# Who's planning to see United 93? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 28, 2006, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588 "2006-04-28T14:02:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588/21 "2006-04-28T16:09:22Z")
A reviewer I listened to yesterday made a good point: this isn’t really a movie for adults to see by themselves but rather with teens and preteens who were too young to understand what was going on at a time. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588/22 "2006-04-28T16:16:51Z")
I consider this unmissable. It’s not Hollywood exploitation; Paul Greengrass is not that kind of filmmaker. And movies can be as deep and artful as literature. The fact that most of them aren’t should not be a knock on the form itself. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588/23 "2006-04-28T16:19:10Z")
[QUOTE=Trunk] It just has that feeling that it’s going to be an important movie. I got choked up watching a trailer for it. When’s the last time you really had a emotional experience at the movie theater? Is that what they’re there for? [/QUOTE] That’s among the things they’re for, yeah. I’m not sure this is the kind of emotional response I want to have at a movie theatre - we’re not talking about something beyond empathy here. Whether the movie is important or not, to go back to something **Ellen Cherry** said in the OP, I don’t think people should feel obliged to see it. ---
**Author:** ![grayhairedmomma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/47e85d/32.png) [@grayhairedmomma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grayhairedmomma)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588/24 "2006-04-28T16:24:36Z")
[QUOTE=Trunk] Every now and then a movie comes along that I think 30 years from now, you’re going to wish you could say, “I saw that at the theater”. If you were alive back when, and had the chance to see “Godfather”, “Jaws”, “Casablanca”, “Lawrence of Arabia”, etc. in a theater, with hundreds of other people, wouldn’t you have done it? If not, then you’re just not a movie fan. My take on it may be completely wrong, but this looks the kind of movie that you don’t want to take the chance that you missed it. [/QUOTE] It’s unsettling to me that you could talk about this like it’s just another movie. Especially to compare it to fictional movies made up out of whole cloth. I’m not going to see it because it’s too emotional. No, I’m not even remotely connected to anyone who died in that attack, but I vividly remember the fear of the first few weeks after. In thirty years I’m not going to be talking about if I saw this movie, I’ll be talking about where I was when Flight 93 crashed. ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588/25 "2006-04-28T16:30:18Z")
I’m too scared to go see it. Even seeing just a second of the trailer is too scary for me. So, no. ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588/26 "2006-04-28T16:32:13Z")
I have no desire to see it for two reasons, one being that I am not yet jaded and cynical about the events of 9/11, so it would just be two rock solid hours of dread and fear to me, especially since it’s real and we all know how it ends. and two is jaded and cynical: I can’t shake the feeling that this is a propaganda film. I mean, it gets you all re-riled up about terrorism and then people leave the theatre screaming “GLASS PARKING LOT” and what do you know, the war is all fine and dandy again. Seems disingenuous. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588/27 "2006-04-28T16:34:41Z")
It would just make me want to blow up a mosque for revenge, and I’m trying to supress those feelings. So I won’t see it. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588/28 "2006-04-28T16:36:13Z")
I lived through 9/11. I was old enough to comprehend what was happening. I’ve followed the news enough to know the facts that have been revealed since. Why would I want to put myself through that again? What could this work of art add to my life? It’s a lose/lose situation. If the movie is ineffective, then it cheapens a real tragedy. If it is effective, then watching it would be akin to an act of mashocism. I’ve yet to hear a single reason why I should watch this film. I’ve seen many, some of them in glowingly positive reviews, why I shouldn’t. Maybe I’ll see it in five years. I’ve yet to see _Schindler’s List_, and the holocaust is a distant historical event for me. I like good, thoughtful movies, but I don’t like movies that hurt me. I don’t need a happy ending, but fictional tragedies are fictional, they’re cathartic. This is too real. ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588/29 "2006-04-28T16:39:25Z")
[QUOTE=Larry Borgia] It would just make me want to blow up a mosque for revenge, and I’m trying to supress those feelings. So I won’t see it. [/QUOTE] Well! I rest my case. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588/30 "2006-04-28T16:44:14Z")
I don’t think anyone has an obligation to see it, and I can understand te reluctance. Many are saying that they won’t see it because it will be too painful. Obviously a perfectly reasonable reaction. Myself, on the other hand, wants to see it for the opposite reason. I want to be uplifted by the stories of self-sacrifice and ordinary people turned heroes. The circumstances were sad and troubling, of course, and hese people paid the ultimate sacrifice. I want to see that, even if it is a fictionalized account. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588/31 "2006-04-28T16:45:54Z")
[QUOTE=grayhairedmomma] It’s unsettling to me that you could talk about this like it’s just another movie. Especially to compare it to fictional movies made up out of whole cloth. [/QUOTE] I’m not, and that’s the point. It’s more than a movie. It’s an artist making an attempt to connect me (us) to the most significant event in ANY of our lives. That’s why it’s important to see. ---
**Author:** ![FlightlessBird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/cdc98d/32.png) [@FlightlessBird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlightlessBird)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588/32 "2006-04-28T16:50:05Z")
I want to see it. However Monday’s episode of _24_ has Jack hijacking an airplane. I think once I see _United 93_ I’m not going to be able to enjoy that show. Whereas if I see it in the other way (_24_ first) I can be ok. I’m wierd… ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588/33 "2006-04-28T16:53:53Z")
[QUOTE=Ellen Cherry] We live it as they lived it. [/QUOTE] We live it as the creators of the movie _imagine_ they lived it. Which isn’t necessarialy a bad thing, I’m just saying that this is a work of historical fiction, and not a documentary. [QUOTE=grayhairedmomma] It’s unsettling to me that you could talk about this like it’s just another movie. Especially to compare it to fictional movies made up out of whole cloth. [/QUOTE] In a similar vein, and just for the sake of pedantry, _Lawrence of Arabia_, one of the examples you’re talking about, was not in fact made up out of whole cloth, but was based upon the autobiographical book written by the main character, T. E. Lawrence. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588/34 "2006-04-28T17:05:23Z")
[QUOTE=tiny ham] Well! I rest my case. [/QUOTE] You can’t get an artistic consensus about anything on the Dope, of course, but in [previous United 93 threads,](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/search.php?searchid=1617533) the Dopers who knew this director’s work were all agreed that he’s not a propagandist at all. On the other hand, you never know how someone’s going to react to a story. [QUOTE=Trunk] It’s more than a movie. It’s an artist making an attempt to connect me (us) to the most significant event in ANY of our lives. That’s why it’s important to see. [/QUOTE] All that without seeing the movie first, **Trunk**? If you feel like you’ll gain something from that - a connection, deeper understanding, whatever it is - then great, I hope you get it and more. In point of fact, since practically everybody here was ‘of age’ on September 11th, this seems more like changing the connections we feel we have, not creating one. (Just an observation, not a criticism.) I suppose that ‘connection’ issue will play a big part in determining whether I see this or not. Do I want my connections on this event renewed and revised by this movie? You’re telling other people it’s “important,” “more than a movie,” and that we need to experience this attempted connection through the artwork, and that sounds like putting the cart before the horse. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588/35 "2006-04-28T17:10:05Z")
Sorry to double post. In case it was unclear, I didn’t mean the “I hope you get it and more” to sound sarcastic. I’m not sure how I feel about this movie being made, but I don’t have a problem with anyone seeing it. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588/36 "2006-04-28T17:20:06Z")
[QUOTE=Trunk] I’m not, and that’s the point. It’s more than a movie. It’s an artist making an attempt to connect me (us) to the most significant event in ANY of our lives. That’s why it’s important to see. [/QUOTE] That’s one good reason. I have another that is far more shallow. One thing I hate about the Oscars is that I never see the movies that end up getting nominated. I never know what to root for. I can almost guarantee that this one will be up for Best Picture and Best Director. Not to mention it may, in the future, be considered one of the most profound films of our age. I don’t want to miss that. It will be an ordeal, but one I’m willing to endure. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588/37 "2006-04-28T17:29:37Z")
As significant as 9/11 was, it may well pale compared to the shitstorm our administration intentionally waded into thereafter. Maybe I’ll see it when the number of dead US soldiers in Iraq passes the number of victims on 9/11. I’m not sure it is possible to discuss this film objectively. Any critic of its timing, production, etc. runs the risk of being accused of “disrespecting the victims.” As I am unable to discuss the event without acknowledgment of its regrettable - and largely predictable and avoidable - aftermath. And I’m sure I sound elitist, but I highly doubt most American viewers of this film will be approaching it with open minds. Whether or not it is intended as propaganda, I suspect it will have the effect of propaganda. Might be more interested in a film addressing the factors contributing to a group of young men committing such a horiffic act. Or perhaps addressing the succeeding factors causing them to have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. ---
**Author:** ![Mal\_Adroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@Mal\_Adroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mal_Adroit)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588/38 "2006-04-28T17:32:09Z")
Definitely want to see it. Kenneth Turan reviewed it for NPR this morning and had basically all good to say about it. Masterful, heart-wrenching, etc. If anything, a bit draining, I guess. I think the only real reservation he had was that there weren’t two or three \*specific \* protagonists to latch onto. But I could imagine that some would find that almost. . . refreshing? Nonformulaic, at least. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588/39 "2006-04-28T17:36:11Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] All that without seeing the movie first, **Trunk**? [/QUOTE] I don’t think that what I said requires an “all that”, or needing to see it. To say that Coppola was trying to get someone to connect to Vietnam without having seen “Apocalypse Now” isn’t too much of a stretch. > [@](#): > > You’re telling other people it’s “important,” “more than a movie,” and that we need to experience this attempted connection through the artwork, and that sounds like putting the cart before the horse. What I’m really getting at is this: since we all go to see movies anyway, and some of us to have an emotional experience. . .THIS movie in particular, appears to have as good a chance as any as doing that. Too soon, some say? I want to be upset, angry, sad, whatever. Maybe this movie won’t deliver on those levels at all. I don’t know. But, I do know one thing for sure: I’m going to see SOMETHING in May, Mission Impossible III sure as shit isn’t going to deliver on that level. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588/40 "2006-04-28T17:54:48Z")
As I said in the original United 93 thread, I don’t plan to see it. It’s just too damned depressing. I watched the 9/11 documentary which was done by a film crew who just happened to be filming at a NYC firehouse on the day of the tragedy, and the footage where you could hear bodies dropping down onto the atrium of the WTC haunts me to this day. I’ve read many accounts of what happened on United 93 and I can imagine their terror, confusion and heart ache. They knew full well that they were going to die. I don’t need someone else’s “vision” to understand what went on. I’m a wife, a daughter, a mother. I get it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-planning-to-see-united-93/354588.md?page=3)