United 93

Intense. Powerful. Unbelievable.

I FINALLY saw United 93. I had wanted to see this since it first came out in the theatres, but struggled to convince anyone to see it with me, for pretty obvious reasons. I had heard all the standard rejections - "too depressing", "too soon", etc. But I've always felt that the civilian victims that died in Pennsylvania (and the Pentagon for that matter) we're always somewhat "overshadowed", for lack of a better term, by the victims who died in and around the WTC. For that reason as much as any other, I wanted to get a sense for what really happened on United Flight 93. And while we'll obviously never know exactly what REALLY happened on that or any of the other hijacked flights that day, I just got a good feeling when I read/heard way back in the day that before making the movie, the producer or director or whoever got signoff from EVERY family.

I was admittedly surprised by how much emotion I was overcome with while watching the movie (yes, I cried, on several occasions). As many of you know, I was in NYC on 9/11. While it was obviously quite a long time ago, I still remember the day pretty vividly - calling my parents in LA to tell them I was OK, only to realize they were still sleeping and hadn't a clue what was going on until I called; running into my then-roommate Ramesh while walking from my Midtown office to my Gramercy apartment; wondering for hours about the whereabouts of my sister and my other then-roommate, Vinay (cellphones were obviously not working very well that day, but both were eventually accounted for safely). But I was one of the lucky ones. Not only was I nowhere near the WTC that morning, but I also don't know anyone who was directly injured or killed in the attacks. So, while I recognize the day as the biggest national tragedy in my lifetime (well, 3rd biggest, behind a certain court ruling in January 2001, and a certain election in November 2004), the memories have never hit me that hard.

As usual, I digress. Back to the movie. So many aspects surprised me. How the ten or so passengers and crew who planned the now-famous "Let's Roll" attacks had the nerves, sense, and composure to do what they did absolutely amazes me. While we all recognize I'm no thrill-seeking cowboy, I think most people I know would be sitting there shitting bricks, crying their asses off, and understandably so. Absolutely heroic what these people did, and in my opinion the media hasn't done enough to honor them. In my opinion, that's reason enough to see the movie...as difficult as it will be to watch. I was also surprised about my reaction to the ending - when the plane went down in the Pennsylvanian field. A part of me felt that, at that moment, "we" had won, since the terrorist bastards' target, the White House, wasn't hit. Of course I know, however, that "we" didn't win. Yes, the brave actions of the passengers and crew probably saved hundreds of civilian lives in DC, but 45 innocent people died in that field, along with the 5 SOB's.

Immediately after watching the movie, I fell into Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld mode and was like "Let's kill any Muslim mother*ucker out there. F*ck this cut and run bullshit. Let's just clean house." But now that I've had the chance to come to my senses a bit, I realize the exact opposite is what we should be doing. Almost 3,000 innocent civilians died on that day a little over 5 years ago. And since then, c. 2,500 American soldiers have died in Iraq, many others in Afghanistan (can't find a count on Google, and it's 1:22 a.m. so I'm feeling a bit lazy), and of course, tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Middle Eastern civilians. And it simply isn't stopping. Suicide bombers. Execution-style killings of Iraqi civilians and security personnel. Every f*cking day it keeps happening. And for what? Is America/the West REALLY much safer from terrorist attacks? We - Americans - have been lucky. But there's been the London and Madrid train bombings. And of course the recently foiled trans-Atlantic hair gel/toothpaste attacks. Call it what you want red-staters - "stay the course", "support our troops", etc. At the end of the day, it's just more and more Americans (and innocent foreign civilians) dying for no clear reason.

WATCH THE MOVIE. THEN, GET OUT AND VOTE IN NOVEMBER - LET'S TAKE THE SENATE BACK!!! (and get Arnold out while we're at it)