While watching the two dramas of last weekend - in Washington and in Moscow - the question arose when they will be made into movies or television. Will it happen?
Uri Klein
The theater hall in Moscow this week (above). A bus they were driving was shot by the sniper in the USA about a week ago
Reality won, apparently. It sets the narrative that leads from the Gulf War to the events of September 11 and from there to the two dramas that took place at the same time the previous weekend in Washington and Moscow - the two capitals that for so long represented the historical narrative of the Cold War. And today's reality determines how it will be represented. The rules have changed, the tools have been broken, and last weekend's events, one in the Washington area and the other in a theater in Moscow, proved it once again.
As I switched from CNN to Sky News, and from there to Fox News and BBC World, in order to absorb all possible information from the two dramas that reached their peak during that weekend, the question crossed my mind - when will these dramas be made into movies or TV, and how?
At the same time, I had the surprising feeling that it would not actually happen, and what I see on the four news channels are the only films that will document these two dramas. And we have become accustomed to the fact that every dramatic event, private or public, is at some point represented on the cinema or television screen - the crash of a plane into the Potomac River, the murder of the Menendez couple by their two sons, or the story of the teacher who was sent to prison because she had an affair with one of her students.
The Entebbe operation was commemorated in three film and television versions that were produced almost simultaneously, shortly after the event itself. Amy Fisher, who was called in the American media "the Lolita of Long Island" and was accused of trying to murder her lover's wife, was granted three separate television dramas to document the unfortunate and ugly scandal in which she was involved.
Sometimes it seems that there is no phrase more loved by the American media than "based on a true story". This sentence often appears at the beginning of a movie, written on a separate screen, in a kind of modesty that is actually a kind of arrogance. His appearance should add a degree of credibility and importance to the film we are about to see. The announcement is supposed to neutralize us; Because how can we claim, for example, that the plot is far-fetched or that the characters are unconvincing if the film is based on a case that happened and characters that exist in reality? And how can we claim that the movie is bad if it is based on a true story? By commemorating an event that happened, he is already doing an important historical service.
The dramas that took place recently seem suitable for a cinematic or televised commemoration. They are very different from each other, but both include myths and plot elements that are already familiar to us from many movies, imaginary or based on reality.
In the days leading up to the capture of the suspects in the serial shooting in the Washington area, they documented
The news channels are filming the sites where the shooting took place, from the high angle
and the remoteness from which it was carried out. There was something creepy about these pictures. Not for a moment
It was clear through whose eyes - the photographer or the sniper himself - we were seeing the site.
The chills reminded me of so many American movies, where a mysterious psychopath
And an unknown person, whose identity is gradually revealed, terrorizes an entire community. America has
attraction to heroes who act alone; She sees value in this independent activity
which highlights the individuality of the hero. This value neutralizes the danger
In being absorbed in the collective capitalist system, where everyone is the same and maybe even
Are identical.
The Western hero always acted alone; Fred Zinman, in his film "At Noon Today" from 1952
He wanted to introduce a Western hero (played by Gary Cooper) who is afraid to act alone.
He asks for the help of the community for which he works - help that is not given to him. and then
John Wayne stood up and declared that it was a disgrace, a betrayal of the historical legacy of
America. In 1959, Wayne initiated the production of the western "Rio
Bravo", in which the heroic and romantic greatness of the hero, who is not, appeared again
Reluctant from the operational solitude imposed on him.
The attraction to the cinematic hero who acts alone was not limited to history
the american It also continued in those films that depicted the continuation of the struggle for control
The law and order in America that arose on the symbolic basis of the Wild West. America
Loved the character of the policeman who achieves results precisely because of his behavior
Non-conformist. The character of police officer Harry Callahan, known as Dirty Harry,
Played by Clint Eastwood, she is perhaps the most prominent and popular example of
This kind of cop. America also loved the character of the private detective, Humphrey style
Bogart for example, whose effectiveness and the romantic aura that surrounds him derives from the fact that he is
Always works alone.
Over the years, the dark side of individuality and American appeal has also been discovered
to her. Already in the gangster films produced in the XNUMXs, the dangers were described -
The downfall of the gangster was often the result of the loss of his independence. This tendency
grew stronger in the sixties, following the series of political assassinations,
which testified to the distortion of some of America's basic values. Because me too
Harvey Oswald acted alone - at least this is the conclusion of the Warren Commission, which investigated
The assassination of President Kennedy, reached her. And sometimes it felt like it was the opponents
To this conclusion, among them, for example, Oliver Stone in his movie "JFK" from 1991, do this
Not only because they strive for the historical truth, but because they find it difficult to say goodbye
From the positive myth of the American hero who acts alone. They want the killer to be
Part of a conspiracy, which brings together a large number of active characters, whose personalities
And their identities are blurred.
In "Taxi Driver" from 1976, Martin Scorsese placed the character of the hero who works
alone in a psychopathic context. His film was a response to the films produced in that decade and in them
The activity of an ordinary American citizen was described, as a result of his despair of ability
The American establishment to rule law and order is out to take revenge on those who hurt it. series
"Death Wish", starring Charles Bronson, is a representative example of movies
goddess.
In the nineties, viewers were exposed to a long line of psychopaths who exercised powers
Police and others trying to capture them: John Malkovich in "In the Line of Fire"
(1993), whose plot referred to the Kennedy assassination, Dennis Hopper in "Speed" (1994), Tommy
Lee Jones in "Countdown" (1994), Jeremy Irons in "Dead to Live 1995)
"3"), Christopher Walken in "90 minutes to murder" (1995) and others.
The attempt to capture the serial sniper who terrorized Washington and its surroundings
Looks like a direct sequel to those movies. The drama that took place in Moscow is also appropriate
for such a cinematic adaptation. Although we have not yet seen a film in which there was a large number of all
So for hostages, but the materials are familiar. The scenes outside his institution are memorable
The hostages were captured, for example the bank in Brooklyn in "Afternoon of Calamity", of
Sidney Lumet from 1975 which, by the way, was based on a true story. So is the hospital
In "John Q" by Nick Cassavetes, which was released this year. We have already seen you
The police and military forces gathered outside the institution and also the excited public
and the enthusiast who gathers to watch the event. We have already seen the closed doors and
the locked windows, and we followed a line of unknown figures climbing on
The building and waiting for the order to break into it. We can imagine what is happening
Inside the building: the human dramas that a skilled screenwriter can weave from
This situation, and the heroic and romantic gestures he could attach to the characters
which he will choose as the protagonists of the drama.
I don't think any of this will happen. Something happened to the direct and innocent relationship that once existed between
The reality for its cinematic and television representation. How else can you translate the
The reality for cinema or television after September 11, 2001? The events of that day
Canceled, perhaps for good, this possibility, even if some are toying with it as a result
recent events.
On September 11, 2001, reality swallowed its representation into itself. And no one does
A film will be made that will describe what happened in one of those planes before they crashed
in the twin towers; And not a film about what happened in the towers themselves, despite everything
The dramatic possibilities so exciting that the situation offers.
The immediate reaction to the events of that day was that "it looks like a movie theater"; Not only
Not because of the similarity between reality and cinema, but because of the feeling that reality has been turned upside down
to cinema and that it is no longer possible to distinguish between them.
It didn't start on 11/XNUMX. The process then reached its peak, but it had already begun during the war
The bay, whose almost completely abstract television documentation left almost nothing
Any concrete memory in the mind. This is perhaps why so few films have been made about it
This war for now.
The process continued during the presidency of Bill Clinton, in which the realities were mixed
and the fantasy. This may be why during Clinton's two terms in office they were created
In America, there are more films than ever that gave America, its symbols and institutions volume
mythological. Such were "The Third Day", "Air Force "1 and others.
It is no coincidence that almost every film produced in recent years, has brought the story of
A character that does exist (such as Norman Jewison's "Hurricane" in 1999 and "Wonderful
Ron Howard's "Tavuna" last year), ran into historical and ideological problems,
that the discussion of them harmed his prestige and integrity; And this is not the case in recent years
The overlapping television genres known as "reality TV" flourished
"Docu-soap" (ie documentary soap operas) - where the boundaries between
Reality into fiction has been almost completely blurred.
"He's a star," a friend told me following the television interview with Musar in Raev,
The leader of the Chechen kidnappers. In the same media event it was also not possible to remove
The look from the eyes of one of the kidnappers - next to her leader - that peeked out from her covered face
veil; It was impossible not to admire the restraint and judgment that characterized the three
The kidnapped Russian women who were also interviewed. It was the movie made about her
Drama, at the time of its creation; Any additional photos that documented the event will be added to it
A film, as a work that takes shape before our eyes, while the reality it represents is happening.
So is the drama that happened at the same time in the United States and in which the two men were presented
The blacks suspected in the serial shooting (it's interesting that the only psychopaths in the movies
Americans are never black).
On the anniversary of the events of September 11, the various television channels broadcast films
Documentary. Most of the material included in these films was not documented by the media
The official herself, who somehow found herself out of business that day,
but by amateurs who happened to be in the area with their cameras or recorded the event
from a safe angle, which allowed them to see what was happening directly and immediately.
The viewers became the creators of the film; And that's how we were last weekend too,
where we followed the two parallel dramas, while at the same time we were the watching viewers
In these dramas, and also the creators, who while observing these dramas already
Designing the films that commemorate them in memory and consciousness.
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