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'Flight 93' functions not as cinema, but large-scale propaganda
By Zoë Williams
williamz@mscd.edu

Everyone has their 9/11 story.

The place they were, the people they were with and what they were feeling are permanently burned into the minds of every person in the U.S. who was not an infant or in a coma as the planes began to strike their targets.

I, for one, was on a field in a marching band. I immediately called my father as soon as I could, both to see if my sister in New York was OK and to get out of school for the day.

That night on every television station, a video loop played of collapsing buildings, people screaming, flags waving and violins soaring. I must have seen the Twin Towers fall 45 times in 24 hours.

Five years later director and writer Paul Greengrass has done us the courtesy of making a heart-wrenching, action-packed Hollywood rendition, called “Flight 93,” named after the fourth plane that crashed into a Pennsylvania field.

“Flight 93” is the political equivalent of “The Passion of the Christ.” It serves no purpose other than to stir up emotions. We all remember Sept. 11, 2001. It is not an unknown story. We know terrible things happened, that many innocent people died. No one has forgotten.

Regardless, in this empire, such propaganda is necessary to retain the support of the nation in order to preserve its global rule.

After Sept. 11, I was terrified to be a part of this country. Everywhere I looked, the stars and bars flapped. T-shirts, lapel pins, bumper stickers and vigils were pumped with nationalism demanding us to stand united, and reminding us “These colors don't run.”

I remember people talking about how this country changed and how “we were all Americans.” I remember finding this ironic after reading stories of Arabs, and anyone who passed as Arab, being attacked. The only Muslim student at my high school quit wearing her hejab for fear of harassment. Racism brewed as the nation united under the cross and the cluster bomb.

On the day of this writing, 30 Afghan civilians died in one U.S. bombing. Iraq is on fire with what analyst Juan Cole counts as four wars: Sunni Arab guerillas battle the U.S.; Shiite guerillas are attempting to expel the British from the south; Sunnis and Shiites battle each other; and Kurdish guerillas are fighting Arab and Turkmen guerillas.

These events are all elements of the aftermath of Sept. 11, the ones I know and the ones the masterminds of “Flight 93” would like us to forget. We are supposed to revert to the stance of fear, pain and anger, again relying on revenge, submission to the government and blind spite of all who are not like us.

For anyone who ventures to the theatres for this first-rate propaganda, I ask you to take the movie’s slogan “Never forget” and apply it to all the events of Sept. 11; whether or not “Flight 93” reminds you.