Flashback

I just made myself watch "United 93" (on one of HBO's clones).  I'm still shaking.

It had been a bad day anyway.  J spent most of the day stubbornly convinced that he was in Romania.  (He'll do anything, anything not to accept that he's in Chapel Hill.  Michael would understand.)  Sweet-tempered Mexican workers came and installed ceiling vent fans in both bathrooms, in place of, not in addition to, the ceiling light, so now the only lights in the bathrooms are the round dressing-room bulbs over the mirrors, and the bathrooms are dim and roaring -- there is no extra switch, no choice not to turn on the fan.  The manager says she hates vent fans herself, but they had no choice -- the bank made it a condition of financing.  So of course they did it as cheaply and poorly as possible. 

So I wanted to get his mind out of Romania and I was not in the mood for his kind of killing time (the same action movies over and over) or mine (poking the coals of blogs, hoping for a flare-up).

It was the first cultural artifact of that day, other than a lot of the immediate journalistic coverage, that I've dared to take on.  As such, it was a good choice.   

I liked the modesty of the movie -- I thought it was respectful.  I liked that it didn't mythologize the characters, that we hardly even got to know them, except collectively -- as just one random planeful of people who realized they were probably going to die anyway and came together, in circumstances of panic and emergency, to act.  I liked that even "Let's roll" was made a throwaway line.  If the movie had tried to get into the heads and lives of a politically-correct spectrum of characters -- maybe six or seven of them, one of each race, age, walk of life -- if it had melodramatized their heroism, it would have seemed phony, and reduced reality to hoke and hype.  There was a leader of the passengers, a leader of the air traffic controllers, and even a leader of the terrorists who were dwelt on just a little bit longer by the camera and stood out just a little bit from the crowd, but just a little.  We never knew their names.

I liked that while the terrorists' mantra was all Allah all the time, the passengers' was "I love you."  That says so much more than I even want to comment on.  That was the prayer we sent to the skies on September 11, and I say it speaks well of us.

The most striking thing in the movie, to me, was the way all the overheard, casual chatter of all the passengers and crew at the beginning was anchored by the unawakened assumption that their lives would go on.  "I'm taking my wife to London."  "I'll see you tomorrow." "Cc me that e-mail."  Almost everything said involved innocent plans and expectations, as taken for granted as breathing.

Of course, that's how people live individually anyway, until one day the unforeseen inevitable breaks through and reveals how sweet that death-defying complacency really was.  But collectively, we Americans will never quite live that way again.  We all know that one day any of us may be called on, just like the passengers of United 93.

Comments

[Horace Jeffery Hodges]

>>I liked that while the terrorists' mantra was all Allah all the time, the passengers' was "I love you." That says so much more than I even want to comment on. That was the prayer we sent to the skies on September 11, and I say it speaks well of us.<<

Beautiful. I think that you got the fire that you were stoking for.

It could be the kernal of a retrospective article...

By the way, Donbas has arrived. and I'm reading it.

Jeffery Hodges

* * *

[Winston]

Thanks for this, amba. More than once I have stood in Blockbuster reading the jacket before putting it back on the shelf, then choosing something else. I have even thought about it outside the store, wavering between a fear that it would be two hours of phony hype designed to entertain me, and an uneasiness that I was not ready to re-kindle those feeling again just yet. Next trip to the store, it's coming home with me.

btw, I love your rich phrase for wasting time: ...poking the coals of blogs, hoping for a flare-up...

[amba]

Someone wrote about "I love you," perhaps after listening to the tapes of calls from the twin towers. Or maybe many people. Peggy Noonan, for one. It's just what stands out, starkly.

I am glad you're reading Donbas.

Winston, rekindle those feelings it most certainly does.