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April 30, 2006

Required Viewing: United 93

Posted by Dave Blount at April 30, 2006 11:43 AM

If you haven't seen United 93 yet, please do so at your earliest convenience. This sober depiction of the events of 9/11 is a fitting tribute to the heroes who brought United Airlines Flight 93 down in a Pennsylvania field before the Muslims who had hijacked it could crash it into the Capitol. Without injecting any opinionating, the movie makes it crystal clear why we must aggressively confront Islamic terrorism.

We used to be able to expect that Hollywood would help our country in time of war. Famous actors actually fought for the flag, including Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Charles Bronson, Gene Autry, George C. Scott, Kirk Douglas, and many others. But now, instead of turning out films to rally the country, Hollywood actually propagandizes on behalf of the enemy (e.g., Fahrenheit 911, Syriana). Imagine useless pretty boys like George Clooney or Tom Cruise or the obese obscenity Michael Moore putting on flak jackets and facing down terrorists.

Fortunately there's nothing Hollywood about United 93. There are no smirking fops, no self-worshiping Julia Roberts types tossing their hair. Key figures play themselves and perform admirably. There are also no "nuanced" suggestions that the terrorists might have a point, or that fighting terrorism is somehow comparable to terrorism itself (as in Munich), let alone tinfoil hat notions that the whole atrocity was an American conspiracy (as we will presumably be getting from Oliver Stone). The movie is not entertainment but a historical reenactment, which the no-frills style never lets you forget.

However, antiwar types who want to continue to forget why we're fighting in the Middle East are warned to stay away.