voices as "why do we need a film about this?" and that's an event that happened 30 years ago, not five.
If you don't want to see the movie, don't go see the movie -- but to say that the movie shouldn't be made or that you shouldn't have to see a trailer for it -- well ... that's exactly the kind of malleable, compliant, and easily manipulated character that the American government has exploited ruthlessly since Sept 12, 2001.
You simply can't separate the two things.
Max, you little scamp. You're so adorable with your sweet quoting out of context, Daddy just wants to feed you soup. But aim higher than Ezra Levant, for godsake. No sense worshipping the photocopy of the photocopy. That way lies madness.
Max, you're just weird. You creep me out with your regurgitating of sophomoric American political food fighting and name calling.
It's just a movie, it will come then go.
Let the trailer run. It's not that graphic, and the filmmakers deserve their fair share of free speech, and a shot at a return on their investment.
Been a couple of days since I had a chance to check the blog. (There it is, people -- your evidence that, in fact, I do actually occasionally work.)
I think Max is cute. Really I do.
He reminds me of a couple of threads or ideas that are, of course, more interesting than about anything he actually has to say.
The first is Glenn Greenwald. If you're not reading his blog, you should. He's a lawyer, with a prosecutor's methodical process of demolishing most of the intellectually lazy posturing today's righties employ. Besides his entertaining deconstructions of right-wing talking points, a few weeks ago he opined about the new split between actual Republican, conservatives and the Bush-kool aid drinkers. He tracks a pretty interesting phenomenon where in elements of the right today, all you need to do to be labeled "liberal" (which we know, of course, is a dirty word) is to express doubt in the actions taken by Bush & Co. From Andrew Sullivan to Hitchens to a host of others -- that "liberal" throw has become quite desperate.
You don't have to obsess over Bush's poll numbers to note the trend that many of the Right's best thinkers -- I'm talking the ones who actually do make arguments, and try to stay on fact-planet -- are no longer on the program. And really, with everything that's come out, how could they be?
People like Max can point to Michelle Malkin and Crazy Coulter all they want - but if I was a conservative, I would be a whole lot more concerned by losing the faith of guys like Hitchens, Francis Fukiyama (we're apparently a long way from the end of history now) and Andrew Sullivan, to just name three on a long, long list.
In fact, it's getting to the point where there's little irony in the fact that the still-loyal-base are a lot of that same fundamentalist base who sign on to counter-logical propositions like "I.D."
A friend of mine last week expressed surprise and wonder that amounted to "How is possible that Islam went from being the most enlightened and tolerant of faiths to the most rigid and unyielding and backward?"
Well, I think you're seeing a bit of how.
At the same time, nutty Max also reminded me of my first job, researching on a current affairs show at a public broadcaster.
There was this one researcher there, who after we'd argue something out in a story meeting, used to accuse me all the time of being "Politically Inconsistent." I didn't really get what she was saying until one night when we started talking and I realized what she meant was that I seemed left on some things, and more right on others.
The weird thing was how she viewed this as .. you know... wrong. I looked at an issue, weighed the evidence, and made a decision about what I thought was the right way to go. And it did bump around a bit here and there. But even then, looking back on those meetings I was amazed that no matter what the issue was -- I could tell you exactly what her position would be on it.
The funny thing was that she viewed her POV as utterly logical and mine as crazy.
One of the most effective things about Clinton as a president, and why he ultimately was able to function and get things done after getting spanked by the failure of the health care initiative and the loss of congress in 94 was that he took whatever ideas he thought were pragmatic and workable. He drove Republicans crazy not so much because of his shortcomings, or his shenanigans -- but because he took their best ideas and made them his own.
He got things done, and won the government showdown -- despite facing a hostile congress for 3/4 of his presidency. Compare that to a president who can't seem to get any domestic agenda through (besides tax cuts or war related stuff) despite having one party rule.
I don't know if McCain is the guy in 2008. But I do know one thing for sure: if the US (or Canada, for that matter) is ever going to get out of their messes, we're going to have to hive off and marginalize the people like my fellow researcher from years ago -- the people who, you know what they're going to think on any issue, because they don't think, they just follow blind ideology.
That goes for those people on the left, as well as on the right. The only difference between the Repubs and the Dems in the current US climate, and the reason why the Repubs have been more effective, is that their pragmatists have swallowed their bile and held their noses and gone along with the crazy -- a trick the Dems have never (and probably shouldn't have) learned.
But it looks like Bush & Co might have finally exhausted that well, too.
If you lose my Republican-leaning parents...well...you've lost the country -- to paraphrase Lyndon J. (A Dem who knew how to horse trade.)
Wow, we're blaming Clinton for the entire continent of Africa now?
Dear Old Max -- I hope you loosen the tinfoil hat a bit. That really must chafe.
As Max threatens to leave forever (again) let's play him out, citizens. Please turn in your hymnals to page 347...
Just a word of explanation:
Blogger allows the poster of a comment to go through and delete their comments at any time. I think this is probably a fair enough feature -- except in the way that it can affect future discussion.
Those of you reading through this might find odd that a few people are reacting to posts by "max" -- often in an arch, or somewhat dismissive way.
max is a poster who has some pretty -- and I say this minus value judgement -- typical right wing views, views that would not make Ann Coulter nor Michelle Malkin blush. What sets him apart is the claims he blithely makes in most of his comment posts...it's these that tend to drive people into comments that might not meet the burden Lincoln set of being from "the better angels of our nature."
I can't recall too many specifics, besides the last one, where my point that Bill Clinton used to infuriate Republicans through compromise, by taking good ideas from their side of the aisle and implementing them -- was responded to by a one sentence rebuttal that basically blamed the problems of the continent of Africa on Clinton.
Sadly, the flow of this original conversation can't really be followed now because Max deleted everything he had to say. I shall not offer speculation as to why; neither shall I precie or excerpt max's comments from the copies that came to me via email...if he wished them deleted, then I respect and accede to that wish.
I shall merely say that I'm sorry you can't read the full flow of the exchange, because if not filled with too much light, it was at least memorable for the vigorous nature of its heat.
Actually if you really need it, I keep a copy of everything.
(previous post quoted)
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"Adiós Liberals, I eagerly await you to regain power and free me from the repression of corporate power and the evils of my oligarchical government. And I await you to free the rest of the world from the tyranny of their dictatorships. You are going to save them and not desert them aren't you? Oh but I suppose them foreigners don't deserve the same chance you had."
"Clinton will never wash all that African blood off his hands.If that is your role model then nobody has any future."
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"All", of course is an adjective modifying the noun "blood".
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I take it that the predictable liberal left urge to abrogate international responsibility extends to misinterpreting grammar, sort of a "lapses lingua" as it were.
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You people don't know how murderous you truly are.
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The liberal left is the psychology of subterranean aggression. You strangle with both hands , look in a different direction at all the pretty flowers and speak with your mouths to each other about all how horrible is the person you are strangling but speak as if they were not there.
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How is a Blog spinning left against right supposed to be "news"? You want real news you have to look for it where neither party nor the corporations have their control.
Why would I be interested in arguments about Republicans versus Conservatives? I am against ALL corporate parties and for a new system. I only support Bush's administration because they is doing the right thing in terms of world freedom and protect Western Democracies. In fact an aggressive stance against totalitarianism within and without the country and the democratic system is the same platform. Similarly those who do not favour freedom for all the world's people and ignore the slavery of billions apply that same platform domestically. The latter lives in illusions of spin while ignoring and suppressing the realities of the miseries of their country's people.
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You on the other hand are in favour of corporate power and repression and corporate slavery since you encouraged Canadians to vote for the corporate parties Corporate NDP, corporate Liberal.. corporate Democrats, corporate Republicans they are all the same party... the Corporate Party.. they are all funded privately by corporations and are their servants and political extension.
But of course you knew all that about my political stance didn't you, being as so I am so predictable? A predictable person at least declares their intentions. And your intentions are clear . You support the current repressive political system as you encouraged all Canadians to vote.
This "in your face" assertion is the affirmation of my personal suffering from the system which you support and the denial of it is the denial of my suffering and the suffering of others. So yes , I confront your social class and I bring back the sins of your deeds to your social class members. In fact, your class created me by reaction to your abuses, a radical to your system.
I on the other hand encouraged all Canadians not to vote for any of the existing corporate owned parties and to create a new party that would control the corporations without being totalitarian and offered my assistance to write a new legal platform to eliminate the co-opting of the political system by the corporations and end the destruction of society and of freedom by corporate power.
But unfortunately since the corporations own the ENTIRE media and have mindwashed the entire population I had little success.
It seems to be little use to save the country from without when it is being destroyed within
Left or Right, you are all damned from within, you all have no future unless you wake up which is looks extremely doubtful.
Your coterie are the worst offenders, you work for the MSM of monopolized corporate power. You serve their interests and become their corporate propaganda arm in entertainment never promoting an idea that would disturb the system. You have no idea of alternatives or what you have done. You have all compromised so much from Day One you cannot possible know who you really are or what are your own true thoughts or begin to have thoughts that are truly your own.
Don't blame me for your lacking of "inner angels", that is part of what confrontation techniques happen to expose.
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I don't know what you are complaining about with this preview?!!! The head in the sand, no-growth,no-hugs, no real reality, is the bread and butter of TV writers. You spent your whole lifetimes helping to create this class of people. They are the shallow, easily manipulable, unquestioning. permissive, protected, guided to feel what they are supposed to feel but not feel too much, unquestioning robots that you have helped to make them.
God help your masters if the public should start to explore the world like free range chickens and really find out what is going on and explore their feelings without self-censorship, self-repression and prudishness.
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Everything evil in our society from crime to the corporate murder of mom and pop businesses and sweat shop slavery and sex slavery at home and in other countries abroad would would be gone in an instant if the mainstream population simply wanted it to change. Simply, no tolerance is no tolerance.
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That is why the corporate propaganda and mind control is so important... to keep things the same.
And lets not forget to take our paxil folks, that's no small thing the multi-billion dollar lie and the propaganda assistance to help the public give up responsibility for their mental functioning. And how successful they/you have all been in creating a compliant population! Psychotropic drugs are now promoted in prime viewing with the David Letterman show.
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Good work folks!!!!!
That's it folks -- be sure to grok the fullness that is max before he goes and deletes his ravings again!
Good fun! Pass the chicken!
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