Too Early For Pop Culture?

Universal has a movie coming out in a few weeks about flight 93. The magazine Entertainment Weekly which, to my dismay, has been showing more of its political leanings in recent months, posits that it is “too soon” to make a film about tragedy.

Here’s some of the “proof” they offer:





Now, The Green Berets might have been done 7 years after we entered the Vietnam war, but it wasn’t until 68 that the draft, and therefore the big issues with the war, happened. World War II films are probably just as appropriate to mention: The Sullivans came out in 1944; the Sullivan Brothers were killed in 1942.

As for AIDS or Rwanda, though both are tragic, I would not call either American tragedies.

I don’t think the awful events of 11 September can be compared to anything in this list, except maybe Pearl Harbor. And though Hollywood made no movies solely about Pearl Harbor until 1953’s From Here To Eternity, there were several other movies which addressed that tragedy and the war as a whole almost from day one of the US involvement in the war.

In short, I think that the “too soon” argument is suspect, and is instead a cover. They really don’t want us remembering just how angry we are, or at whom we would direct that anger. It might make a certain chimp’s approval rating go up.

That, in their eyes, would be a tragedy.

(*)>