too far?

last friday we went to see Thank You For Smoking (which, btw, i recommend. it's very funny). it is an R-rated film. attached to the film was a trailer for a new movie called United 93, about the flight of that number which crashed into a field in western pennsylvania on september 11, 2001.

yes, that flight.

from what i understand, the hour-and-a-half long movie is more or less supposed to be in real-time, showing what happened on that flight, bolstered mostly by the phone calls the passengers made before it went down. i can understand that. it seems the movie was made under consultation with the families of the victims, and they feel it's a respectful treatment of the topic. it's slated to screen at the Tribeca Film Festival in lower manhattan.

the issue i had with the trailer is that they cut to the news footage clip of the first tower at the world trade center on fire and the second plane coming in and hitting the south tower.

what. the. fuck.

it's a freaking movie trailer! they don't warn you, they don't have a note that it's attached to the film. you're in there for entertainment, and you see that shot, and it's not a movie, it's not special effects. everyone knows that image. you're watching real people dying on screen. i mean, you have a choice not to go see the movie. i personally won't, i don't think. but you can go see it, if you want. people can make responsible choices. but i'm sorry, i don't expect to see that shot, probably one of the most iconic shots of that day, up on a movie screen for entertainment. they had to stop screening the trailer in a manhattan theatre because people were getting so upset, and quite frankly, i'm with them. sure, make the film. tell people it's out there. but don't use fucking news footage like that in a movie trailer, especially one for a comedy. i don't care if it's an R-rated comedy, and the audience is supposed to be adults prepared to encounter adult themes. it may not be too early to make a movie about sept 11, but it is definitely too early to use that kind of footage in a trailer for it.