Flight 93: Do we care?
On April 28th, Universal Pictures will release Flight 93, a feature film about the overtaking of one of the airplanes that terrorists had turned into a weapon on September 11, 2001. The trailer can be seen at Apple.com.
Are we ready for this?
From the movie’s official web site: “As 2006 marks the passing of five years since the epochal events of 9/11, the time has come for contemporary cinema’s leading filmmakers to dramatically investigate the events of that day, its causes and consequences, and the everyday individuals whose fates were forever altered while simply going about their common workday rituals.”
Five years. It doesn’t seem like five years. In those five years America has faced one of the worst hurricanes in recent history, the death of a pope, controversy over war, and one of the closest presidential elections faced by the country. In A Heart, A Cross, and a Flag, Peggy Noonan recognizes that dichotomy: the tense, alert America versus the indifferent, busy-bodied America. We have fallen into the latter, and the seriousness of the situation has flown into the steel ashes.
The question is not Are we ready? but rather Do we care?
On Sept. 11, 2002, Noonan wrote that one day we will “put the memories away, pack them away in a box with a pair of old gloves, and a citation and a badge, and some clippings and pictures,” but before we do, we must remember what happened on that day.
Hopefully, Flight 93 won’t glorify any ominous burning towers. Hopefully, the movie will venerate the bravery and valor of the Americans on board that flight. Hopefully, we will watch it and realize the true historical value of that day, and what we are doing to stop it from happening again.
And hopefully, as overused and cliché as it might sound, we will never forget.
Are we ready for this?
From the movie’s official web site: “As 2006 marks the passing of five years since the epochal events of 9/11, the time has come for contemporary cinema’s leading filmmakers to dramatically investigate the events of that day, its causes and consequences, and the everyday individuals whose fates were forever altered while simply going about their common workday rituals.”
Five years. It doesn’t seem like five years. In those five years America has faced one of the worst hurricanes in recent history, the death of a pope, controversy over war, and one of the closest presidential elections faced by the country. In A Heart, A Cross, and a Flag, Peggy Noonan recognizes that dichotomy: the tense, alert America versus the indifferent, busy-bodied America. We have fallen into the latter, and the seriousness of the situation has flown into the steel ashes.
The question is not Are we ready? but rather Do we care?
On Sept. 11, 2002, Noonan wrote that one day we will “put the memories away, pack them away in a box with a pair of old gloves, and a citation and a badge, and some clippings and pictures,” but before we do, we must remember what happened on that day.
Hopefully, Flight 93 won’t glorify any ominous burning towers. Hopefully, the movie will venerate the bravery and valor of the Americans on board that flight. Hopefully, we will watch it and realize the true historical value of that day, and what we are doing to stop it from happening again.
And hopefully, as overused and cliché as it might sound, we will never forget.
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