It’s been 7 years and I still remember exactly where I was, what I was doing and what exactly I was feeling. I was living in Saskatoon Saskatchewan in 2001 and on the morning of September 11th I was running around frantically trying to get all my stuff together and head to the airport. I was flying back to Ontario that morning to attend the funeral of a family member.
You have to understand that I hate flying… I have a fear of heights, so I was already feeling nervous and a bit panicked (as I always do when I fly). I turned on the TV just to hear the news as I was getting ready… and I heard it. There had been an “ACCIDENT” in New York. A plane had crashed into one of he World Trade Center buildings. Not news a person who has a fear of heights wants to hear when heading to the airport.
But oh well, nothing I could do so I continued getting ready. I left a few minutes later for the airport listening to a CD in the car. When I walked into the airport I saw EVERYONE crowded around various TV monitors watching the news. That’s when I heard another plane had hit the other tower. No one was using the word “ACCIDENT” anymore. It was an attack. Over the next little while as I sat in that airport word came that other planes had gone down as well, including one hitting the pentagon. I was sitting in the middle of history and I knew it. A moment I knew I’d never forget, and I was flooded with thoughts wondering what the world would look like tomorrow once the fires die and the smoke clears.
Obviously I never got on my plane that morning. All flights in North America were grounded and I eventually just drove back home a bit dazed and confused thinking about what else might come later that day or week or month or year. It’s September 11th, and I find myself thinking about it all again.
As a species, we are story tellers. We have been ever since we had the ability to communicate and the oldest drawings sketched on cave walls we know of do that very thing… tell stories. Storytelling to us as a people is more than just relaying information or communicating facts of a time, a person, a place or an event. It is the passing on of an experience. When we tell stories, we share experiences be they fictional or real. We communicate human drama encapsulated in the various human experiences and modes we all share. Even in the boys locker room in high school, you can’t just say “I had sex with Julie last night”. That’s not enough. The other guys quickly gather around and say “Tell us what happened”.
They already know what happened. You had sex with Julie. But that only communicated the facts. It didn’t share the experience. It didn’t encapsulate the conditions, the emotions, the sensations of the event in such a way that it shares it with those who listen. And we do listen, and when we listen we want that event shared so that we, in a way, can share in the experience of the story with the teller.
In that way, storytelling isn’t just entertainment or something we do to pass the time. It is an important part of who and what we are.
With this in mind, I knew it wouldn’t be long before movies or concepts for movies started popping up revolving around 9-11. Yes, much of the motivation behind those movies would be money and profit (as are EVERY SINGLE MOVIE EVER PRODUCED AND MADE), and I knew that there would be those angry at the notion of some people trying to “capitalize” on the tragedy. But at the same time, underneath the business of Hollywood, there was a need to have this story told, and told by different people with different points of view.
9-11 was an event that I would go so far as to say demanded stories be told about it, what happened, how it effected various people in different ways and told from those people’s unique and perhaps even contradictory points of view.
Oliver Stone’s “The World Trade Center” may not have been the best movie ever made, but it told a magnificent story of hope and courage, of personal bravery and loss. A story of fear and darkness and heroes in its midst. Was it a great movie? No. But it is a story that I nonetheless am richer for hearing. The simple act of hearing a story helped me in a small and personal way recover from 9-11 (all of us in one way or another and to one degree or another were effected by the events of that day). Storytelling is that powerful.
United 93 was another movie that I actually didn’t think was all that great, but the story it told was one I’m glad I heard even if most of the events were fabricated to fill in the gaps. Even contextualized fiction (or pure fiction) passes on the tellers vision, point of view, experience, the way the see the world as it is or even as it could be.
Thus, on the anniversary of 9-11 I actually find myself a little sad that we haven’t seen more 9-11 based films yet. From the left or from the right. Based on real events or works of fiction around the real events of that day. Stories and our telling of them are so vital to who we are, and an event like 9-11 holds more potential to bring out our fears and hopes, our weaknesses and our strengths, our good and our bad than just about any other event in modern history (with some exceptions).
So I’m glad we have movies about (or based around) 9-11, and today, I find myself hoping we see more in the future… I’m pretty positive we will.
I’m gonna make a move where the muslims get shoved to the front of the plane so the go down first. People will love it.
George you must have seen the porno version,,,
Seriously what are your points???
Loose Change is an easily debunked load of hokum.
Yeah Doug I have, however I think were the only ones here.
Flight 93 was a great piece of propaganda.
It was not unusual to see World War II films while the war was still going on (Sahara comes to mind, though I don’t believe that was based on an actual battle), so there is some historical precedence for this. Of course, there are key differences, the biggest of which is that war films are a good harbinger for triumph and glory. You have to be very careful with 9/11 films because technically we were the victims, and so the triumph cannot come from any victory but from the triumph of the human spirit. United 93 and World Trade Center were pretty respectful, I thought.
And of course there’s the argument that it hit too close to home. I would actually be interested in knowing how we handled Pearl Harbor or how other countries handled invasions and tragedies when it comes to cinema. The thing that really makes these two 9/11 movies stand out is that they’re based on actual people and their stories, and so there’s been a lot of controversy about which families approve of this. Unfortunately, I think that people still tend to see a movie made about an event and automatically are concerned about the exploitation as an action and money making vehicle. The notion of it as a tribute tends to get lost.
But I understand that things are very murky when you get into these “tragedy” films about human on human violence in an every day context. These are things that we struggle to understand. The closest approximation I can think of is something like Munich, but that was more about the fall out and was made decades later. I can’t think of any others…frankly, it will be more interesting to see what people have to say about the implications of 9/11 as the years go on. With Vietnam, we needed films about the war in order to make sense of it. Some of the greatest films of all time have come out of the ashes of Vietnam. This can only come with some perspective. United 93 and WTC stuck pretty close to the book. We probably will eventually see films that have more of an interpretation as we try to understand the meaning of what happened.
cib3k: You’re doing the exact same thing that you’re complaining about: marginalizing one tragedy for another. Some atrocities are worse than others. But it’s obvious why 9/11 is publicized so much (terrorists striking at the heart of the symbol of one of the world’s largest and most prosperous nation using our own planes), and that is no reason for apathy. Not only do you marginalize the events, but you marginalize most tragedies by saying that it’s all just another day and that they aren’t worth remembering. If 9/11 isn’t worth thinking about, then most tragedies aren’t worth thinking about, and that is kind of scary.
As for the government, most Americans aren’t going to excuse what our government has done (though the argument is far more nuanced than that, but your post isn’t exactly given over to nuances), but the line of thinking that you have presented is also scary. Governments commit atrocities every day. They make war with each other and amongst themselves. They aren’t just marginalizing their own tragedies. They’re the cause of it. The actions of the government shouldn’t doom the people and make them the subject of apathy, even if it is the people who are destroying themselves. Nobody “has it coming”, at least not as a group, because people really aren’t that different on an emotional level, and if we start dooming certain populations because we think that they brought it down upon themselves, then no one is worth saving. We wouldn’t be worth saving as a species because we are probably so apathetic that we would destroy ourselves without even realizing it.
I’m not from the US and I feel sorry of course for all the people dying, it was a tragedy, but otherwise I don’t give a rat’s ass about 9/11. There are far worse tragedies in the world, some of them happening as we speek. The US government has overused so much this attack to promote its interests that a lot of people overseas are just sick of it. Some actually think the US had it coming. I have no idea what I was doing in 2001 and if it wasn’t for the media to remind me I wouldn’t even have noticed that 9-11 setember have something to do with anything.
Too soon. I watched the replay of coverage on NBC. Its horrific to know whats going to happen while watching archival footage. I dont want to see a movie about it any time soon. Maybe in 30 years.
I personally thought United 93 was amazing!
I was in California when this event occurred. The Western World was a very strange place to be in at the time of these events. I remember every single moment of that day. It still brings a tear to my eye. Last night I watched a video made by a man during the actual events of the attacks, as he stood in a lobby of a neighbouring building with firefighters as the second plane attacked, as the first building collapsed, and eventually the second Trade Centre fell to it’s feet. The world was brought to it’s feet on that day.
At a guess, perhaps more movies haven’t been made because it’s still such an immensely sensitive issue, raw in many people’s hearts. In time there will no doubt be more media production on this tragedy…but the dust is probably still settling for many people.
Sarcasm?
Hey Ross,
David Lynch is a millionaire who has made a fortune from his movie career. He is no exception.
When you say you want to see more movies about 9/11 do you mean actually conveying what happened on that day or any films that deal with the impact that the event had? There’s been plenty of the latter – politcal movies such as Lions for Lambs and Rendition that never would have been made if not for the 9/11 attack.
Btw on a related note you say that all movies are made to make money and I wanted to ask about something related to that – you said on Uncut a few weeks back (you looked right in the camera and said) that whoever our favourite actor or director is that they’re just in the business for the money. I think there’s an exception to that – David Lynch. This is a man who turns down money from studios so that he can do movies his way. It even took him three years to get enough money to finish Inland Empire (he kept running out but instead of selling out (like he did with Dune and it showed severely) he waited until he had money again to continue). Lynch isn’t the only guy who does this but he’s one of the best examples. (Lynch’s movies wouldn’t make money even if they cost tens of millions) Just wondered what you’re opinion was on these exceptions to the “rule” that everyone is in the business for the money?
(Oh and United 93 is a masterpiece, you are wrong about it….hehe just kidding, man).
Hey Steve,
I respect your opinion, but if you think Grupo Cine Liberacion financed this movie with no thought of hopefully making money, or that director Octavio Getino did the film for free and turned down a pay check for it, then I think you’re being a bit naive.
All films are made with the motivation of profit. Period. Oh sure, you and your buddy may pull out a camcorder for fun, but in the industry, all movies are made to make money, or made to further the company or the career in order to make more money down the road.
Please don’t say that anything is absolute unless you can back it up.
There is no way you can say that every single film ever made was produced with profit as motivation. Look no further than “Hour of the Furnaces.” There is a whole world of revolutionary/alternate cinema out there.
Otherwise, nice, personal article. I agree with a previous poster that there seems to have been a shift more towards entertainment based “terrorism” thrillers in the place of films regarding 9/11 itself.
Nice heartfelt article, John.
This morning, MSNBC replayed the NBC newscast of the entire morning of 9/11/01 and it was chilling just watching them try to make sense of what happened, hearing about a crashed 767 in PA (Flight 93) and speculation as to whether it was related, and knowing the towers were going to come crashing down on rescue workers as they were heading straight into the WTC…
For me, watching that every year and actual survivor interviews is enough. I don’t know if I ever want to watch a dramatization of the events.
i know this is kinda off topic (well not really) but i really like the fact that they still have the twin towers in the watchmen trailer (you can see them in the background when the owl ship comes out of the water) and io thought that was really nice and it reminded me of 9/11/01
awsome post john
I read the post like 3 times. Well done. As far as United 93, which some people seem to be getting sidetracked with, it was a blah and over rated time filler, but not as bad as World Trade Center.
I was with you until you said United 93 wasn’t good. That movie is probably in my top ten of the decade.
Thank you for writing this. I spent many years in and around the WTC (including living across the street from them) so they were a part of my home.
As a filmmaker, I had a friend who wrote an excellent short film that told a very interesting story that revolved around 9-11 but was not completely about the actual day. We waited some time before making it out of sensitivity to those who experienced it (my mother saw the planes fly in and the towers fall from her balcony and I’m a native New Yorker who was transplanted to LA and felt terribly powerless 3000 miles away).
We have had a hard time getting attention for this film, so I appreciate hearing that people DO still want to hear about personal experiences that revolve around an event that truly, truly changed our world forever in ways we are still learning about to this day and will for a long time to come.
I would agree with everything you said ANDREW! I was shaken after I saw that film in a theater!
United 93 was easily the best film of ’05. The sheer power and realism portrayed is completely amazing. The complexity of the editing is stunning and the entire thing feels so gritty and worn.
Completely done with “non-actors” is just the icing on the cake (including some of the real air-traffic controllers that lived that day). It made you feel like you were there and a part of it. No name people on the plane – it’s just the guy sitting next to you. I can never compare this film to anything else I’ve ever seen in terms of the range of emotional output this film delivers.
Incredibly moving to be sure, but it is also an extremely well made film on pretty much every level. Both technically and emotionally.
Thank you for writing this, and to all who respond to it.
9/11 has also been reminded to us in films like Lord of the Rings and Pan’s Labyrinth. LOTR had in each film something to deal with what was happening in the real world. For example, when the wall at Helm’s Deep blew up. Remind you guys of something?
I thought United 93 was a great movie and captured the fear of the unknown of that day! The months after 9/11 were a fearful time in America. Bill Maher got canned from his Politically Incorrect show on ABC for a simple comment! Back then the Joker blowing up the whole hospital scene in the DARK KNIGHT never would have made it into the final cut! We’ve come a long way since then except for the fact that Religious fanatism is running rampant in America which I must say is SCARY!
I’m a New Yorker who watched the Towers go up and saw them come down. I played at the base of the Towers as a child-hung out there as a teen (on Saturday and Sunday nights back in the 70’s it was the best place because it was deserted on the weekends and very few cops were around-so we had free reign)-worked there as an adult-partied there (many times) at the Windows of the World.
I thought it was too soon to make movies about the attacks. Kind of like Vietnam movies-you needed some distance before you can have anything meaningful to say. I’m not a romantic or one of those people who would scream that it’s “not right” to make movies about it-I don’t think anything is sacred and everything is fair game. But having experienced it personally I don’t think I was ready. But then I watched United 93 (which was not a good movie but wasn’t offensive either) and being an Oliver Stone fan (for the most part) I thought his movie was better than average (even though it starred one of my least favorite actors in the world Cage). Those movies proved that maybe it’s not too soon and I too look forward to a Trade Center movie that is as powerful for its subject as Deer Hunter or Platoon or The Best Years of Their Lives or Apocalypse Now was for their subjects. I hated that 911 TV movie which was everything bad I worried about these things being and I hope things like that don’t get made. There’ was a movie made by 2 french guys who were making a documentary on a rookie FDNY cadet who happened to be there when the planes hit-and if you can stand it-I think it’s the best document on 911 ever. Today has been a tough day the past 7 years but every year it gets a bit better. It just bothers me listening to talk radio and how it’s used for political purposes. Not to get too political on this site but every time I listen to Rudy911 Guiliani I get sick-believe me to many New Yorkers he is no way “America’s Mayor”. Sorry- had to get that off my chest and as you can see the subject (on this day especially) is very touchy and makes it hard to focus. Great post and thanks.
amazing article….I remember exactly where i was. In my high school history class, Mr. Davis’s class.
Beautiful article. John, this is amazing. I want you to run for President!
I remember my experience. I was seven when it happened. My mom came, and I thought, “Great I’m outta school!” Little did I know…
That was a dark day. May the people involved in the attacks who died never be forgotten
That was a fantastic article. I’ve emailed to a few people who i know will appreciated it. Thanks. Love the site BTW.
I’m just glad that we rose from that level of sensitivity that came right after 9/11 where, not only were we never to see the towers in a film or tv show again (Spider-man & Men in Black II famously had sequences involving it pulled out), but we would supposedly never see an explosion in an American movie ever again.
I really thought about that when watching the hospital blow up in TDK (a film which has 9/11 allegory running all through its third act) and just appreciated that we’ve come far enough that nobody is up in arms about something like that anymore; that we can be respectful of that tragic event and still allow ourselves to be entertained.
I think there has been a slight shift from 9/11 storyline to the mind of a terrorist and the war on terrorism type storyline.
Have you watched “Loose Change”?