Monday, May 01, 2006

To See Or Not To See

United 93 was released over the weekend, to a flurry of critical praise and warning. The film is reportedly well done, but many feel it is too realistic and too soon after 9/11/01 to serve as entertainment.

I'm curious: Will you see United 93, and why or why not?

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Probably not until it comes to DVD. I'm not sure I would want to sit in a movie theater and relive 9/11. Also, you don't know where fact ends and speculation begins. I do hope, however, it does the brave passengers of United 93 justice. To simply know you will be dead in a matter of moments would be tough enough.

Anonymous said...

Judging from this weekend's box office, the movie attending public would rather see Robin Williams in an RV:

1. RV $16,414,767
2. United 93 $11,478,360
3. Stick It $10,803,610

(from boxofficemojo.com)

(I don't want to see United 93 or Robin Williams in an RV. I'm not ruling out watching Stick It on dvd.)

Kelly said...

I'm a big cry baby so I will wait until the DVD. I want to buy a copy so my kids can watch it when they get old enough so they know what kind of evil is in the world.

Ian C. said...

I definitely intended to see United 93, and did so. I can completely understand why anyone wouldn't want to see it. It's a tough movie to watch.

But if you're worried this is going to be some TV movie, it's not. There's very little speculation or melodrama. It's almost like a documentary, which is exactly how I think this needed to be handled. I thought it was very well done.

The Film Geek said...

Ian, a fellow blogger mentioned to me this morning you posted about the film a few days ago. Sorry I missed that. The film intrests me on many levels, particularly who is drawn to it, and why.

larryosaurus said...

I'm going to see it. My outrage has been kind of dormant the last few months so this fillm might be just the thing to re-kindle my self-righteous indignation and fury.
On the other hand, sitting through a Robin Williams movie tends to have the same effect on me. Nevertheless, I want to see it.

jedijawa said...

I saw it last week and thought it was well done. I went to see it after hearing a review of the film on NPR's "Weekend America". Mostly, I went to see it because I think that the 40+ people who died on United 93 tend to get lost in the solemnization of the 9/11 attacks. Everybody always refers to New York and D.C., but those guys who died in a field in PA tend to get less attention because so little is known about them.

My view of the film is that it doesn't make social commentary during the film; it doesn't try to feature any person as particularly brave or evil but just as people reacting in that moment; and it gets a powerful message across without having to force the viewer to have any one particular emotion.

The NPR reviewer had a powerful experience as he saw the premier with the families of the victims. His account gave me goose bumps. I saw it in a mostly empty theater and the film did turn out to be a numbing experience. However, I felt like those of us in the theater had a shared experience as many of us were crying by the end of it. It was not as much a negative experience as it was an inspring one. I would recommend it as there is nothing like seeing something like that in a darkened theater as a shared experience. I don't think it would have the same impact on the small screen playing in a well-lit living room.

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