In the year 2001 I was in the 5th grade at Winona Public School. On September 11th I don’t remember much that went on at school, but I do remember when I got home my parents were really upset. They explained to me what happened and I didn’t really understand at first. I mean how can a group of people get a hold of 4 different planes and crash them into 4 very important places in the United States? It just didn’t make sense to me at the time. To make things worse my mom told me that my cousins were visiting New York City that very day. It really scared me to think that I could loose my family members for something they had nothing to do with. We finally heard from them and it turned out that they were fine. It was a huge relief to know that they were OK. The next day at school I remember talking about it before we went inside. I was talking about how it kind of made me mad that all that was on TV the night before was news. After I finally got the whole story I felt bad for getting mad. At school I remember the grade 7 and 8’s were much more upset about it then us. This made me think about how serious it all really was and how this was going to change everything that goes on in not only the United States, but also Canada and the places in the Middle East. What happened on Sept. 11th changed people views on the world as we know it. Racial profiling is a huge thing ever since Sept. 11th. People just assume things of people of a Muslim religion that shouldn’t be assumed. People don’t want to be racially profiling people but now it just seems like an expected thing. People may not be racist, but they may be making their choice out of fear. Fear has taken over many people’s views and has clouded their judgment.In the song “Where Were You” by Alan Jackson he writes a line, “I watch CNN but I’m not to sure I can tell the difference in Iraq and Iran.” I have to be honest, neither do I. I think that CNN along with many other news channels, want to keep the world entertained so they play what the people want to see. They don’t play things like the difference between Iraq and Iran because people don’t find that interesting. They want to be informed while still being entertained, not informed and bored. I personally have to agree with what Brittany and Cassidy had to say about just leaving people alone. I think people just get bored of their own lives so they feel the need to find flaws in other peoples work. Alan was just writing a song that meant a lot to him and it truly came from his heart. Just because the target audience is Christian adults doesn’t mean that average adults of any age or religion cant enjoy the song and take out of it the meaning as anyone else would. You could rally take any line out of the song such as “ did you rejoice for the people who walked from the rubble, and sob for the ones left below” and apply that to anyone, it doesn’t really have to only apply to Christian Adults. I think that this song is a great song and it really shows how one man can reach the hearts of so many.
Seven Days in September is a documentary of live footage taken by average people and filmmakers of the tragedy in New York City. When watching this, there was a man that said “ This is like a sick f****** movie”. When looking back on that day it really is like a movie. You’d never expect something lie this to happen one day out of the blue, but it did. So many lives were saved yet so many lives were lost. Firefighters and cops risked their lives to try and save people just like how the movies show. When watching movies with major disasters, people never really think that that could actually happen in real life, but after September 11th, people aren’t so skeptical.
When watching the trailers for both United 93 and World Trade Center I had mixed feelings about both. After watching each of the movies. I would have to say I really only had mixed feelings about World Trade Center. I think they were both produced well, but Universal Studios did a better job with United 93 then Paramount Pictures did with World Trade Center. It doesn’t necessarily have to do with who produced it, but more with why. After watching both I would have to say that United 93 was produced to inform people and educate them on what exactly happened that day, but as for World Trade Center I think it was made more to entertain. You can some what tell by the fact that United 93 used no famous people or actors, but World Trade Center features big names such as, Nicholas Cage, Jay Hernandez and Michael Pena. Each movie shows a different part of what happened that day. Both movies talk about the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Flight United 93. The only thing is, is that you can take the story line of World Trade Center and apply it to any other major disaster and still have a big hit. Two men, John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno are trapped under immense rubble and their families have no idea what’s going on. The movie is based on a true story but I honestly believe they could have used a different disaster and still would have had the same message of courage. You could say they were taking the World Trade Center story and using it to get people to come watch the movie. When people see the film name they assume it’s about what happened that day, but it’s really about the two men and their family. The movie hardly informs people of the details of what really happened that day in New York City.
World Trade Center Trailer
United 93 Trailer
What I really enjoyed about United 93 was the fact that it showed true courage and patriotism. It shows the story of a group of American people standing together as one to try and stop what the main purpose of the hijack was. It wasn’t your classic “Hollywood courage” when you only see what the firefighters or cops or important people do, you got to see what average everyday people would do for their country. Both movies use courage, patriotism, fear, etc, to create a feeling in people’s hearts and minds that they should go watch these movies. It makes each movie’s message more attractive and believable.
Americans, Canadians and everybody who was affected by 911 would definitely be the target audience for this movie. We know this because the producers chose two significantly sad tragedies that affected all of those people. The message of both these movies was simply to tell you what happened in New York City on September 11, 2001. I completely agree with the message of both movies, just not why World Trade Center was made.
In a trailer promoting the new Spiderman 3 movie there was a scene that involved a helicopter getting caught in a web spun between the Twin Towers. This trailer was quickly removed after 911 due to the fact that they were gone. It didn’t really make sense to show a movie that millions of people were going to see and show the twin towers standing there untouched. It would bring back horrible memories that many people tried very hard to push away. I think it was very smart to pull the trailer due to that very fact. September 11, 2001 was a very hard time for people and I think whenever it gets reintroduced it stirs up unwanted feelings. I think that whatever happened in the past should stay there and that we should look forward to the future.
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"The World Trade Center." 9-11 Research. 26 Mar 2007. 911Research.WTC7.net . 16 Jan 2008 http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/info/docs/twin_towers1.jpg.
"Is Alan Jackson's 9-11 song touching or tacky?." CNN.com. 07 Mar 2002. Cable News Network LP, LLLP. 16 Jan 2008 http://archives.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/07/ew.hot.jackson/.
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