Paul Greengrass is a good director and, more importantly for this movie, he’s a fair storyteller. Check out Bloody Sunday, an even-handed treatment of the '72 Derry massacre in Northern Ireland. His one flaw is a penchant for dizzying, sometimes even nauseating, handheld camera shots. They made part of The Bourne Supremacy a bit hard to follow. But that’s a minor flaw and the important thing is that he’ll likely resist the urge to drown the story in cheap sentiment.
I’m not going to see the movie, as I think it would be too upsetting and enraging for my health. But the story’s in good hands.
It’s definitely too soon for me. You need time to gain some emotional distance before coming out with movies such as these. I mean, would they have released a Titanic movie 5 years after the fact?
I didn’t know anyone on that plane, or the others, or in the buildings, but I think it would be too painful to see a movie about the events of that day. (To be honest, I never saw Fahrenheit 9/11 for the same reason.)
This is the same situation I’m in. I was a freshman in high school that day, and my dad was supposed to fly to Japan that morning. And I was absolutely terrified that something was going to happen to him (his flight was grounded, thank God) and my school wouldn’t let me call home. So this movie would just call all of those horrible memories back. And I didn’t even lose anyone I know on 9/11. For those who did, I I’d imagine that this film would be unbareable.
At the same time, it’s a tale of extraordinary heroism that could restore one’s faith in humanity. So if that outweighs the memories, I might see it. But I’m torn at the moment.
The movie does feel too soon to me. That said, I’m surprised about the initial reviews. I’ve been expecting some cheap, manipulative, hastily produced dreck that the studio expects America to eat up.
I just don’t get the appeal. We know exactly how this is going to end. We’ve been hearing the story from hourly, to daily, to weekly, since 9/11. We’re still up to our gills in 9/11 lore, right down to the flight-recorder and 911 transcripts. Aren’t we all a little saturated? We need a feature film just to wallow in bad news in a minute-by-minute basis?
No way am I interested in seeing this. Give me another 20 years, maybe.
FWIW, I saw a trailer for it last night when I went to see American Dreamz.
The trailer featured the director, Paul Greengrass, and the family members of those killed on Flight 93. Obviously sensitive to criticism for exploitation, they went to great length to portray they only made the film after having gone to the families of those killed to ensure that they would support the movie being made. The trailer focussed on Greengrass, segments of family members speaking in support of the movie and intercut with small segments of the movie itself.
Why would you expect that, considering that the families came out months ago in full support of the film, and considering that the filmmaker made the sensitive Bloody Sunday, which you probably didn’t see, but could have read about at any time.
People who live with their heads stuck in the sand about 9/11 probably need to see this movie more than anyone else. It’s a cop-out to whine “It’s toooo sooon” when THE FAMILIES THEMSELVES WANTED THIS MOVIE TO BE MADE AND NOW WANT THIS MOVIE TO BE SHOWN. If the families want me to see this movie, by fucking god I’m going to see it on opening day, so I’ll get their perspective, as filtered through Paul Greengrass, rather than the People magazine-type coverage which is just about all there’s been.
Stay home, you cowards. There are thousands of stories, individual stories that make up 9/11. The pictures we saw on the TV are only one tiny slice of it. I want to see as many stories as possible, to cut through those horrific fiery images and get to the real-life stories of the people who were affected, who were inside those buildings and in those planes.
I’m so sick to death of all this ignorant whining.
I understand that, but I got the feeling Petey was going for more of a conspiracy theory thing. Maybe I’m wrong.
Bottom line for me, I don’t care that they obviously had to dramatize some parts based on known and unknown evidence. The families were VERY involved in the making of the film, they approved the film, and they want us to see it. So I’ll see it.
I’m definitely intrigued by it. At the least, it will be interesting to see a new perspective on things.
As for “too soon”…uh. We are still living this. We are at war as we speak. It’s absurd to say we shouldn’t start thinking about these issues until some unspecified later date when we’ve all put the past behind us. Right now is when our votes count. Right now is when our soilders are on the ground. We are in this for better or for worse. and it’s absurd to think we shouldn’t adress this as a society until god forbid the details won’t make anyone uncomfortable.
I was going to make this point about WWII movies. My dad’s a WWII vet and has had a few relatives and more than half the males in his high school class killed in the war. I’ve never heard him complain about watching WWII movies and they even showed the movies to them when they were still over in Germany/Italy fighting the war.
Flight 93 and 911 happened and are part of our history. Watch it don’t watch, I don’t care just stop the whining and toughen up folks.
What whining? The OP explicitly asked whether we were going to see the movie and whether we thought it was too soon. Some of us attempted to answer the questions.
I was very cynical about this movie, and have posted as such recently, but there are two things that make me less worried about it: first, I saw Bloody Sunday, which was a superb and as-unbiased-as-possible depiction of an appalling incident in British and Irish history, and secondly the trailer, which seems to show a remarkably good film. I hope, emotionally, I have the strength to bring myself to watch it. (And bear in mind that, apart from one survivor, I’m not in any way connected to the victims of 9/11; it just affected me dreadfully.)