United They Stood

I am really torn about the new movie "United 93" that is coming out this weekend. A part of me wants to see it, yet another part of me doesn’t. In some way I feel the story being told is of real everyday heroes that stood up for something, and that they somehow live on through this movie. I would like to have an understanding about what went on during the flight and I feel compelled to suffer through the fear of the characters.

I find it admirable that Universal Studios actually received permission from all of the family members in order to make the movie. I just wish all of the money that will be made was going back to the heroes families. Some of it may be donated, I haven’t researched it in that great of detail. But, every time I see the preview, it brings tears to my eyes--literally--and a few times they have actually leaked down my cheek. It is not the feel-good movie of the year and would definitely require multiple Kleenexes because I know how it ends.

This all comes up because I am a packrat. I was going through a box of "crap" today that had a newspaper dated 9-12-2001 in it , so the photos that are not shown all that often were staring me in the face. Again, my heart felt like it paused for a moment and I began to get all weepy. Just like when I see the movie preview, all of the fear that I felt on 9-11-2001 comes flooding back. And, I recall details of that day vividly.

My boss came in and told us about the planes hitting the WTC and then proceeded to pull the story up on the internet. My husband was hundreds of miles away in "the field" with no way to contact him. The world seemed to be going crazy and I felt like I had no control. I remember watching the news until the wee hours of the morning and then turning it on again as soon as I woke up the next day. It was one of the top ten scariest things I have lived through.

Are movies and television a good way to immortalize our nation’s heroes? I don’t know for certain. The critics seem to think that the producers never get it right, but I do think movies help ‘ordinary’ people see into a world that they would otherwise not know, even if it's not all true. But, I will most likely wait for the DVD.