Early United 93 Review

Wells has this funny tendency to decide well in advance that he's going to like or dislike a movie and then NOTHING can get him off of that initial feeling. He must be really tough to shake in log-rolling competitions as well. Just like Munich was never going to be good for him, United 93 was never going to be bad. Similarly, if he suddenly magically falls in love with the Oliver Stone 9/11 movie, I'd be stunned because he's been skeptical about it from day one. It's like he's afraid to admit when his first impressions are wrong. Or, possibly, he has the most perfect first impressions EVER.

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Heh. You're not a coward. :)

"Just like Munich was never going to be good for him, United 93 was never going to be bad." This hits the nail on the head. Jeff has me intrigued about this movie, but it's going to be box office poison unless they figure out how to fix the reactions to that trailer.

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I don't know if these people making movies about 9/11 & making a profit from it realize what they have done to me and the families that lost someone that day! Yes it's too soon & I don't think that anyone should make money dipicting the most tragic day in history! My older brother was on the 105th floor of tower one that morning. He was only 40 yrs old & had three young children, one which was only a tiny baby.

I not only lost my brother but was in the city that day & am so sick of people who expect us to move on when they keep putting the images on tv, in the newspapers & in the movies. Is it necessary for the NY Times to put a picture on the front page of everyone hanging out of the smokey windows moments before they were going to die? We KNOW WHAT HAPPENED & I can't go to sleep without having a nightmare about what happened that dreadful day. So, I don't need Hollywood to dramatize my brother's death over and over and over again.

These people do NOT realize that every time they show that burning tower that it feels like my brother is alive and suffering in the tower again. It's like they keep clicking the "rewind" button to retraumatize all of us. To make me feel the sheer terror of the way I felt that morning. How I wished I could get my brother out of that building & how I have survivors guilt. Hollywood does not understand how much work it has been to recover from that day.

The worst part of it all, I think, is the children who lost their parents that day. Don't they realize what they are doing to these kids? Everyone I know that lost someone on 9/11 has been completely re-traumatized this month because of the release of the tapes & the movies. Why can't people have more compassion? The terrorists already caused so much evil & trauma for us all. Does Hollywood have to add to that evil by trying to make money off of these movies? If they were giving the profits to the American Red Cross or something 9/11 related, that would (at least) make a little sense.

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I too have a hard time with this movie. Do I think it is too soon? Yes. Other than Pearl Harbor, is there another movie about that day? And if so, when was it released?

I understand that some of the most tragic things in history make for good stories. Mainly because so many people remember so many details. But damn, this movie is just about 10 years to early in my opinion. I have seen the trailer for it 3 times and all 3 times I wince when they show actual footage from that day. I know this is a movie I WON'T be seeing, because I am actually offended by it (very hard thing to do since I have seen pretty much anything and everything online)

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I am not a New Yorker, but I too believe these 9/11 movies have been rushed.

There are still many unanswered questions about the events on 9/11 that our government has not been forthcoming with. As Wells also talks about the post 9/11 panel called "Making Movies That Matter: The Role of Film in the National Debate", its unfortunate that the panel seemed to ignore the fact that movies based on actual events essentially serve to re-write history for a large majority of the populace.

Paul Greengrass is a fantastic director - but the whole UNITED 93 project was taken on without reverence to alternative angles on the events which transpired on 9/11.

THERE ARE SO MANY UNKNOWN VARIABLES AS TO WHAT HAPPENED ON THAT PLANE! It seems quite audacious to me that a group of filmmakers would simply fill-in-the-blanks as best they see fit as to form a dramatic 3 act structure. Who in their right mind can feel comfortable with recreating half-truths and passing them off as pure fact. The simple making of UNITED 93 is irresponsible filmmaking on it's highest level.

The whole premise of this movie makes me sick. The simple fact is that this movie will enter the conscious collective thought as a recreation of history - and for so much of our country - it will become the absolute closing chapter on what happened that day.

I can't handle farce on any level, and I'm not talking about conspiracy theories. If you need help with where I'm coming from, please take an hour and half out of your day and watch this intelligent and passionate documentary directed by a humble 22 year old kid.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5137581991288263801&q=loose+change

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"Other than Pearl Harbor, is there another movie about that day? And if so, when was it released?"

Ever Heard of "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (1970)?

With all due respect to the "families", 9/11 was not a regular crime in which only the victims and their loved ones were affected. This was an attack against the country, we are all involved. We have right to deal with the emotions brought on by the attack in our own way.

As for being a coward, I do agree that many people have a reaction towards 9/11 that reminds me of a child asking daddy to remove the scary pictures that so upsets them. If you refuse to look at the visceral images of the horror your memory fades, your outrage fades and you forget. Maybe not the families but the rest of all of us run the risk of forgetting and finally belittling the atrocities committed on that day. I for one would find it disrespectful to clean and pretify my memory of that day just with a still polished granite and gentle flowing water memorial.

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From what I hear, the families of those on board the plane (United 93) all agreed to the making and distribution of this movie, and 10% of the first weekend's gross is being donated to a memorial (see http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2006/03/31/flight93-movie.html). I live in Maine, and didn't lose anybody close to me that day, so I can't imagine what it must be like for some of you who did, but I can say that if the families of those who died on this flight are okay with the film, what right do the rest of us have to dispute that? Is it too soon? Who knows - for some people, a hundred years from now is too soon.

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Jeffrey Wells responding to Martha Fischer's comment that "honestly, I don't know that I'll ever be able to see it -- but then I'm just a 'coward,' right, Jeff?" Sorry to be the bearer but yeah...you kind of ARE that, Martha. No offense and all but yes, I feel that you are definitely a run-and-hider. I respect the fact that there are thousands of like-minded souls in your boat (or do I mean "arc"), and it's okay if you want to turn your head and push those memories away and "move on," as it were. I sound like I'm being facetious but I'm trying not to be ...seriously, to each his own. I just happen to think you're basically being babies about this. I really do feel this because I feel that I know whereof I speak. I used to be terrified of looking at an illustration of a certain big beaver in a kid's book when I was four or five years old, and my mother never threw that book out -- she kept it in a bottom bureau drawer and it always unnerved me, knowing it was there. I knew I NEVER wanted to look at that awful scary beaver again...never! Now, who knows? Maybe if all the courageous, strong-in-their-heart Americans like yourself join hands and resolve that while 9/11 happened, the can also resolve not to think about it, and if they keep doing that then maybe the RESIDUE of 9/11 will eventually go away altogether and then...well, I guess if goes away permanently then 9/11 never really happened, right? I mean, it "happened" but if enough babies join hands and resolve that they don't want to think about it or reconsider it or remind themselves what it was like or, God forbid (please....no!.... NO!) consider the historical-geopolitical reasons why it might have happened in the first place (you know...like those pesky nabobs Naom Chomsky and Gore Vidal have?), then it's kind of like saying that if we all really believe in fairies then maybe Tinkerbell can be brought back to life. I don't mean to upset you, seriously...go ahead, ignore "United 93," it's fine.....but it really is a totally pro-level, respectful AND respectable film about what definitely happened, and what might have happened, and perhaps what should have happened. Oh, and that guy who said I decide in advance how I'm going to respond to a film is, due respect, full of shit. I went into "Munich" muttering a quiet little prayer, "Please, please God...I want this film to be good," and it was okay, decent, not bad...and then came the third act and it pretty much imploded. And it didn't improve upon a second viewing. Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center" will be what it'll be, but everythign that's been said by Stone or Shambverg or Sher or Paramount has conveyed that above all other things, they don't want anhyone to get any ideas that this is anything but a tribute to brave men who were buried under the rubble. These people seem to be quaking in their socks out of fear that Americans might not want to see this film, and that is not the ideal frame of mind to make a movie from. I'd like to see it disproved, but my gut tells em they're WAY too nervous to make a really profound film about this subject. It may be pretty good...I trust that Stone is a good-enough craftsman to do it justice...but I have my concerns.

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Jeff,

Glad to see you responded. Do you agree that Universal does have a problem child on their hands, content quality bedamned? You've quoted the polls indicating audience responses on your site, how in the world do you fix the early bad press. It's not like they can trod out a celeb to fix the bad vibes, because there are no celebs involved. And how much can you bring the victims' families out before the other side of the fence (the families against the film) rallies against them?

I think Universal should just trash "trailer" and either craft one from the featurette they released or just stick with the teaser campaign.

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There seems to be two debates going on here: 1. if 9/11 movies should be made and 2. about United 93 in specific.

I lost my fiancee that day in those Towers. I am also a writer, who since that day up until about a month ago has not written a word, because I knew that the only story I now need to tell is that one. Until I write about it, I will not be able to write anything else, and I have just not been ready to open all that up again.

To ALEX, above, I am so very sorry for your loss, and I understand. this is a song that will play in our heads for the rest of our lives, sometimes it will be soft and low and sometimes it will be deafeningly loud. Right now, again, the volume has been turned way up, and if you are anything like me you're kind of sick of it being so loud for so very long. Not only do you have to deal with the pain of the actual loss, but the pain of the way in which you've lost, the sharing of it all with 240 million other people (99% of which did not have a personal loss/connection) and the judgement from others as well as yourself that it's been almost five years now, time to move on and forward. That's a lot of crap to deal with, and, again, if you are like me, it's a daily dealing with that crap.

Now to the debate.
As an artist I believe that film should provide some sort of cathartic experience, and with that in mind I think it is important that we have films about 9/11. It is an event that has effected, and infected, our whole nation, changed our direction, and pushed us all down a different road-- not one that I am personally happy with, but that's for a different response. I think alot of us are confused by the world of right now, and I think that film has the ability to help ease that confusion (not that it is usually used to do so, but it does have the Ability to do it). So I, personally, would like to have 10 9/11 films made by the 'machine' in order to have the 2-3 that might have a tremendous effect on us all.

Now to point 2.

I do not think Mr. Greengrass is a "brilliant" director as someone above stated. Bloody Sunday was a really, really good film... the "Bourne" thing was shite (In MY opinion). So for me the jury is still out on him as a good director--- really depends on which way he wants to go... The trailer for United 93 has filled me with doubts as to which way he is choosing to go. The first trailer was just various dialogue over an air traffic controller screen, the second one showed us the people. In both versions I got a woman talking into the air phone, calmly saying "Honey, we've been hijacked" as if she was telling him not to forget to pick up an extra bag of kitty litter on his way home... This offends me, and it has absolutely NOTHING to do with 9/11, but more to the "hollywood-izing" of truth in any given moment.

Now granted, judging a whole film by a 2 minute trailer is a HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE thing. We have all seen great trailers and the movie stank, and visa versa. All I am saying is that what I saw created strong resevations on my part of seeing the film, because I don't want to see a watered down version of emotions/truth... Don't pull your punch because it's gonna be too tough, too hard for your audience to bear. I am really tired of that cheat in Hollywood movies, and this subject matter is too close to the bone for me.

After reading Mr. Wells piece, my thought is maybe the film they should have made was one in which we see the story of all the people in supporting areas trying to figure out what is going on, the confusion, the frustration, the helplessness, and we should have stayed out of the plane itself... who knows?

Will I see the film: yes. Should it have been made:YES. Will I like it: ?????

But hopefully the ball is rolling and someday a film will be made that is truely helpful to the people like Alex and myself.

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Fahrenheit 9/11 apparently wasn't too early for a lot of folks, I'll take this anyday. And no disrespect to anyone who lost someone, but if anything, I think it's been too long since we saw this stuff. I think it's important to remember, and to people relatively unaffected by loss, this should serve as a reminder of what some people want to do to us.

And for those for whom it is too early, one sweet technique is to skip the film.

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Great movie. They should play this movie on a loop to remind people why we are at war today. My, how people forget. Its a shame.

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