okay, so i was googling some pics of Michael Pena, because i found him attractive in "Crash," and this image struck me:
much like "Saving Private Ryan" gave a color pallet to all things WW2 -- washed out olives, grey, brown, etc. -- it looks like this film is going to give us an instantly identifiable visual language through which to associate 9-11. from now on, 9-11 is going to be visually represtented through the color blue, the Blue of the NYPD and the crystal clear blue and vivid colord rendered so brililant by the spectacular sunshine of that particular morning, combined with the ultra-urban backdrop of Manhattan.
and it's weird, because, eventually, we're going to hear things like "that's so 9-11" or "reminiscent of 9-11" or "evocative of 9-11" -- essentially, this particular historical moment is in the process of literally being visually processed by the public at large, which is something that movies now do. can we think of the Holocaust in anything other than the black and white of "Schindler's List"? can we think of Vietnam in visual terms beyond the psychadelia and humid greens of "Apocalypse Now"?
i suppose i'm just saying that it's interesting, for someone under 30, to watch a recently-lived-in historical event become part of the collective memory in artistic/cinematic terms. we've moved away from the news/journalistic understanding of the event and towards a more emotional/artistic understanding of the event. i don't think that's bad -- in 1950, would the line "Earn this!" (spoken by Cpt. Millar to Pvt. Ryan) have meant anything to the audience at the time? arguably not, or at least not in the same way an audience 50 years later might now understand it.
so ... just rambling ... i initially thought i wouldn't see it, and i haven't seen "United 93" because i think that would freak me out too much if for no other reason than i still get tense each time i get on an airplane.
but this might be interesting.