Entry 21: "Movies Killed The Real-Life Story"

Yo...

...I'm feelin' really sad this week... Not just because I couldn't think of a better title-pun this week than that attempt at a parody of that Buggles song about radio stars getting killed by videos. If you care enough to want to know why, well, thanks for your concern. You see, it's all because of Hollywood's new obsession on the events of September 11th, 2001. I'm using this as a topic this week, because I find it very interesting how it wasn't very long until we started to see big-screen slightly fictionalized takes on the life- and almost country-shattering events that transpired only five short years ago, on a seemingly average Tuesday morning that September. It seems to me that when I see things like this happening, people making money off of tragedies like this, it's the ultimate injustice, if for no other reason than it's way too soon to come out with this many screenplays documenting the same day, I don't care how many victims' families' approval the studios claim to have.

When the "Titanic" movie came out in 1997, we had about 85 years worth of recovery time from that disaster. That plus the rather majestic musical score and the immersably believable effects (by late-90s standards anyway), of watching the whole cruise liner go down the way it did, of course those guys got awards and acclaim by the wheelbarrow-full. Flash-forward four years. The real September 11th happens. People were almost literally crapping their pants out of the sheer gripping realization that there was no "stop" or "eject" button on this movie. The way the news media covered it, you'd swear it actually did feel like the "War of the Worlds" Orson Welles radio show redux, in terms of the believability of it. But it didn't take long for us to realize that this was no movie, and we were in for one helluva ride in the blossoming 21st century.

Flash-forward again to today. Almost five years after the day that defies description. Earlier this year, we got our first taste of what Hollywood could do with this story by delivering a made-for-TV movie about the famous "flight that fought back", United Airlines Flight 93, in the form of A&E's "Flight 93" in January. Then, we got a "24"-ish real-time retelling of that day, in late-April, again from the perspective of United Flight 93, but this time using the title "United 93." Now, here it is, August 7th. Not even the full half-decade anniversary has actually happened yet, and this weekend will see September 11th movie #3, "World Trade Center." For shame, Oliver Stone. You know better than that.

BOTTOM LINE: It's my humble opinion that more time needs to have passed for ANYONE to start crafting fiction on majorly tragic historical events like this, let alone "the 'biz", or it dampens the seriousness of going through the movie-like tragedy of that day, by actually making a real-life-like movie about a movie-like event from real-life. ..........I think that came out right. Anyway, you get my point. .....But that's just me. Oh, by the way, with my blatant promotion of that free Xbox 360s offer at the end of last week's post, again, I apologize for throwing that on, but I don't have anywhere else to post that kind of stuff where it'll get seen. Don't worry, though, it WON'T be commonplace. Anyway, as usual, please feel free to post your responses or comments on this week's topic, and I hope to see you here again next Monday night.

Later...

-D.