I hadn’t made up my mind as to whether or not I was going to go see United 93.
Not because it’s “too soon”. It’s not. And not because I don’t want to be reminded. Because I want to be reminded…every day. My hesitations were about how Hollywood would shoot this one — would it be a sympathetic look at the terrorists hijackers? Would it fill the unknowns with leftwing tinfoil-hat conspiracy theories? Or would it be another Hollywood movie taking aim at President Bush.
But then I read this from David Beamer, the father of Flight 93 passenger Todd Beamer, which starts with all I needed to know: “The filmmakers got it right”
It is about the day when the hole in the skyline of New York was made–the day when a hole was made in the side of the Pentagon near Washington, D.C.–the day when a hole was made in a quiet mountain meadow in Pennsylvania. The day that our nation was attacked; the day when the war came home–Sept. 11, 2001. The day our son Todd boarded United 93.
Paul Greengrass and Universal set out to tell the story of United Flight 93 on that terrible day in our nation’s history. They set about the task of telling this story with a genuine intent to get it right–the actions of those on board and honor their memory. Their extensive research included reaching out to all the families who had lost loved ones on United Flight 93 as the first casualties of this war. And Paul and his team got it right.
It is not too soon for this story to be told, seen and heard. But it is too soon for us to become complacent. It is too soon for us to think of this war in only national terms. We need to be mindful that this enemy, who made those holes in our landscape and caused the deaths of some 3,000 of our fellow free people, has a vision to personally kill or convert each and every one of us.
I haven’t forgotten. And I’ll go see this movie this weekend now.
