I don't think fictionalized stories or documentaries about 9/11 belong on TV or in movies just yet. Why? Because, except for the people who were there in person, we all watched it live on TV as it was happening, and we all remember it distinctly. We don't need images edited by someone else to manipulate our take on the issue because we all experienced it our own way through images. It's recent enough that we remember the events, the images, our reactions all clearly, so we don't need to sit down with some popcorn and watch someone else's version like it's a movie.
Research on the story behind 9/11, it's background and causes? Perfectly appropriate. Individual stories of victims and survivors? Perfecctly appropriate. Incorporating the fact of 9/11 into contemporary fiction? Perfectly appropriate. Just not in a visual medium, not yet. Give us a book or an article or a website, present the story in text, and let us fill in the blanks with our own images and memories. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm not yet ready to let my own memories of the biggest historical event in my life so far be tainted by a director's vision and actors' faces.
2 comments:
I can definitely understand where you are coming from on this, but I took a chance on the two 9/11 movies put out in theaters ... I thought they were both very well made, but it would hard to call them entertaining .. As for the supposed "docudrama" airing on ABC tonight, there's absolutely no way I would watch that garbage .. for shame, Disney and ABC
I didn't have a chance to see World Trade Center, but I did see United 93. It was about as close to a documentary as you can get, no famous actors, some of the real-life people playing themselves and based on in-flight phone calls from passengers and information from their families. I agree with "reel" that entertaining would be the wrong word. I don't think any of us can ever know what it was like to be on that plane, but I think United 93 gets about as close as possible for a film. If anything, it is a little too real, it brings the emotions of that day back very strongly and I can understand how some people are not ready--may never be ready--for that. But it's very well done, as were a couple of other docudramas I've seen on A & E and Discovery since 2001. I would not paint all of these movies and shows with the same brush, there are differences between them.
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