The Pop Pirate

That's (not) Entertainment!

It is often assumed that movies are for entertainment purposes only. I think that's why so many were confounded when it was announced that Universal Studios was making a movie about the events of September 11th on board the doomed United flight that was hijacked and crashed. It doesn't seem like a subject that it likely to cause entertainment. Even horror movies and disaster movies only provide release and catharsis because we know they aren't real.

Not so with this film, on several levels. First of all there's the obvious: this movie depicts not only a real event, but one so recent that the memories of even the youngest viewers will still seem fresh, one so immediate to a nation that watched it happened live on television. Furthermore, this movie is written and directed so impeccably (kudos to Paul Greengrass) that it is less like watching a movie and more like traveling through time and spying. A documentary generally has narration and limited footage. The characters spoke, but never seemed to 'have dialogue,' as the viewer, you see what is happening, but there doesn't seem to be 'camera work.' This ultra-realism makes it even more disturbing and even less entertaining. Add in the lack of score, paucity of titles, and low Q Score of the cast, and it makes for less of a viewing and more of an experience.

So the critics have something right- this film is not entertainment. But that's okay. In my book, films are not merely for entertainment. Some of them are for art. And art is often not easy or fun or soothing. It is designed to make us see something we need to see or feel something we don't normally feel. And this film accomplishes this in many ways. You are made to see how the men who perpetrated the largest mass murder in American history were just that: men. You are made to feel the frustration of stymied communication. You are made to remember that it is just people who cause horrors and just people who give everything they have- including their own lives- to save others.

It's not for everyone. But art rarely is.

posted by Jeff @ 9:45 PM