TNMC
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Hollyfeld, here. I've held off on discussing the events of late for various reasons, but mostly shame. I am a desensitized person. For all the remorse I felt for the nation's... no. For all the remorse I feel for the world's loss in the last several days, I did not cry. It didn't seem right. It didn't seem real. It seemed like, well, a movie.
I found myself that Tuesday staring at a gigantic screen playing exclusive footage of the historic planes plummeting into the World Trade Center, mesmerized by the event. This is something that no one had ever anticipated. This was history - a terrorist act so awe-inspiring as to never be forgotten. This past week's front covers of Time and Newsweek feature spectacular images of one of America's most beloved landmarks in the split second when they were struck. These were split seconds in which a legend's fate was sealed. A piece of history, along with the lives of far, far too many, is dead.
These images I speak of are out of a movie. A horrific movie that have most likely changed the world, at least as we know it, forever. An act too terrifying to be forgotten. A nation united. A world at war. It all began with a man. It ended with... a question mark. What will be the epilogue to this horrifying event? Fifty years from now, how will the inevitable movies portraying this landmark incident end?
There has been some speculation that this recent act of terrorism will change the world of cinema forever. There are films awaiting release as we speak whose makers have decided to remove images of the World Trade Center from every "offending frame." There are movies, like Jackie Chan's Nosebleed, or the in-production Men In Black 2, whose storylines will have to be forever altered because of the loss of a monument as a character. I believe these decisions to be a mistake, but I recognize that this is largely my opinion. These are films whose creators have an option: to set their stories before this monument to man's ingenuity was lost, or afterwards. Should they portray the twin towers in all their glory, regardless of their loss (unless someone makes the genuinely poor decision to rebuild), or re-envision their stories to be more palatable to a country that has suffered a loss? I just hope that they remember that they still have an option - they can still set their stories in an America full of ideals and dreams, or choose to portray an America where at least one very important dream has died.
But far more important is this: there are even those that believe that every film, regardless of history, to feature the World Trade Center should be shelved, or dramatically altered so as to no longer include this lost Wonder of the World. I'm going to go out on a limb here: All of these people may be thinking with their hearts, but at this moment their hearts are being completely irrational.
Fact: The image of the World Trade Center will continue to prove painful for some. Fiction: We should avoid them ever seeing it again.
More people died that fateful Tuesday than in any single tragedy in American history. The World Trade Center was the site of this loss - not the cause of it. It, like the people within its walls, was a victim of cruel, perverse individuals. The memory of these people should remain forever, and I think that no one in the world would dare dispute that. But for some reason, the elimination of the glory that was the World Trade Center from our nation's consciousness seems acceptable to some.
Steven Spielberg's recent film, A.I., featured an image of the future in which the World Trade Center still stood, even after an almost apocalyptic flooding that swept through New York City. This image should never be altered - the very notion should never be considered. It stands as a testament to a monument that was once thought to be a permanent fixture in the minds of a culture. It is representative of a world before this event, and the dreams and imaginations of those who were fortunate enough to be able to take this structure for granted. This world that existed before September 11 was one in which Homer Simpson was forced to rush from tower to tower of the Trade Center in a frantic search for a bathroom. This was a world in which Spider-Man was able to use the twin towers of New York to save the city from its enemies, even if only in a trailer.
Beginning the morning of September 11, children were born that will never have an opportunity to see this lost marvel in person. To remove this icon from its status as a permanent fixture in America's film history is to deny them access to a period in which structures of such magnificence could be taken for granted. It denies them the ability to mourn a world's loss, to realize that the events of the 11th changed the world forever - that there was something that came before them that will never be again.
The loss of a monument is nothing compared to the loss of life that we experienced last week, but everything that was lost September 11 deserves to be remembered forever. What we should be most worried about in our remorse is that lost lives and towers will be remembered not because the lived, but because they were destroyed. There was a time before that fateful day, but now there is only what came after. We were not fortunate enough to be cognizant of the future - we need to be appreciative of the past.
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