Transcending Hollywood: The Referendum on United 93 as Cinematic Memorial

Abstract

This essay critiques the popular media debates regarding the cinematic and societal merits of United 93, Hollywood's first major film about September 11, 2001. Whether and why the public would pay to see 9/11 on the big screen was discussed as a gauge of Americans’ sensibilities regarding that tragic day and the responsibilities of its public memory. Specifically, this essay critiques the popular press polemics on the issues of Hollywood's appropriateness as an agent of public memory, the audiences’ motives for seeing United 93, and the degree to which the film was reported to adhere to the known facts about that tragic flight. The analysis reveals several troubling tensions regarding how the public articulation of national history in the media works counterproductively to preclude, rather than aid, audiences’ abilities to engage in thoughtful and useful public contemplation.

Keywords:

• Rhetoric
• Public Memory
• Cinema
• 9/11
• Commemoration

This manuscript is dedicated to the memory of the passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93 (http://www.honorflight93.org).

This manuscript is dedicated to the memory of the passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93 (http://www.honorflight93.org).

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the editor and reviewers for their thoughtful suggestions.

Notes

This manuscript is dedicated to the memory of the passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93 (http://www.honorflight93.org).

1. The texts that comprise this analysis were drawn from a variety of publicly available sources, including publications with international, national, and local readerships. Texts were found using Internet searches for reviews and commentary, Lexis-Nexis searches, and a thorough survey of print-based news and film publications. This search yielded over 160 documents that dealt with United 93's release. I also included a few articles published after the film's release but which discussed the controversy of the pre-release reviews.

2. The controversy continued into the 2006 awards season. United 93 received Best Picture awards from the New York Critics Circle and the Washington Film Critics Association, but was not nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award. However, Paul Greengrass, the film's director, did receive a nomination for the Best Director Oscar. This suggests that the Academy members appreciated Greengrass's initiative, but felt the film itself was either too controversial or not substantial enough to warrant recognition.

3. This is not to say that it has been completely invisible. Flight 93 has been the subject of television movies, books, and songs, but these do not occupy the same space in the public's mind as the coverage given to Ground Zero and the Pentagon.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John W. Jordan

John W. Jordan is Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee