Movie: United 93

The movie "United 93" is being released now. Having thought about the controversy of the movie much more over the last two weeks, there are two, often overlapping, opinions of this movie's release to which I simply cannot subscribe.

First, there are those who want to see the movie. My response is: Really? Because people who feel as I do could not stomach seeing these particular murders re-enacted. Stephanie Zacharek of Salon knows what I'm talking about: "Watching this expertly made film about the events of 9/11 was the most excruciating moviegoing experience of my life." She knew it would be, and it was. Luckily, I'm not a movie reviewer like her, so I don't have to go.

Then there is a cascade of people, many of them political conservatives, who think we all need to see it to be freshly reminded of the vicious struggle we are in. These people include David Beamer (I don't know if he's a conservative), father of the heroic Todd Beamer: "it is appropriate to get a dose of reality about this war and the real enemy we face."

To which I have to ask: Did some Americans miss 9/11? Have some forgotten the story of flight 93? Or did its meaning just not sink in the first time -- but maybe it will if they see the movie?

I can understand being frustrated with the anti-war crowd who wants to send policemen and lawyers after those puny social outcasts who threaten us. (You know, outsiders like the President of Iran. -- But I digress.) But to hope that a re-enactment of 9/11 will better make the conceptual case that civilization needs to crush its enemies than did 9/11 itself, I think is pure folly. If the events of 2001 didn't convince someone it is time to fight for our lives, then neither will the Hollywood version.