Cheap Tragedy: The Exploitation of 9/11

During this time, we, the people, have gone through many tragedies especially in the first decade of the 21st century. The most popular of them all was 9/11 which has been brought to general audiences in many ways including film. It's been a while since we had one that focused about the events after the terrorist attacks, but the popularity of the event has been beaten into our heads repeatedly including the recent coverage of its 10th anniversary. It has also been used as a cheap method to make us have emotion for certain characters in films. In Remember Me, one of the many Rob Pattinson films that failed to impress audiences in theaters, the set-up as to how the tragedy is used is too long to explain. The result is we're supposed to cry for the loss of Pattinson's character since he also have gone through many losses throughout the film and no longer having to deal with feeling alone or angry when he begins his relationship with a woman who also has been going through some trials of her own. However, using the tragedy to set up his demise was, again, a cheap trick since there is the possibility that the writers could not think of another way for him to go and end the film.

Recently, the trailer and poster for the movie Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close premiering on Christmas Day starring Tom Hanks as a father who also died during this tragedy. According to Spill.com (trailer can be found on Apple.com), his son who has a lot on his plate including his long list of future occupations, is sent on a journey through the city to discover a message left behind his late father that will open up a wider explanation of what goes on in the world.

I wonder why 9/11 continue to be the major selling point to drive the point that, for those who didn't lose any relatives or who didn't die themselves, we made it through this ordeal. Having us to remember it hurts. Some of us wish that the attacks didn't happen. We wish that the day was all a bad dream even though it really happened and will forever be a part of the history books forever. I believe that we should be free from having movies, unless they're documentaries, and other forms of media to repeatedly remind us to Remember 9/11. We also wish that this should happen every time we hear about the signs of times leading to the End of the World. If next year doesn't turn out to be like Roland Emmerich's fantasy or what we've seen so far with a zombie apocalypse in Zombieland and The Walking Dead, it goes to show that Hollywood, book companies, and record labels will continue to make bank from our worry and pain.