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Opinion

There's no reason to fear 'United 93'

Salomon Fuentes
Opinion Columnist

In case you haven't seen the trailer or heard about it, United 93, a movie detailing the events that happened on one of the four hijacked planes on 9/11, will be released April 28. Flight United 93 was en route from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco when it was overtaken by the hijackers who intended to drive the plane into either the White House or the Capitol building, but were fortunately stopped by a few brave people who decided to fight back.

This movie has already made a large uproar. According to the Los Angeles Times, at least one Manhattan movie theater pulled the trailer because it upset people so badly. This combined with the summer release of Oliver Stone's World Trade Center has gotten people asking: Is America ready for a 9/11 movie?

Many cite this as another example of Hollywood trying to make some quick bucks off a controversial topic, a stance that is borderline censorship. If so, then when do draw the line? Should other controversial topics be off limits? By that logic, we would be without Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg's 1993 Oscar-winning film about the Holocaust; or perhaps more recently, Hotel Rwanda, the movie depicting the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The point being that if we start censoring some things, then it is the beginning of a slippery slope without end. What starts as something as simple as censoring movies progresses into the censorship of things like protests against the government, or freedom of the press; things we largely take for granted.

Other critics say it is "too soon" for a movie like this. If we use Pearl Harbor as a reference point, within five months of that attack, "Remember Pearl Harbor" was released in order to rally the American morale as the U.S entered World War II. We should try to do the same with United 93. President Bush's polarizing strategy on the war on terror has desensitized many from the fact that there is indeed a war on terror. This movie can direct us to push aside partisan politics for the moment and help us remember that there are enemies of America out there.

I am by no means saying that if you don't go out and see this movie you are helping the terrorists. However, if we act like it doesn't exist or try and play this movie off as too insensitive, we will be sending the terrorists a message that we are still afraid. At the end of the day this movie should serve as a way to remember the brave souls on flight United 93 who prevented another catastrophic attack on U.S. soil.

If you have a chance to see this movie, don't blow it off completely. Give it some consideration and if you can't handle it, no one will think lesser of you. If you do see it though, just remember: "United we stand." The best way to preserve the sacrifice of the heroes of flight United 93 is not by going out and watching movies, however. It is to go out and live out our lives, fear-free.

Fuentes, an opinion columnist for The Daly Cougar, 
can be reached at salomonfuentes@sbcglobal.net.