Boycott this movie.

Rating: 1/10 (30 April 2006)

I firmly believe that every American should know the story of Flt. 93 and remember it always. To me it is a sacred moment in our history.
The passengers and crew of Flt. 93 were true heroes. They deserve a fitting memorial to their selfless sacrifice.
This movie is not a memorial. It is not fitting. They deserve much, much better. Please join me in boycotting this film so that we may send a message to Mr. Greengrass and Universal Pictures, that we as Americans, will not stand for the defamation of our national heroes.
For those of you who have not seen the movie, let me fill you in on what makes it so offensive.
#1. We don't get to know anything about the heroes of the flight. We don't get to see Todd Beamer kiss his wife goodbye before driving to the airport, we don't get to see Mark Bingham racing with his friend through the streets of Manhattan trying to catch the plane, we don't get to see Jeremy Glick holding his newborn baby in his arms before leaving. Instead we see the terrorists praying and preparing for their mission. If this is a memorial, we should get to know the passengers as more than just names on a picture, we should love them as their loved ones did. They should feel like our family, because in a way, they are. We don't even get to know their names, and we should all know their names. Instead we get a group of strangers on a plane, who died. Not a fitting memorial at all.
#2. The movie spends too much time on the terrorists. In fact, they are the only passengers on the plane, that we spend any time with off of the plane. We see them praying and preparing. Giving each other comfort. This movie tries to make the terrorists sympathetic characters, and that is a horrible thing to do. In fact, the leader of the terrorists, Ziad Jarrah seems to be reluctant to take over the plane. He is forced to act by his underlings. Hear this Mr. Greengrass: The criminal sociopaths who hijacked that plane do not deserve our understanding or sympathy. They deserve our anger and resentment. They are evil. And evil does not deserve sympathy. Should we sympathize with Hitler, or Pol Pot, or Jeffrey Dahmer? No. We should see them for what they are, evil and repugnant. And any movie that does not portray them as such is a lie. This movie is a lie. There is absolutely no evidence that Ziad Jarrah hesitated in killing people, in fact, he most likely cut the throats of the pilot and co- pilot himself, and later he flew the plane into the ground killing everyone else. In fact, Jarrah took hand to hand combat lessons to learn to be a more effective killer. He was at least as cold blooded as the other terrorists, and to portray him an anything else is not only dishonest, but an insult to the memory of his victims.
#3. The director of the movie does not take the side of the passengers. At the very least he does not make them out to be heroes. At worst, he seems to humanize the vile people who murdered the innocent passengers. At the end, when the prayers of the passengers are inter-cut with the prayers of the killers, that sends a subtle message that they are all the same. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME. Killers are worse than their victims, period. How dare they equate the two, however skillfully.
There is much that we don't know about about the events of that day, so it is understandable that the writer and director must fill in the blanks. He could have added words and actions that make the passengers noble and heroic, but he did not. I would suggest that he perhaps re-read the transcript of Mr. Burnett's conversations to his wife, or maybe even watch "Bravehart" again. Clearly he has no idea what the term "noble sacrifice" means. Or at least, how to portray that in a movie.
This brings me to the question of the hour. Is this movie so bad because the filmmakers were incompetent or is it instead because their hearts were in the wrong place? In my opinion, it is their hearts that were at fault, not their technical skills.
Now is the time to remember, but this film is not worthy. United 93 spits on the graves of my heroes, and I cannot forgive that.
Please join me in this boycott of a movie that does nothing but dishonor the valiant actions of some truly fine Americans.