Too soon?
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“Is it too soon for movies to be released about 9/11?”That’s the headline of a front page story in the St. Joseph News Press. It’s a local story asking whether people can deal with the upcoming release of “Flight 93,” a movie drawn from all the factual info that exists about what happened on September 11 aboard the plane that eventually crash-landed in Pennsylvania. The data for the movie was taken from the plane’s black box recorder, family members’ cell phone calls and whatever else we’ve been able to piece together. The trailer makes it look like the story isn’t embellished — the movie doesn’t feature big stars and a sweeping soundtrack. The story is simply told. And that story is powerful in its simplicity and in its inexorable conclusion … so I would understand anyone saying that they didn’t feel like they would be able to watch it.
But …
… the way people are framing this debate is making me nuts. “Is it too soon for movies to be released about 9/11?”There already was a movie about 9/11. It came out two years ago to rave reviews in the Mainstream Media. It was a cause for celebrity events, got a 23-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, and was expected to win an Oscar. It was released to DVD in an unusually short time (because its creator considered it a vital tool in winning the 2004 election for the Democrats), and HBO and other cable companies have had it on the air for months. It has made its unlovely, spud-like creator into a hero with the Screechy Left. Sooo …
- Was it “too soon” in 2004 to show footage of people crying, running, jumping to their death on 9/11?
- Was it “too soon” in 2004 to show dead and mutilated American casualties from the Iraq war?
- Was it “too soon” in 2004 to accuse the sitting president during wartime of having family ties to Osama bin Laden?
- Was it “too soon” in 2004 to show film of the president receiving the news of the attacks while reading a book to schoolchildren and then mock him for being too shocked to know how to respond for seven minutes? (A moment Osama bin Laden referred to in one of his tapes to the American people, just in case anyone thought that our enemies don’t get news of this valuable propaganda.)
The execrable “Fahrenheit 9/11″ has come and gone to ringing acclaim from the left. No one said it was too soon. Anyone who tried to voice any opposition to the release was derided as not being able to handle the truth.
So is it too soon for these guys to drop the double standard and stop shrieking whenever they have to look at the facts? Is it too soon for them to take one honest look at the enemies that they tell us we need to know better? Is it too soon for them to realize what people of tremendous courage did on one airplane to avert disaster for many others?
Well, if not, I think Christians are making the wrong arguments against the release of “daVinci Code.” Heck, why don’t we say that only 20 centuries or so after the death of the Founder of our Faith, it’s just “too soon?”
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I read that in some theaters where the trailer has been shown, audiences have reacted very negatively, shouting, “Too soon! Too soon!” and such. One NYC theater stopped showing the trailer after audiences reacted very emotionally — and angrily — to it.
Not really a comment pro or con on your entry, just an observation.
That’s the last I had heard as well. And that bothered me at the time. What surprised me was to see a local paper in li’l ole Missouri posing the same question, as if there aren’t a lot of very strong reasons that the movie should have been made.
But I’m starting to think I cranked my gripe-meter up too high. At least for something this close to Pascha.