United 93 - A review ***LONG***

[Rick Nebiolo]

Dom,

Thanks for writing this review.

I saw the first showing of the film yesterday (Monday) in Disneyland of all places and posted this brief comment in the Politics forum.

As mentioned in the linked post I was one of four people in the theater. That only four people were watching it angered me a bit, but when I walked out into the outdoor mall area of Disneyland I realized the movie didn't really fit the location. Vacationing families with young children were everywhere. Then it occurred to me that a place just like this could very well be a future target of terrorism, and the mundane around me was so much like the mundane so well depicted on United 93 before the terrorists took over.

I'm not sure it was the best movie I've seen in the last several years, but it was extremely well done, about as good a movie that could be made for such a subject. I still believe it is a must see movie for thinking Americans, no matter what side of the political spectrum you reside.

Regards,

Rick

PS This is a really weird coincidence: The last couple of days I've been listening to Pandora based on a suggestion from some OOT'ers in a music thread. Pandora let's you pick an artist or song, then it plays similar songs or artists at a nice 128kb bit rate and lets you vote up or down, refining your desires. Of course you can link to an iTunes download or get the CD on Amazon. I had started a Lucinda Williams "Station" and hadn't been voting so it was into about the fifth song, sort of branching out. Just as I was finishing up this post it played "Have You Forgotten" by Darryl Worley, a country hit about the events of 9/11.

I haven't forgotten.

[MrMon]

[ QUOTE ]
The last couple of days I've been listening to Pandora based on a suggestion from some OOT'ers in a music thread. Pandora let's you pick an artist or song, then it plays similar songs or artists at a nice 128kb bit rate and lets you vote up or down, refining your desires.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't read the music thread, so thanks for the tip. Pandora is one of the best ideas I've seen in a long time. Simply amazing. I'm telling everyone I know.

[theBruiser500]

"Second, you're saying because only a few thousand people died on 911 it is unworthy of a film? I know you're not stupid enough to suggest that...perhaps you'd like to try again to get your point across? "

A few thousand people dying is worthy of a film. But the idea behind the movie and that a lot of people have that this was a great tragedy, I disagree. It was, and it wasn't. In the 20th century 30 million people died because of Mao's Great Leap Forward, France had 270,000 civilian casualties in WWII and the US had 0.

In the US we brought the terrorist attacks on ourselves. The US overthrough a democratically elected leader in Chile and put Pinochet in. Wickpoedia, "As a result, approximately 3,000 Chilean residents are known to have been executed, or "disappeared", more than 27,000[2] were incarcerated and in a great many cases tortured, according to the Valech Report." There are many cases like this, our policies in the Middle East have been self serving and have killed more people than 9/11. I'm not sure exactly what I mean but I think this post should get my feelings about it across...

[Sponger.]

[ QUOTE ]
In the US we brought the terrorist attacks on ourselves.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow.

[acoustix]

Bruiser, I agree and disagree with you. I think that what you are saying and how you are writing it are different. It is coming across as trying to trivialize 9/11 even though you might not mean to do so. The other examples you used are in fact giant tragedies, but they are different from 9/11 in a number of ways. One is 9/11 was thousands of people taken by surprise in a non-war situation, and killed within a matter of what, 2 hours?

I do not put it any higher or lower than any other senseless act of killing in history, but a terrorist attack of this magnitude just by it's very nature should be a bit different.

[tdarko]

Sponger,

It's like the chick at a club wearing tight pants and skimpy top that gets raped...I mean come on, she was asking for it!

[theBruiser500]

Acoustix, I wanted to say "I'm not trying to trivialize it" - but maybe that's exactly what I'm trying to do, put it in perspective. It's a good movie, and 9/11 was a tragedy but the idea in the back of peoples minds is that 9/11 was a huge disaster without basis, and I don't think either of those are true.

To elaborate on how it was deserved Sponger, the US has self serving policies that hurt other countries. It's just like people, if I treat you well you will treat me well back. If I'm a bully and start stealing from people and beating them up, someone's going to try and get back at me. The US is a bully.

Osama Bin Laden specifically, BBC, "The Afghan jihad was backed with American dollars and had the blessing of the governments of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. He received security training from the CIA itself, according to Middle Eastern analyst Hazhir Teimourian. "

[lozen]

Try the Search Function [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[marchron]

[ QUOTE ]
The FAA and the folks at NORAD scramble to find out what's happening, all the way up to when the Pentagon is attacked . . .

From Ben Sliney, who was on his first day on the job as the Head of National Air Traffic Control, to other Air Traffic Controllers, and even to various military personnel at Cheyenne Mountain who were responding to the emergency back in 1991

[/ QUOTE ]
That wasn't NORAD/Cheyenne Mountain. It was the Northeast Air Defense Sector, headquartered in Rome, NY.

And I'm sure you mean 2001 there, in that last bit.

My review is about as long, so I'll just link to it: Let's Role.

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
In the 20th century 30 million people died because of Mao's Great Leap Forward, France had 270,000 civilian casualties in WWII and the US had 0.

[/ QUOTE ]

According to this Wikopedia article the United States had 11,200 civillian causulties in World War 2 (I know we had some at Pearl Harbor for one). The same artcle comfirmed your number for French civillian casualies.



[ QUOTE ]
In the US we brought the terrorist attacks on ourselves. The US overthrough a democratically elected leader in Chile and put Pinochet in. Wickpoedia, "As a result, approximately 3,000 Chilean residents are known to have been executed, or "disappeared", more than 27,000[2] were incarcerated and in a great many cases tortured, according to the Valech Report." There are many cases like this, our policies in the Middle East have been self serving and have killed more people than 9/11. I'm not sure exactly what I mean but I think this post should get my feelings about it across...

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm happy to see you are getting in touch with your feelings.

Regards,

Rick