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Caryn James, film critic for The New York Times, points out a string of allusions to September 11th in recent films. Aside from the reenactment films ("World Trade Center," "United 93"), in "25th Hour," "Civic Duty," "Shooter," "Breach" and "Reign Over Me," James detects "an unspoken 9/11 approach, referring to the events without using the actual words," she writes.

Does the approach preclude commercial success?

It must be more than a coincidence that none of them, not even commercial movies like “Breach” and “Shooter,” were big hits. Works that take an unspoken approach to 9/11 assume that no one needs to be reminded of what happened; that ignores the possibility that maybe no one wants to.

Maybe the filmmakers have been willing to sacrifice some measure of commercial potential in order to express themselves on the topic. Or maybe the scripts as originally written were defanged and neutered during the production process, turning the films' messages into dim shadows of what they might have been. Great scripts may have became merely competent movies.

But if you wrap the unspoken 9/11 approach in the existing mythology of a popular comic book character, box-office records are still within the realm of possibility.

Link:
No One Says ‘9/11.’ No One Needs To. (NYTimes)

Earlier posts:
Spider-Man 3 and September 11th
Columnist Detects 9/11 Connection in Spider-Man 3

From the archives:
Review of "25th Hour" for Bank Systems & Technology, May 2003 issue

Labels: 9/11, movies