Popular culture representations of the WTC

[pldennison]

I hope this thread is not considered in poor taste -- it certainly is not my intention for it to be so, but if it is, or there is a feeling that it is, then mods, please close it.

I am having a lot of trouble conceiving of the fact that the WTC towers are simply gone. They don't exist any more. I can't wrap my mind around that idea. I've only been to NYC once in my life, in 1979, so I wasn't used to seeing them every day; but I still can't deal with the thought.

I was thinking last night of how ubiquitous the towers are in our cultural representations of NYC, especially in entertainment. Perhaps even more than the Empire State Building, thoughts of the Manhattan skyline seem to be dominated by the towers. So many movies that take place in NYC contains a helicopter shot flying in over the southern end of Manhattan, so the WTC is one of the first things you see.

What will these movies and TV shows look like to us in the future? Think about the remake of "King Kong," the tidal wave scene in "Deep Impact," and other movies where they plan an important role. I couldn't help thinking that we may never again see the "Simpsons" episode, "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson," where the towers play such an important comedic role.

It just is too strange for me to think aboutclearly.

[Kamandi]

I rented "The Matrix" last night to get away from the news coverage. Mrs K got to drool over Keanau, I got to drool over Carrie-Ann Moss. Everybody's happy. A very short scene showed the destroyed New York skyline of the "real world". There were the World Trade Center towers, half knocked down. Kinda creepy.

[gobear]

Godzilla, the new one, knocked them down, I believe.

[mobo85]

The outline of the New York City skyline appears in many places, including the logo of the New York Mets and New York's state license plate.

[TheeGrumpy]

Don't expect to see "Fight Club" on TV anytime soon. Or ever. Given the skyscraper demolition finale.

I understand Schwarzenegger's new flick could be shelved for a while, due to its reference to a bomb on a skyscraper.

And the trailer for the new Spider-Man movie has been pulled, as it also features images of the twin towers.

[Atreyu]

Note: potential spoiler for A.I.!



IIRC, in the movie A.I., the characters of David and Gigolo Joe travel to Manhattan. They pass by a submerged Statute of Liberty (only the torch is sticking out above the waterline), and in the background, the partially submerged twin towers of the World Trade Center can be seen.

[ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness]

Even if the show hadn't been cancelled, I'm sure we will never, ever see a rerun of the premiere episode of The X Files spinoff The Lone Gunmen. If you missed it, the premise involved a plot to seize control of a commercial passenger jet and crash it into the World Trade Center. This is one coincidence that really, truly freaks me out.

[RealityChuck]

As a correction, the NY Mets logo does not have the WTC on it, since it predates the building. A list of buildings is given on the NY Mets History timeline (on their website) for November 16, 1961.

[Manda JO]

I have to admit, I had one of those "stupid-things-flashing-through-your head-in-a-momment-of-tragedy" things when I first heard the news. As the rest of my brain scrambled to absorb the full impact, the quicker, more efficent pop-culture section thought: "what will they do about the Spiderman movie?"

(For those that missed it, the KEY image in the trailer is of a giant spider web between the two towers, with a heliocopter caught up in it.)

[Badtz Maru]

Check out the album cover for this group.

[Otto]

"Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego" features an animated tableau of the NYC skyline including the towers. The episode I watched this morning (not having watched the show in years) included a film shot of the twin towers in one of the geography lesson vignettes.

[Tretiak]

Not to mention the openings of the Late Show with David Letterman and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart prominently feature NYC and the WTC. I think the WTC are even in the background on Dave's set.

[gobear]

In the movie, Godspell, the song, "It's All For The Best," is performed on top of one of the WTC towers. IIRC, in the movie version of The Wiz, there's a scene set in the WTC as well.

[Peta Tzunami]

Originally posted by Badtz Maru
Check out the album cover for this group.

Just a note: Hip-Hop Group Yanks Album Cover Depicting WTC Blast, Sept 13th.

Please go on...

[Miss Mapp]

Originally posted by gobear:
IIRC, in the movie version of The Wiz, there's a scene set in the WTC as well.

There is a scene in The Wiz. The WTC is The Emerald City.

Driving home on Tuesday and listening to the news reports on the radio about the towers collapsing, I (oddly, considering the situation) thought of The Wiz and also the remake of King Kong--I suppose because I saw these movies as a child and one or the other was the first time I remember seeing the WTC.

[rjung]

Sony Pictures has pulled the trailer and teaser posters for the new Spider-Man movie because the towers appear in them. I think they'll edit the final film to omit the towers.

[jab1]

According to a story in today's USA Today, the Spider-Man bank-robbing sequence was in the trailer only and does not appear in the movie.

...any appearance of the buildings will be cut or digitally erased from the final film.

The article tells about how this will affect other movies.

[Mr. Blue Sky]

Originally posted by ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness
Even if the show hadn't been cancelled, I'm sure we will never, ever see a rerun of the premiere episode of The X Files spinoff The Lone Gunmen. If you missed it, the premise involved a plot to seize control of a commercial passenger jet and crash it into the World Trade Center. This is one coincidence that really, truly freaks me out.

I watched this one again, having forgotten about it until now. Someone has taken radio control of a jet and intends on crashing it into one of the towers. In fact it heads approximately towards the area where the second tower was hit. At the last second, the pilots regain control and miss the tower, only scraping an antenna. A pity life couldn't imitate art this time.

[Otto]

What exactly is the point of recutting or digitally editing completed films to remove images of the WTC? Other than, of course, allowing filmmakers to score phony sensitivity points? Are we going to have a new TV rating box or something, "WTC--warning, the following movie may contain images of the World Trade Center"?

[Green Fool]

Well Gee Otto, I don't know, maybe to- well, perhaps it might- it would be possible- WE WON'T NEED TO BE REMINDED OF IT EVERY TIME WE GO TO THE CINERAMA TO ESCAPE FROM THE EVENTS OF OUR DAILY LIVES! There's a time for stepping back and being aware. That time is now, that time is for until we are ready as a country. These are movies and tv shows about to be released in a month or two when wounds are just begining to heal for some people.
If it involved just regular people, we would call it tact.
Should hollywood be above or beyond tact?

[wayward]

Godzilla (the new one), Independance Day and Deep Impact to name just a few show massive destruction in NYC, often involving the WTC. Are they likely to be shown on TV any time in the forseeable future? I can't imagine any movies of a similar theme being made either. Film-makiing will be changed forever.
Obviously things like this are trivial compared to the thousands of lives lost, and I don't want people to think I'm shallow for pointing it out but this one example of the incredible number of side-effects of this tragedy. Truly, this has changed the world.

[Why A Duck]

While not directly involving the WTC, I'm going to have a tough time ever watching Die Hard again. Terrorists. Skyscrapers. Explosions. Fire.

[RealityChuck]

Godzilla (the new one), Independance Day and Deep Impact to name just a few show massive destruction in NYC, often involving the WTC. Are they likely to be shown on TV any time in the forseeable future?

"Independence Day" was scheduled for broadcast on Fox this Sunday, coincidentally. It's been pulled and replaced by "Mrs. Doubtfire."

What exactly is the point of recutting or digitally editing completed films to remove images of the WTC? Other than, of course, allowing filmmakers to score phony sensitivity points?

There's a purely practical reason to remove WTC scenes from theaters. Audiences will refuse to watch any movie that features them.

[Otto]

Personally, knowing that the towers had been in a movie or TV show but had been digitally removed would tend to make me more aware of their absence and the reason for it, not less. I'm able to watch movies and TV shows featuring people who are now dead and places which no longer exist without automatically dwelling on the dead and the gone. I'm not suggesting that particularly sensitive representations be delayed (the Spider-Man trailer, for example, although I hope they put it on the DVD since it is an historical artifact). But really, to go back through the movie to digitize out flashes of the WTC in the background? So when it's rebuilt, will they go through it again and add whatever's built back in?

[Southpaw]

Originally posted by RealityChuck
There's a purely practical reason to remove WTC scenes from theaters. Audiences will refuse to watch any movie that features them.

What about older movies? Like some of them mentioned on this thread? Should they be altered before being broadcast on TV, or should they not be aired again at all?

My feelings are conflicted. While I have no problem with what Hollywood is doing (pulling the Spider-Man trailer, delaying the release of some movies), I don't think that all references to the towers should be eliminated from film and TV. There will always be people who will be affected by just a picture of the WTC, but how far should we go?

[MovieMogul]

pcubed says: While not directly involving the WTC, I'm going to have a tough time ever watching Die Hard again. Terrorists. Skyscrapers. Explosions. Fire.

You forgot people falling to their deaths. <shiver>

And how about the other two?
DH2: Hijacked planes, airports evacuating, innocent passengers crashing into the ground.
DH3: NYC financial district in chaos, schools evacuating, explosions, buried gold. Don't remember if the WTC appears though.

Interesting that Middle Easterners aren't the "bad guys" in any of these films.

[RealityChuck]

What about older movies? Like some of them mentioned on this thread? Should they be altered before being broadcast on TV, or should they not be aired again at all?

They'll probably just keep them off the air for awhile.

Eventually, once the pain has receeded, they'll put them back on. That could be many years.

It's hardly worth the effort to make alterations. Take the remake of King Kong. You'd have to have him floating on air. Besides, they should just show the original, anyway.

[jab1]

Originally posted by RealityChuck
Take the remake of King Kong. You'd have to have him floating on air. Besides, they should just show the original, anyway.

TNT was going to show King Kong Saturday morning from 6AM to 9AM. They're going to show Papillon instead.

For some reason, they have re-scheduled Superman as well. The WTC is visible in some shots, but it's not a big part of the movie like it is in Kong. Maybe it's because Lex Luthor was a terrorist?

[pldennison]

Originally posted by RealityChuck
Take the remake of King Kong. You'd have to have him floating on air.

You have to admit, that would be one bad-ass King Kong.

[Tenebras]

I personally think it's a little bit silly to go back and remove the buildings from backgrounds. they didn't have to edit Honey, <i>I Blew Up the Baby</i> when the Vegas landscape changed. Ok, stupid example, but it's the same idea. How sensitive are we? You might as well say that any movie involving the financial district should never be shown on TV again, because it will remind us that it's not the same anymore.

On a similar note, I read the other day that producers were removing shots of the towers from episodes of Friends, which is basically the epitomy of unreality to begin with. They live in pretend New York, not real New York. I'm not an avid watcher of the show, but I'm pretty sure they didn't do an episode where everybody sits around going "Hey, I wonder how this whole election thing will turn out..." and I don't think that it's necessary to alter background shots. Does anybody really think that seeing a digitally altered version of the skyline without towers will make them feel better or worse? It's TV!

Also, with regard to various movie plots being verboten in the future, I would like to point out that Pearl Harbor, to which this event has been described, has had several movies made about it, as well as every war the United States has been in (having trouble with 1812.. anybody?) and some we weren't. Also, airplanes in real life get hijacked or bombed, but we watched movies about that. People get murdered, and we watched movies about that. Natural phenomena happen that destroy cities, towns, and the lives of people within, and we watched movies about that, too.

To sum up, I don't think that this will fundamentally change the business or art of moviemaking, nor do I think that it should.

Tenebras

[Tenebras]

Aha, found one for the War of 1812. The Buccannear starring Anthony Quinn and Yul Brynner. Apparently it wasn't all that great. But anyway.

[jab1]

Let me sum up how I feel about this: If the movie or TV show was released or aired before 9-11-01, then it should not be altered. If it was aired or released after that date (like Spider-Man will be), then any images of the WTC should be removed for historical accuracy, if nothing else. (I realize it's odd to refer to historical accuracy in a movie like Spider-Man, but since it is set in the present day, it would feel weird to see the WTC in it.)

I'm also willing to bet that the attack will be part of TV series like NYPD Blue, Law & Order and especially Third Watch, since it's about NY cops, paramedics and firefighters. They may devote more than one episode to it, maybe even kill off a regular character in the disaster.

They may even mention it on Everybody Loves Raymond. since Raymond's brother is NYPD. Maybe they'll put him at the scene, have everyone in the family worried sick about him, etc...

Then there's Becker, with Ted Danson as a cranky NY doctor. They may have him provide first aid and show his dedication and that he's really a softie.

As for Friends, I thought maybe some character might absently suggest they go to the WTC for dinner or something and have someone gently remind him or her that they can't.

Mind you, I am not exactly looking forward to this kind of exploitation, but you know SOMEONE will do it.

OTOH, one of the best episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati dealt with The Who's concert where dozens of people were trampled to death trying to get into the concert hall. It began with the usual shenanigans leading up to everyone going to the show, then the second half of the episode dealt with everyone's anger and sadness over the tragedy. Arthur Carlson felt guilt since his station had promoted the concert. It was tastefully handled, so it IS possible to do an episode like this right.

And let's not forget Frasier. Their executive producer, David Angell, and his wife were on one of the planes, so I bet they'll dedicate the whole season to them.

[TheeGrumpy]

Originally posted by Southpaw
What about older movies? Like some of them mentioned on this thread? Should they be altered before being broadcast on TV, or should they not be aired again at all?

Give the nation some time to adjust -- but don't mutilate movies out of misplaced sympathy. The WTC should not be (and won't be) deleted from scenes like some Orwellian revision spree. It would be just as absurd to say that pre-1970 movies should be airbrushed to include the WTC which did not yet exist.

I will have no problem enjoying Escape from New York with its prominent inclusion of the WTC. It was natural at the time, just as it was natural at the time of pre-1970 movies to make no reference to the absence of the buildings.

A.I. will have a plot problem, however, because of its unfortunate anachronism. Unless the movie is saying that exact replicas of the twin towers will be rebuilt.

posted by jab1:
I'm also willing to bet that the attack will be part of TV series like NYPD Blue, Law & Order and especially Third Watch... Mind you, I am not exactly looking forward to this kind of exploitation, but you know SOMEONE will do it.

I wouldn't mind so much, especially if it's done like the WKRP episode, which is a good example. Plus, it would add to the illusion that all these shows (mostly filmed in L.A.) take place in the same New York at the same time (like NBC's goofy power outage Thursday, which Seinfeld refused to participate in). Incidentally, I read that the Third Watch crew is loaning their prop trucks to the recovery effort. True story.

[kanicbird]

WE WON'T NEED TO BE REMINDED OF IT EVERY TIME WE GO TO THE CINERAMA TO ESCAPE FROM THE EVENTS OF OUR DAILY LIVES!

can we really afford to forget