Personally, I feel that the current trend in both movies and television shows to digitally remove the WTC from NYC scenes which were filmed before the tragedy of 10-11-01 to cause more harm than good.
I mean, I can understand why they may want to do it, but I just feel more saddened by the lack of a WTC than I would be the sight of them. But maybe it’s just me…
And then again, I guess I could just be really cynical and say that maybe the reason they remove them is to keep the movies and TV shows current. That is, it places them in the here and now rather than in the past, and keeps them from being dated.
I don’t care if they want to edit around WTC shots for new series and such, but they should not go changing old stuff just to be PC. If they’re that worried about it, just don’t air it for a while.
Nooooo. What a horrible thought! Does one rip up pictures of a deceased loved one? Does one erase all memories and movies and momentoes of a thing of the past? How can they call this PC? Personally, I get a chill whenever I see a movie with the WTC in it now. We just saw two movies over the weekend that flashed scenes of the WTC in the New York skyline… hubby and I both said “ouch” at the same time when we seen them, but by no means should they be erased. If anything, we need a reminder of the things we lost. Just my humble opinion though.
After having seen Ben Stiller’s Zoolander, I have to say I kind of understand where they’re coming from. (Note I’m not commenting on the quality of the film.)
I think it has to do less with being “PC” and more to do with focus and good taste, at least in this case. I think the producers felt that irreverant comedy that often borders on poor taste to begin with doesn’t need to be layered on top of literally dozens of images of the WTC (Zoolander has a ludicrous number of establishing shots of the city skyline). It would seem sort of awkward… you’d have Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson running around like idiots in a plot that involves third world countries and an assasination scheme, making jokes about death, and meanwhile half the audience is looking at the WTC and wondering if any of it is really funny. But really, it’s all speculative.
Now, as to whether or not it’s disrespectful or insulting, I’m not going to speculate, as everyone has a different feeling about it. Naturally, the producers are going to roll with the “safest” course of action.
It should also be noted that in the case of this movie, they are deliberately using the setting of “right now” for their timeframe, which is very common. Some movies specifically choose a time and a date for events to take place, but in this case having the WTC present would lock the movie down into sometime prior to Sept. 11, which may dilute the intent of the creators. In any event, it’s not really “messing with history”.
I’m more interested in the first movie that will have to recreate the WTC digitally because they want to have a sequence take place in NYC prior to the attack. What a landmine from a writer’s perspective…
Aside from Zoolander, removing the WTC from movies is a stunningly bad idea. Do movie-makers believe that if we don’t see something we’ll just forget? and they think we should “just forget”?
The towers will be taken out of movies about to be released. Okay.
Episodes of Law and Order and Seinfield are being carefully watched for references to them.
Okay.
The rear set for Conan O’Brian suddenly had a curtain placed to hide the towers.
Okay.
The last two episodes of Ken Burns “New York” carries the disclaimer that the documentary was shot before September 11, 2001…to explain why they appear.
Ummmm.
Now I read that the syndicators of “Mad About You” are trying to see if they can remove the WTC from the opening sequence of the reruns.
Wait a minute!
Are we starting to treat the towers like pictures of you-know-who in Germany?
The structures were very much a part of our history.
