Friday, December 29, 2006
United 93 - Divided 2006
Finally saw United 93, on DVD, the controversial movie that raised the question "Is it too soon to begin 911 Denial... or too late?" Judging by the initial reaction of public horror that a movie acknowledged the disaster had been made, some of us just can't get those rose-colored glasses wedged back onto our faces fast enough. The "special feature" is a nauseating apologia for making a film that includes any part of the reality we've lived in for half a decade - which "special feature" was hopelessly dated by the time the DVD came out, and thoroughly exploits the families to make its now deadeningly obvious point.
The flick is very well made, but I could have skipped it this lifetime. Anything that brings back the tension and abject fear from my childhood is generally a bad entertainment choice for me, so I should have guessed that much, I suppose.
The overall impression I took from the film is the overwhelming intricacy and complexity, intelligence and cooperation within Western Civilization, accumulated over thousands of years; starkly contrasted with a staggeringly profound religious bigotry and indifference to violence also accumulated over thousands of years.
But as infuriating watching the pig-headed hijackers was, it was worse witnessing the countless instances of human herding on the American side, as the infinite weight of habit, again and again, turned nearly everyone involved from an intelligent human being into a billboard screaming "Incompetence!"
There are far too many instances to name, but a few quick examples will give you the thick flavor of human idiocy that permeates the film. Because no-one has hijacked an airliner within the U.S. in forty years, no-one believes it can happen now. (Whatever happened to the Gambler's Fallacy?) The fighter planes scrambled to intercept the airliners were given the correct headings, but turned in the opposite direction and flew far out to sea... because they were in the habit of turning in that direction during previous interception exercises. The fighters were still one hundred miles away when the last plane hit the ground. The FAA endlessly delayed flight clearance for the fighters because they weren't in the habit of doing anything so unusual... and on and on and on and on...
It's so lucky that, like, the planet isn't at risk, say from environmental problems caused by human habit... Oh, no, wait...
Free the average person and immediately they are slaves once again... to habit. "Let's just stay on the plantation."
The flick is very well made, but I could have skipped it this lifetime. Anything that brings back the tension and abject fear from my childhood is generally a bad entertainment choice for me, so I should have guessed that much, I suppose.
The overall impression I took from the film is the overwhelming intricacy and complexity, intelligence and cooperation within Western Civilization, accumulated over thousands of years; starkly contrasted with a staggeringly profound religious bigotry and indifference to violence also accumulated over thousands of years.
But as infuriating watching the pig-headed hijackers was, it was worse witnessing the countless instances of human herding on the American side, as the infinite weight of habit, again and again, turned nearly everyone involved from an intelligent human being into a billboard screaming "Incompetence!"
There are far too many instances to name, but a few quick examples will give you the thick flavor of human idiocy that permeates the film. Because no-one has hijacked an airliner within the U.S. in forty years, no-one believes it can happen now. (Whatever happened to the Gambler's Fallacy?) The fighter planes scrambled to intercept the airliners were given the correct headings, but turned in the opposite direction and flew far out to sea... because they were in the habit of turning in that direction during previous interception exercises. The fighters were still one hundred miles away when the last plane hit the ground. The FAA endlessly delayed flight clearance for the fighters because they weren't in the habit of doing anything so unusual... and on and on and on and on...
It's so lucky that, like, the planet isn't at risk, say from environmental problems caused by human habit... Oh, no, wait...
Free the average person and immediately they are slaves once again... to habit. "Let's just stay on the plantation."
