For too long, Hollywood has been silent, and Americans, attempting to slip back into a pre-Sept. 11 reverie, have accepted that silence with gratitude. Sept. 11 was a painful wound, but that is no excuse for forgetting it. Those for whom Sept. 11 was most painful -- family members of those who died in Flight 93, for example -- have unanimously supported the picture. Carole O'Hare, whose mother died aboard Flight 93, told Time why she supported the filmmakers: "This story has to be told to honor the passengers and crew for what they did … But more than that, it raises awareness. Our ports aren't secure. Our borders aren't secure. Our airlines still aren't secure, and this is what happens when you're not secure. That's the message I want people to hear."
During World War II, moviegoers were constantly treated to newsreels depicting the damage at Pearl Harbor, along with current events on both the Pacific and European fronts. Hollywood churned out hundreds of World War II pictures, the vast majority pushing for further American involvement in defeating Germany and Japan and celebrating the heroism of men and women involved in the war effort.
Since Sept. 11, by contrast, TV news channels specifically dedicated to explaining current events have stopped showing the Sept. 11 footage. We're told that the news media censors such horrible pictures out of sensitivity to the families of the victims. At the same time, the media pleads for more pictures of body bags coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq. Apparently, sensitivity only extends as far as the media's antiwar agenda. Meanwhile, Hollywood has been silent about Sept. 11 and the War on Terror, other than to claim that war in the Middle East is driven by thirst for oil ("Syriana") or that President Bush is a war criminal ("Fahrenheit 9/11"). Chances are that Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center" will follow in the footsteps of such artistic misinformation.
It is about time Americans were reacquainted with the cost of complacence. It is about time Americans were shown the face of our enemy -- it is time we were reminded what they fight for, so clearly visible in the burning towers, the plummeting bodies and the exploding airplanes of Sept. 11. Accurate depictions of the bravery and evil that we saw on Sept. 11 are necessary.