My Flight from Flight 93
My wife wants to go see United 93. I do not. She’s okay with this, but I hate it that she’s not going because of me. If anyone out there want to take her, I’ll thank you and pay your way.
For those of you that have been living in a cave since 2001, United 93 is the new movie/docudrama based upon the events of United Flight 93. This plane, along with its passengers and crew, met its end in a Pennsylvania field during the horrific events of September 11, 2001.
Everything I’ve heard about the movie speaks to its accuracy and sensitivity. No “name” stars are on board for the production, as the filmmakers felt that famous stars would distract from the events themselves. Many of the characters, such as the air controllers, are played by the actual people that were involved in the events of that day. Although most of the on-board events are mainly conjecture, the character profiles were built with the consent and assistance of family members, so this may be the closest we’ll ever get to what actually happened.
So why do I not want to go? I could cop out and say, “It’s too soon” or “I don’t think it’s appropriate to entertain from tragedy” and I would be partly right. However, these simple pat answers fail when I really think about them. I’m always complaining that we, as a country, dwell too long and hard on our tragedies, so “it’s too soon” would make me a hypocrite. Likewise, I like watching movies about past disasters, like Titanic and Gettysburg, so I clearly don’t have a problem with dramatizing tragedy.
If I dig down really deep, I’ll admit that I’m afraid to go.
I’m one of those people that really, really gets into his movies. I get a cathartic thrill from stepping into the shoes of Indiana Jones or James Bond. In The Sixth Sense, I’m cowering in the dark with Haley Joel Osment as he attempts to communicate with one of the ghosts that have been haunting him. I’m laughing out loud along with Robin Williams as he re-learns to fly in Hook.
Because of this, I tend to “buy in” to movies wholesale. I willingly suspend disbelief and go along for the ride, head first.
I know that the Titanic met its end on the point of an iceberg, but while I watch the movie, I forget all of that. In that fateful scene where the pilot frantically backed the engines and turned the wheel, something in me was hoping that the ship would miss the iceberg. In fact, I was grabbing my seat and frantically pulling to the left (excuse me, the port) hoping I could somehow influence the ship’s course. When the ship hit the iceberg, part of me was not surprised. The rest of me was bitterly surprised and disappointed.
I knew that Pickett’s Charge failed at the Battle of Gettysberg, and yet I tensely awaiting the outcome of that same charge on the silver screen, hoping that those brave soldiers would beat the odds, survive the hellish hail of musket balls and cannon fire and emerge victorious (and I don’t even like the Confederacy!) When the charge failed, I felt the pain of defeat like it happened yesterday.
I’m afraid that something like that will happen in United 93. I’ll be hoping that the hijackers get caught at the gate. That the planes on their way to New York and Washington will miss their targets. That those passengers will make it through the cockpit door, and that they’ll land the plane in one piece.
But I know this ending all too well, and not from a history book. Like many of my countrymen, I lived September 11 as it happened. It’s over and done, we buried our dead, healed our living, and exacted our revenge on those that dared to make it happen. I don’t think I could stand to play “what if” with this particular event.
“It’s too soon” doesn’t really cover it. Maybe I should say, “It will always be too soon.”
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I agree, Joe. This is real life here, and we all know how the story ends. My thought is that their memories should be left alone, inviolable. However, since the movie has been made, I choose not to go see it, have no desire to see it. That way, my memories and opinions are unchanged.
To each his own, though, and if Stacey wants to go see it, more power to her. I hope she gets to go, and it’s all she wants it to be.
Count me out too.
I too don’t care to see it, though Anthony wants to. I was at work when Sept 11th happened. We were getting word from American about our planes being involved before it even hit the news. It was all “too close to home” of a day for me. Then, to work the next three days after in total silence. No planes coming in or out at a major airport.
Anthony views the movie differently, though. He looks at it as a tribute to those people, which it really is, I guess. The violence alone would keep me from letting him see it, though.
I wonder if part of it is our cultural addiction to happy endings; when you go into a theater you’re conditioned to expect the plot line to all work out in the end. The boy always gets the girl and the bad guys are always foiled in the end, no matter how tense it gets in the middle. This one won’t be that way, but our gut reaction is to expect it to be.
Even with “Tora Tora Tora” (another depressing ending) at least the audience knew the real, victorious ending that came four years after those events. Our victory this time hasn’t been so clear cut, to the extent that not everyone believes in it. Maybe that’s why I want to see the movie, I’m one of those who sees us as the winners in this war.
Personally, I think that the bravery that those passengers showed by stepping out of trying to survive and achieve something important is the part that makes many people uncomfortable. Most of us are afraid that we would not embrace certain death to save others we have never met. I will see it, but not because I think I’m brave. I’m not. But I do wish to applause those who are as brave as I wish I were.
I came here via a link from Mr. Completely.
I plan on seeing the film, but could not put into words precisely why I feel a need to see it. George Will wrote those words for his Sunday column:
“Going to see ‘United 93′ is a civic duty because Samuel Johnson was right: People more often need to be reminded than informed. After an astonishing 56 months without a second terrorist attack, this nation perhaps has become dangerously immune to astonishment. The movie may quicken our appreciation of the measures and successes — many of which must remain secret — that have kept would-be killers at bay.
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“The message of the movie is: We are all potential soldiers. And we all may be, at any moment, at the war’s front, because in this war the front can be anywhere.
“The hinge on which the movie turns are 13 words that a passenger speaks, without histrionics, as he and others prepare to rush the cockpit, shortly before the plane plunges into a Pennsylvania field. The words are: ‘No one is going to help us. We’ve got to do it ourselves.’ Those words not only summarize this nation’s situation in today’s war but also express a citizen’s general responsibilities in a free society.”
On Sept. 11, 2001, those people stood up and took responsibility for their own lives in defense of their society. I don’t think they did so in the belief that their deaths were certain, but they knew not doing so would be fatal.
We, as a nation, need to be reminded of the fact that we are the ones responsible for our own protection, however comfortable and safe our lives seem to be.
Thanks for the comment, Kevin. I’ll agree that there are lessons to be learned from the incident, and that the sacrifice must never be forgotten.
Whether or not this specific movie serves that purpose is an individual decision. Personally, I have trouble drawing a line between drama and entertainment, so obviously the movie medium doesn’t work so well for me in this particular case. Your mileage may vary.