Sim-O

Link

Well, it’s that day again.
Anyone who knows me will know I don’t go in for sentimentality, doesn’t mean I’m a heartless bastard, just not one for outpourings of emotion.
So, with that in mind, here’s a couple of things:
What sounds like a couple of films that (intentional or not) further the myth of America.

Two Hollywood films mark 9/11’s fifth anniversary: Paul Greengrass’s United 93 and Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center. Both adopt a terse, realistic depiction of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. There is undoubtedly a touch of authenticity to them and most critics have praised their sober styles and avoidance of sensationalism. But it is the touch of authenticity that raises some disturbing questions.
The realism means that both films are restrained from taking a political stance and depicting the wider context of the events. Neither the passengers on United 93 nor the policemen in WTC grasp the full picture. All of a sudden they find themselves in a terrifying situation and have to make the best out of it.

This lack of “cognitive mapping” is crucial. All we see are the disastrous effects, with their cause so abstract that, in the case of WTC, one can easily imagine exactly the same film in which the twin towers would have collapsed as the result of an earthquake. What if the same film took place in a bombed high-rise building in Beirut?

And links to a quite convincing argument for a conspiracy theory here and a couple of videos here and here.

Labels: War On Terror