9/11
movie crucial despite Hollywood dissent
Krystle Ralston
The Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood last week showed a trailer for
the film “United 93,” which tells the story of the passengers and
crew aboard Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. A few people in the audience actually
yelled at the screen “too soon.” Some even walked out. The theatre
eventually pulled the trailer after receiving so
many complaints.
The question we have to ask ourselves is, are we really ready for a 9/11 film?
This is the first movie to depict the events of that fateful day in September.
Angry responses and tearful reactions are expected to arise. I, however, feel
it is time for the story to be told.
This day is a painful subject for everyone of this country and that pain is magnified
when it comes to the victims’ families and friends. I am not one of these
people, so I could never say I know how they feel.
I did, however, see a clip of interviews attached to the trailer that included
spouses of the men and women who died along with sisters and brothers. They feel
this story should get the credit it deserves. The bravery and courage it must
have taken to come together to overcome a terrorist and lose your life in the
process is something none of us can understand, but by seeing this film, we get
one step closer.
Banning this trailer will not make the movie disappear. True, people who have
chosen to go see another movie will catch a quick look involuntarily, but this
is a film that will illustrate one of the most crucial experiences our country
and much of the world has faced. It is a part of history that deserves to be
shown and even glimpsed by this country’s citizens.
This day changed all of our lives; there is no debate about that. For years we
as a country have worked to protect others and ourselves and when the evening
news would come on and show horrific events across the globe, there was always
the voice in the back of our minds: that could never happen to us. But it did,
and there’s no escaping that.
Showing a simple preview of this movie may seem like it would just cut open old
wounds and hurt those who have tried so long and hard to get over it. I believe
it does not have to be this way.
By witnessing the heroic acts of those 40 passengers it allows us to see the
good in the world today. We can fight back against the evil that attempts to
take over, and even though those people did lose their lives that day, they also
saved many others.
There are countless movies made that show war and suffering around the world,
such as “Schindler’s List” an “Munich.” Our country
should be no exception.
“
United 93” is a film that goes against the bubblegum Hilary Duff movies
and the cheap teen horror flicks that contain the entire cast of the WB. It educates
and lets us see the events from an eyewitness point of view.
They may not be choosing to ban the entire film itself, but by not promoting
it, it will lose many potential moviegoers. It is important to get the word out.
Movies such as this one are essential to paying tribute to those who gave their
lives to save our own.
Krystle Ralston is a senior journalism major and the calendar editor of the Daily
Forty-Niner.
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