[NYTr] 9/11 Film Trailer: Too Much Realism
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The Independent - 04 April 2006
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article355591.ece
US cinemas pull 'harrowing' trailer for first film about 9/11
By David Usborne in New York
The trailer for the first feature film about the events of 11 September
2001 - made by the British writer-director Paul Greengrass - has been
withdrawn by a major New York cinema because it proved too harrowing for
some audiences.
Reactions to the trailer in cinemas in both New York and Los Angeles -
which in most cases has been a numbed silence punctuated by audible
gasps - guarantees that the film, United 93, will cause controversy when
it is released across the United States later this month.
"One lady was crying," Kevin Adjodha, the manager of the AMC Loews
cinema on Manhattan's Upper West Side which pulled the trailer, told
Newsweek magazine. "She was saying we shouldn't have [played the
trailer]. That this was wrong. I don't think people are ready for this."
The film, which has been chosen to open this year's Tribeca Film
Festival on 25 April in New York, is a dramatisation of events aboard
the fourth hijacked plane on the day al-Qa'ida struck the US. The 40
passengers and crew on board are known to have fought to retake the
aircraft which crashed in a field in Pennsylvania before it reached its
target, believed to have been the White House.
Greengrass, whose recent films include The Bourne Conspiracy and Bloody
Sunday, sought and won permission from all of the families of those who
died on the plane and promised to donate 10 per cent of its box-office
revenue in the opening three days to the memorial planned for the site
of the crash in Shanksville. Among those supporting the film is Gordon
Felt, whose brother Edward died on the plane. He said the film would
"help permanently memorialise the bravery of the 40 passengers and crew
of Flight 93 who chose to fight back".
What is not known is the public reaction to the treatment of the terror
attacks. Although there have been many nods to the events of 9/11 by
Hollywood, no film until now has taken them as its primary narrative.
However, a made-for-TV film of the fate of the plane, called Flight 93,
was shown on A&E in January, giving the cable channel its biggest ever
viewer numbers.
The trailer, which drew some calls of "Too soon!" when shown at another
cinema in Los Angeles, opens with shots of passengers boarding the plane
at Newark airport on a bright early-autumn day.
It quickly cuts to a scene where the terrorist first moves to take
control of the plane. Spliced into the trailer is real news footage of
another of the hijacked aircraft crashing into the World Trade Centre.
Greengrass told Newsweek magazine that he was impressed by the support
he had received from the victims' families.
"Was I surprised at the unanimity? Yes. Very. Usually there are one or
two families who are more reluctant. I was surprised and humbled at the
extraordinary way the United 93 families have welcomed us into their
lives and shared their experiences with us."
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