Posted on 05/07/2006 10:53:29 AM PDT by Ramius
Somebody has bought tickets to “United 93.” The movie about heroism about the doomed Sept. 11 flight grossed $11.6 million in sales and finished second place (to “RV”) when it debuted last weekend.
Directed and written by Paul Greengrass, the docudrama has gotten spectacular critical reviews. But those same reviews tell you why “United 93” poses no box office threat to “Mission: Impossible III.” Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times, for example, called it “masterful and heartbreaking” – but also “deeply disturbing.” Gary Thompson of the Philadelphia Daily News described it as “taut, clinical, almost merciless.”
Audience reaction has been somber, especially in areas directly affected by the Sept. 11 terror attacks. No one expected otherwise.
Weeping has been frequently reported during showings. One New Yorker described “United 93” to the New York Daily News as “just very disturbing.” Her husband said, “I guess it’s a form of shock.” One Long Island woman told Newsday: “During the movie, I heard a lot of sobbing, and when it ended, there was just silence. Almost everyone left with their hands crossed in front of them and their heads bowed down as if it were a wake or funeral.”
For the most part, Americans – including members of this newspaper’s editorial board – haven’t been able to bring themselves to watch a movie that vividly recreates so much of the horror and pathos of Sept. 11. It’s just hard to buy a ticket and board Flight 93 knowing beforehand how the tragedy will end and how skillfully and heartbreakingly Greengrass has no doubt rendered it.
This says something about drama’s almost mystical power over the human psyche. For some elusive reason, a well-told story can be unbearably, painfully, excruciatingly real.
It also says the wounds ripped open in this country by Sept. 11 are a long, long way from being healed. It is too easy to imagine ourselves or our loved ones caught by chance, not so long ago, on one of those doomed flights, in one of the twin towers or in the west side of the Pentagon. Part of the horrifying brilliance of “United 93,” according to reviewers, lies in the very ordinariness of its characters.
When the trauma of that day is further behind us, more Americans will probably embrace this film. But not yet. Not yet.
Like the value of the proposal to strengthen cockpit doors?
Both sides were praying for divine assistance in the task they were about to undertake. Islamic prayers were said by evil people, while the Lord's Prayer was said by those trying to stop them. You did notice that the people saying the Islamic prayers were murderers, didn't you? Or did the film's portrayal of the terrorists as murderers not do enough to show that they were evil?
Your perception of reality is so different from anybody I've ever talked to, I'm not sure there is any point trying.
"Osama will love this movie"... well, why wouldn't he? He loved all of 9/11 and its ghastly events because he planned them. He revels in evil because he is an evil man. So what?
You've so completely missed the point, we may as well be using different languages.
The libs will wait a long time. Until it will be too soon agian.
Osama enjoyed 9/11 and now we've made a recruiting film for him. Forgive me, but that's a very bad thing. We are good and he is evil. That needed to be shown in the movie - not just projected into the movie by American hearts.
If you can't see the evil portrayed in the events, then you never will see evil.
You're simply wrong. By your standard no story could ever be told.
I do see the evil. I'm saying the director recounted events (leaving out the vote) and did not clarify to the audience which side is evil. He wanted to make an international movie that will play to Muslims. He succeeded.
I agree with you insomuch as my own preception of good and evil are concerned.
I guess I feel about this movie as those who bitterly complained about Tora! Tora! Tora!
quoting from http://www.imdb.com re: Tora film:
"The film was considered a flop when it was released in the United States, but was a huge success in Japan."
I doubt those living in Japan in 1970 was cheering about the success of Evil.
Great post.
I'm not sure whether I'd like to watch it in the theatre or wait for DVD. Only because I'm not sure I'd like to be a blubbering mess in public.
:-(
I hope and pray that you are right. :)
Let's put it this way...If you wait to see it on DVD, you won't have the same experience as seeing it on the big screen. It is a singular movie experience you won't get from any other movie. Don't worry about blubbering in public. No one cares, especially all the other people who see the movie...
watching this movie is painful.
however, I'm willing to bet that if a blade had sensation, it would find whetting and polishing a painful event.
I suspect just about any FReeper will understand the gist of the phrase I just used, and that just about no leftists would get it.
That's my point isn't it. The movie makes the passengers and the terrorists equal. So the viewer gets to decide who is good and who is evil.
Pretend that you are Osama and watch the movie - it's stunning (and evil) what the director accomplished.
Flight 93 is not showing in our local theatres, yet our local multiplex is devoting two screens for Tom Cruise's new Mission Impossible movie. Does anyone know how movies get booked into theatres?
I was at a family dinner with the extended clan, and we talked about comedy movies, no other type of movie. I was afraid to ask if anyone had seen Flight 93.
If I'm Osama watching United 93, I'm seeing Americans resist and my plan fail.
Failure is not a recruitment tool.
Terror isn't killing - it is terrorizing.
In Osama Bin Laden's world, United 93 was not a failure. His men terrorized then went to heaven to be greeted by 70 virgins.
This is whacked.
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