I'm sitting here watching "Flight 93" on A&E (Commercial Break). I am impressed.

At first I thought it would be some stupid made for TV political representation, but its not. They took the phone calls recorded and witness reports and pieced together the story.

If I knew it was fictional, I would call it entertaining, but since I know its all real, i call it gut wrenching. I have literally come to tears at some parts. everything that has transpired in the movie happened on that day.

This movie is incredible, and I encourage all of you if you get a chance to see it to watch it. Regardless of where you stand politically, this is what happened. These are cold hard facts.

"the fault, dear brutus, lies not in the stars, but in ourselves."

Can you imagine a film purporting to reconstruct Hiroshima and Nagasaki (on TV no less!) five years afterwards? In Japan? Americans are quick to forget and commodify - which is why something like this exists so soon. A reminder and a chance to show ads. They aren't showing it commercial-free, are they?

i thought it was going to be a theatrical release.

Evan, you hit it the nail on the head. Bravo.
Americans, and the world for that matter, do forget way to fast (hence people questioning whether or not Hitler's holocaust actually happened).

nope, its not commercial free at all. I would have appreciated their efforts much, much more if it had been. How many of you on September 11th these past 5 (nearing 6) years actually took the time to remember the day?

one of my best friends said it best: "The whole world is going to **** and no one is doing a damn thing about it." When i read books like 1984 and Ender's Game, I wonder how far away we really are.

I watched the movie not to be reminded, but to see another piece of the puzzle set clearly into place.

So Evan, I invite you. You and I are still young. Our predecessors are doing a terrible job, and have been for a long time. I invite you, your friends, and everyone who still believes that somewhere under the corrupt beauracracy and politicians, and the taxation without representation (it is happening) that there is still a Republic in America worth fighting for. That America isn't rotten to the very core.

And for those of you wondering why I called America a republic is because we are. We are not a democracy. The Greeks ruled through democracy, one person, one vote. America is a republic, where we elect officials, fashioned after the romans.

join me, and together we can take the world and give it back to the people. We can instill in people the will to remember what happened, so they won't need a 5 year television reminder.

This facist country
is falling
beyond 1984
its too late
until then
stick it to em only way you can
ART!

"LETS **** IT UP BOYS, MAKE SOME NOISE!" -connor oberst

Forsaken, hear hear!! Excellent post!

Also, on the topic of recreating 9/11 as a film... I have to admit that I have toyed with the idea of doing it if I ever get the chance (hah, IF). A few months ago I was reading one of those tower survivor books, with interviews from a lot of the survivors, and I couldn't read more than a few pages at a time, because it was so real, and so horrifying. It had me crying quite often.

I think that telling the story again is not so bad this soon, if it is done with utmost respect, like the books have been. By respect I do not mean avoiding showing shots of the towers, or people who died, I mean trivializing NOTHING, no Hollywood crap. We, as artists, change the world in the only way we can: we create art. Making a film about 9/11 can have a profound impact on a lot of people.

"And for those of you wondering why I called America a republic is because we are. We are not a democracy. The Greeks ruled through democracy, one person, one vote. America is a republic, where we elect officials, fashioned after the romans."

Heh, can you explain the specific difference? You do know that the derivations of both words are the same in their respective languages? The Greeks only extended voting privileges to citizens (a small minority of the population) and didn't always have a direct vote, besides.

You're right America has a basically representative government, but what are the specific, tangible effects of the difference? The "democracy vs. republic" debate is only something that conservative and liberal politicians trot out every time an election rolls around, hoping to trick the slack-jawed public into thinking there is a difference.

I also don't understand the rest of your second post. You acknowledge that Americans like to forget, but don't see a problem with a 'reconstruction' so soon? On TV?

I do have a problem with the reconstruction, becuase for many people it was a reminder, not another piece of the story.

So I suppose my problem isn't with the reconstruction, but rather with how people would perceive it.

as far as republic vs democracy:

http://www.chrononhotonthologos.com/lawnotes/repvsdem.htm

http://www.c4cg.org/republic.htm

http://www.serendipity.li/jsmill/baska01.htm

Those are just three of a quick google search.

Just after the completion and signing of the Constitution, in reply to a woman's inquiry as to the type of government the Founders had created, Benjamin Franklin said, "A Republic, if you can keep it."

the artist lies to find a higher truth

im personally not that concerned with what we the western world are doing to ourselves, we had it coming, all of it. i only wish ppl were more concerned with what we're doing to other people, those that deserve it the least.

quote:

Those are just three of a quick google search.

P.S. I hope you're all aware that by using Google you are indirectly supporting the censorship of a billion oppressed chinese people. I'm so glad we are able to look up words like "democracy" in our free world, if only we actually believed in it over the $$$, maybe we'd get somewhere, instead of letting the truth spill out the backs of our heads.

You may hate the Western World, but the Western World LOVES YOU!

Oh yeah, and I am proud to use Google. It WORKS. ... If they wanna agree to censor for the chinese and they get money good for them, its Free Enterprise.

I think it's an issue of censor for the Chinese, or be banned in China. They have no choice. If they refuse, the Chinese people lose the best search engine.

quote:

I think it's an issue of censor for the Chinese, or be banned in China. They have no choice. If they refuse, the Chinese people lose the best search engine.

And where has that mentality gotten us?

No offense, but all of those sites you linked to skirt around the issue and/or state lies. One of them even quotes a War Dep't manual from 1928 that cites democracies as "pro-communistic" in terms of property ownership. Another mentions the John Birch society

I am not a liberal, but the conservative sites are as full of lies and deception as almost anything else relating to politics. If you happen to agree with it, fine, but it's not true in the factual sense.

I've read the Federalist papers extensively, and Madison, as well as others, use "democracy" and "republic" frequently nearly interchangeably. At times "democracy" is used with a very specific historical precedent, but other instances are less clear. That's the source of much of the current debate over their intentions in drafting the documents. If they were aware of a difference, at times it was forgotten...

FWIW, Google's data mining is very disturbing and has ominous future implications. OTOH, the China issue is China's fault. Their continued economic growth will eventually rot communism from the inside out, like a tree that dies and falls victim to dampness and insects.

Sorry, i didn't read those sites through and through, glad you brought that up before i showed anyone else .

but some very good points were made, america is a republic.

i caught about 5 minutes of this last night. it was enought to dissapoint and let know it wasnt anything other than pointless.

what can u expect? Its on TV.
love to feed us BS.

I pissed all over the television set last night and I think this movie happened to be on.