Fault lines

This op-ed in the NYT is a rambling mess and morally obtuse.

Films of Infamy

Of course, it is about United 93. He claims he likes the movie, but he wishes for more.

But I can imagine a film other than "Munich" or "United 93," a greater film, a film about different kinds of courage. In this film, the courage of the passengers would be shown and honored, but there would be an equal effort to show the courage of the terrorists (without calling them simply "evil" or "insane"). You can feel already, I know, that that film is less likely. It has a kind of moral ambivalence not settled by giving 5 percent of the proceeds to families of the lost.

Ooh. How shockingly sophisticated. Thomson has opened my eyes. The cognitive dissonance is too much.

Yeah, right.

Does he really think that bravery is the only thing that matters? The German soldiers were brave in WWII. They were also supremely competent in battle. Does Thomson want to see more movies about the heroes of the Third Reich? Or what about the Confederate soldiers? They, too, were brave. Is Thomson endorsing the display of the Stars and Bars?

I have to ask, though, what was the nature of the hijackers bravery? Was it equivalent to that shown by the passengers on United 93? Or was it more like the bleak nihilism of Columbine? That is an important distinction, isn’t it?

Here’s a really shocking thought for Mr. Thomson. Maybe they weren’t brave at all. Maybe they were just sex criminals like Ted Bundy

To the suicide-murderers, those waiting virgins are real as dirt. The killers call themselves "martyrs," but in their own minds they are the next thing to sex criminals. "Pardon me, sir or madam, do you know why I plan to murder your child? Because the authorities are offering me great sex--and, after all, I don't get many opportunities."

Wonder what our film historian would make of a movie that tried to portray that reality.

This post from Confederate Yankee offers a view from the other side of the fault line. I wish David Thomson would read it. I’m not holding my breath.