Flight 93

I've been trying to read what other people think about the movie Flight 93, and it would appear that critics and professional journalists think the movie will be a good thing, but average people (and lots of bloggers) think it is too soon.

Apparently in New York they stopped showing the trailer at some movie theaters after people had the same reaction I did (tears and feelings of it being too soon - some yelled that out at the screen). Enough people complained to the theater management that they pulled the trailer from their previews line-up.

I also learned that rumor has it the production team for the movie personally talked with family members of everyone who has on that airplane (what is not clear is how the families reacted, or if their reactions made a difference). And a percentage of the proceeds from the film's opening day will be donated to charity. (of course my first question would be why only the first day's proceeds?)

It was also pointed out somewhere that Apocolypse Now and The Deer Hunter were both released in under 5 years after the fall of Saigon - that is obviously true, but I don't remember if there was any public backlash, and I also don't know that it is a fair comparison. The events of 9/11 happened in the US, not abroad, and many people who are now expected to pay to see the movie personally knew or were related to the victims of the tragedy.

One blogger says in order for Americans to ever truly understand anything historical we have to see it on the big screen. Wow, I certainly hope that's not the case.

One supporter of the movie actually posits that we are giving in to terrorism if we don't see this movie -- that the terrorists want Americans to be scared, and not seeing the movie is giving them what they want. Umm, no, I don't think that logic would hold up very long under scrutiny.

I am still leaning towards not seeing it. I guess I am hoping it will go the way of Basic Instinct 2 and disappear from theaters almost before it opens. Time will tell.