Serious Things Versus Playtime

Note: Today's post is submitted by my husband, Paul. He's a man of few words and if he is bothering to write something, it is probably worth reading. Take it away, Paul.

Serious things...

Sometime late in 1993 Mary and I went to see Schindler's List and I think it took until 2004 before I could muster the emotional courage to go face another heavy movie (Passion of the Christ). By that time I had also decided that I prefer to slip into and out of such movies alone because my inner introvert wants to think about serious matters, but not have to articulate coherent words about them with other people.

So, once I heard that United 93 was at least a well done film, my inner debate team had to go to work with one side not wanting to re-live 9/11, and the other side not wanting to let the passage of time screw with the truth of what happened. What I found after I made the right decision was a powerful movie experience like no other, and particularly refreshing for lots of reasons including a few here:

• No previews.
• No actors I've ever heard of.
• The air traffic bits were pretty cool, some of the actual air traffic controllers played themselves.
• Evil people portrayed correctly as evil.
• Americans portrayed correctly identifying evil and bravely standing up to it.
• Americans portrayed correctly risking and sacrificing their lives for the sake of others.
• No excuses made for the evildoers.
• Bravery and political incorrectness on the part of the filmmakers by actually showing the Islamic part of the equation.
• Most importantly, it's just a straight telling of an amazing story.

In most areas of our lives we need reminded of the basics occasionally and, by just showing it straight, this movie very effectively pushes the reset button on almost 5 years of noise that's followed 9/11. Even though movies are usually an escape from reality, this one actually rescues a slice of reality from the muck.

So this isn't supposed to be a movie review, just some venting and a bit of encouragement to go support a great film. While you are at it, take the teenagers who might have been too young to understand at the time, and have yourself a muck-ectomy.

Playtime...

Mission Impossible 3 is pretty good, you can go see it if you want.