Must-See, Can't Enjoy

Here is a review of the upcoming "United 93":

...[Writer-director] Greengrass has made an emphatic political document, a movie about defiance against tyranny and terrorism.

How many moviegoers will be willing to endure "United 93"? I suspect many will, but what that adds up to in terms of boxoffice is anybody's guess. Understandably, controversy engulfs this film. Is now the right time for such a film? Why make the film at all? These are legitimate questions. No one possesses a "right" answer. But Greengrass has made not only a thoroughly fact-checked film but a film that uncontrovertibly comes from the heart.

I expect this movie will be something like "Schindler's List" - on the "really ought to see, really don't see how I can enjoy it" list.  Of course, the obvious difference is that "Schindler's List" was not by any means the first holocaust film.

Well.  I'll be seeing it.

MORE:  Folks looking for video rental ideas might start here:

Greengrass wants the 91 minutes United 93 was in the air to speak to our tenuous situation in a scary, riven world. A previous film by him anticipates this work. The invaluable "Bloody Sunday" (2002), shot as if it were made by a camera crew at the time, dramatized a 1972 incident in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, where 13 unarmed civil rights demonstrators were shot and killed by British soldiers. Here again he takes a hard look at a cataclysmic event to provoke dialogue.

Comments

[steve sturm]

I'm not going to see it as I am all too able to remember/imagine what happened on that day and that flight in particular without needing to see it on the big screen.

[windansea]

I will see it...when it comes out on DVD and though I understand some think it's too soon I am curious as to how it all went down and I also think the people on that plane that fought back and sacrificed themselves to save others are true American heroes...they deserve their story being told.

[Sue]

I will see it, just as soon as it is released.

[TM]

I also think the people on that plane that fought back and sacrificed themselves to save others are true American heroes...they deserve their story being told.

Mega-dittoes.

[Bill Giltner]

The poster and the commenters above are clueless.

Here's the "must see, can't enjoy" video you should be watching: Loose Change

[pikkumatti]

"Schindler's List" is more than a holocaust movie -- it is a story about a hero. That's why I enjoyed it much (not in the sense that I enjoyed "Waterboy", of course).

I'm with windandsea and TM. I am hopeful that United 93 will also be a story about heroes, and in that sense, enjoyable.

[noah]

You can see the trailer online. The complete film will undoubtedly be more graphic. I plan to see it...these are heroes...we owe them no less.

[windansea]

here's another good film to go see, Andy Garcia's Lost City, Roger simon saw it

Last night I attended the premiere of Cuban-American actor/director Andy Garcia's The Lost City (trailer here), which opens next week. The movie is an epic about a Cuban family in the time immediately before and after the revolution. One brother is a social democrat, one a committed Fidelista and the third (Garcia) is the Bogartish owner of El Tropico, an Afro-Cuban night club where much of the action takes place. (The movie is infused with Cuban music and dance and has a sensational sound track.) The screenplay is by the recently deceased Cuban novelist Cabrera Infante who was an early on a supporter of Fidel and then decamped for Paris as the regime became more totalitarian.

http://www.rogerlsimon.com/

[The Scrutinator]

I wonder if there wasn't a segment of the flight's passengers who thought fighting back was insane, that everything would be fine if they just went along. I wonder if that will be one subplot.

[Harry Arthur]

The poster and the commenters above are clueless.

Here's the "must see, can't enjoy" video you should be watching: Loose Change

Another "profound" conspiracy video containing very little truth wrapped in the skin of inuendo, hyperbole, assertions, allegations, nonsense and logical and factual fallacies.

Sure, we're all "clueless".

So Bush did this so he could start a war and assume total power? Wonder what he'll do when his current term is up on January 20, 2009.

[Javani]

"So Bush did this so he could start a war and assume total power? Wonder what he'll do when his current term is up on January 20, 2009."

Invade Somalia?

[richard mcenroe]

" Is now the right time for such a film? Why make the film at all? These are legitimate questions."

"Yes, the Japanese raped Nanking but is now the right time for such a film? Why make the film at all?"

...because, for example, right now we have a major Hollywood TV series that depicts the biggest threat to this country as a President who assassinated his predecessor and is attacking his own citizens with chemical weapons?

...because Hollywood's idea of a serious, informed and committed take on this issue is "Syriana?"

Because an icon of the "peace movement" is down in Texas re-enacting the Crucifixion with herself as Christ, while foreign "freedom fighters" in Iraq are beheading school teachers in front of their classes?

Because the intelligencia's response to this story was to build a memorial with a big red crescent in the middle of it?

I'll be going to see this movie. I only wish it had been an American filmmaker with the integrity to make it.

[boris]

I'll be going to see this movie.

I just hope the exits are well lit so I can find my way out wearing shades.

[Jerry]

Flight 93 is like Saving Private Ryan or Black Hawk Down. Must see movies that you only see once.

[Harry Arthur]

Jerry, as a soldier and having spent some time piloting Black Hawks myself, I know what you mean. It took me several years after both came out on video to watch them the first time. My response to both was as I expected. I was not "entertained" but I appreciate even more the sacrifices made.

boris, agree, but then I have to wear shades for the national anthem ... go figure.

[Harry Arthur]

Another generating the same response was Mel Gibson's We Were Soldiers. Downright emotionally painful

[kim]

Hey giltnered, the Atlantans did it. Just a little demolition for when the sea rises nine yards the next time the Republicans win.
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