Reliving Sept. 11 at the Movies

Movies about 9/11 are starting to arrive now, five years after the event. The opening of the first of these, "United 93," has led some to wonder if enough time has elapsed and if the images in this and future 9/11 movies, expected to be intense and dramatic, might be too difficult for the many families of victims and the general public. I know that, personally, I don’t look forward to being thrust deep into painful and disturbing scenes—I was one of those hysterical types who felt deeply unhinged for weeks after the attacks. The question is, can the films offer any insight or catharsis at this point?

I remember, years ago, reading Harvard psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton’s study of the victims of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima. He described how important it was for people to find a story that would restore their lives and their world. Something absolutely alien, shocking, and destructive had happened to them and had burst apart the cosmos they had understood and lived all their lives. Although the attacks of 9/11 were not nearly as destructive as the atomic bombs of the 1940s, to Americans they were earthshaking, and the country is still suffering from a hole in the psyche.

But just making a film of the events, even though partly fictional and dramatic, doesn’t ensure that viewers will find a real story that will settle their souls and lead them into a better future. Some apparent stories, in fact, are not stories at all. They attempt simply to place the viewer back in literal time and go through the trauma all over again. In other words, they are merely sensational and appeal to the masochistic impulse in each of us.

The makers of "United 93" claim that families of victims approve of their kind of film. Like most Americans, I’m eager to know how the families cope and find strength and offer the rest of us vision. But to broadcast their approval of a film is too close to exploitation of a special group of people. I’d rather let the film speak for itself. If it gives us insight and strength of character, then it is certainly valid and worth seeing.

Continued on page 2: If the Dalai Lama or Nelson Mandela made a film... »