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Cinema Journal 43.2 (2004) 115-118



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Teaching Film after 9/11

Wheeler Winston Dixon


This essay reflects the thoughts of many in the film and media community who sense a shift in the modes of perception, production, and audience reception in the wake of the events of 9/11. While some contemporary films offer escapism, the bulk of mainstream American cinema since 9/11, whether the films were in production before or not, seems centered on a desire to replicate the idea of the "just war," in which military reprisals, and the concomitant escalation of warfare, are simultaneously inevitable and justified. How will these films shape the perception of other nations, to which cinema is now the dominant cultural export from the U.S.? What sort of dialogue do these films establish? What kind of a public do they construct as their ideal viewer? Beyond these questions, how do we now review the films of our shared cinematic past in light of these recent events? What effect will the events of 9/11 have on filmic genres? Are we about to replay the events of the 1940s and 1950s, albeit in a hyperstylized, MTV-edited format? What other questions arise as we consider the films of the past and the present in view of this violent and tragic introduction to the twenty-first century?

It has been an uneasy couple of years, in which the chasm between the rich and the poor has widened. Our rights as U.S. citizens have been seriously eroded by the Patriot Act, signed into law a mere six weeks after the 9/11 attacks. As an anonymous writer for the Associated Press noted in an article on September 11, 2002, the Patriot Act "tipped laws in the government's favor in 350 subject areas involving 40 federal agencies," creating, at least for the foreseeable future, a number of "fundamental changes to Americans' legal rights." Among these areas are

  • freedom of association: the government may monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity to assist terror investigation;
  • freedom of information: the government has closed once-public immigration hearings, has secretly detained hundreds of people without charging them, and has encouraged bureaucrats to resist requests for public records; [End Page 115]
  • freedom of speech: the government may prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information related to a terror investigation;
  • right to legal representation: the government may monitor federal prison jailhouse conversations between attorneys and clients and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes;
  • freedom from unreasonable searches: the government may search and seize papers and effects without probable cause to assist in terror investigations;
  • right to a speedy and public trial: the government may jail Americans indefinitely without a trial; and
  • right to liberty: Americans may be jailed without being charged or being offered the opportunity to confront witnesses against them. 1

In this bleak landscape of personal loss, paranoia, and political cynicism, American culture has been forever changed. We have been through the traumatic election of 2000, in which the victor assumed the office of the presidency under a cloud of doubt and dissension, and genuine tragedy—2,931 lives lost, 47 persons reported dead, 25 missing, for a total of 3,003 victims of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil, dwarfing even the attack on Pearl Harbor and subsequently manipulated as political and social capital. As I write this, a second war with Iraq has just (sort of) ended, the dot.com crash has cost billions of dollars and thrown thousands of people out of work, pension funds have been looted, the national debt grows at an alarming rate, global warming is melting the polar ice caps, and television "news" channels broadcast an unremitting stream of propaganda that makes Orwell's 1984 seem tame in comparison. In short, there is only one thing to do: go to the movies! Indeed, movie admissions have reached record levels, as audiences in 2003 flock to such escapist films as The Hot Chick (Tom Brody), Just Married (Shawn...

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