So, Oliver Stone has a movie coming out regarding 9/11.
After seeing what passed as history in Stone’s “JFK” I made it a point to write off Oliver Stone movies. I just don’t have a lot of time for movies, these days, so if I do see one, I would like it to be meaningful or something I really, really want to see.
The fact that Oliver Stone is going to do something regarding America’s greatest attack with loss of life since Pearl Harbor makes me squeamish, to boot. I watched the made-for-television version of “Flight 93” and was sorry I saw it. I never chose to see the movie version at all. For me, it is just too close to the event, and I am still upset over what happened that day. I guess it just gets down to the fact that I don’t like seeing Americans get killed, especially in such utter innocence.
Although I have made myself watch Stone’s “Platoon,” I get the same feeling as I do about 9/11. The Vietnam War is just too much in my active memory to want to watch alleged “entertainments” on the subject. I’m sure that there are folks who lived through World War II who feel the same way as memories are dredged up via the movies.
I suppose that we should all be reminded of horrible aspects of history so that, hopefully, we can have our say in not having these histories repeat themselves. Sometimes we just forget how bad things can be without a reminder. As I watch commuters go off each day to work and life go on, I am sure that the threats of terrorism are now deep within their mental recesses.
The horror of 9/11 has been submerged due to the importance of getting through a day’s activities. We can all remember where we were on that day, but the threat and the horror are pretty much fading into history. Maybe that is just the way nature intended for us to act in the hopes we could go on with our lives and not become totally paralyzed by either fear or misery.
The movies, like literature, become our records of history be they fictional or documentary. We have endured terrible times and events as Americans in our past, but these times and events are now consigned to “history,” the dead letter box of life.
We still have the folks who like to think in terms of conspiracies, actively living history and sounding unproven alarms, like the University of Wisconsin professor who teaches that 9/11 was some kind of an inside job. But then, we hear of the crew of mopes in Florida who were contemplating, maybe fantasizing, about blowing up Sears Tower.
So, there are still the Crazies out there who would do us harm. Movies and literature will continue to have a never-ending supply of material with which to play.
But, for me it is too soon. I still sympathize with the widowed spouses, the families destroyed, the firefighters and police officers who gave their lives that day. I don’t want to see a replay of any of it. I would rather deal in realities in the hopes that we can prevent such things from ever happening again on American soil.
