Hollywood builds memorials, so far

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, September, 2006 | by Hollywood builds memorials

Just like the movies, eyewitnesses said on Sept. 11, 2001 as they watched the twin towers' fiery fall. But movies don't leave 2,749 casualties, 16 barren acres, and a shaken nation. The morning after, anxious that Americans were too raw for images of the towers or of terrorism, Hollywood studios rushed to digitally erase images of the World Trade Center from a Spider-Man trailer, scrapped a Jackie Chan comedy about a WTC window-washer who foils an attack against the buildings, and delayed the release of such violent films as Collateral Damage.

Such sensitivity - some might say oversensitivity - has prevailed for five years. It may explain why filmmakers like Paul Greengrass and Oliver Stone have approached, as if on tiptoe, the events of 9/11 in their movies United 93 and...