Rorotoko

In a nutshell

9/11 was one of the most photographed events in history, and in the years that followed numerous films investigated, profiled and sought to understand what happened on that day and how such a calamity could occur. As years pass and the events grow more distant in time, film portraits of what happened on 9/11 grow more salient as a form of social memory.

Firestorm examines the influence of 9/11 on American filmmaking. How have filmmakers portrayed the attacks? Have the accounts been balanced, factually honest or politically partisan? What are the meanings of 9/11 as proposed by filmmakers? What role does narrative as used in film play in fostering or, alternatively, in inhibiting our understanding of 9/11?

I examine Hollywood films, made-for-television series and movies, as well as docudramas and documentaries, including the burgeoning documentary sub-genre of conspiracy films. The Hollywood films include high profile movies such as Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center as well as many films, such as The Dark Knight, which are not overtly about 9/11 but which nevertheless obliquely reference the attacks using the conventions of popular genres. The made-for-television material includes Fox’s series 24 as well as PBS’ documentary series on al Qaeda and terrorism, America at a Crossroads. Documentaries include Fahrenheit 9/11 and numerous nonfiction films about the Iraq War and the events at Abu Graib.

This is a large and diverse group of films. Within their portraits, there is not a single 9/11. There are many, with meanings that are in contention, that are fought about and argued over. While commercial film and television initially were hesitant about exploring 9/11, they successfully adapted and formatted this tragedy according to the conventions of popular entertainment. In contrast, documentary filmmakers looked deeper and probed more incisively at the event.

The wide angle

I cover the range of filmmaking elicited by 9/11 by placing it in several frameworks. One of the most important is provided by the historical context of the events. The attacks have been extensively investigated, and a great deal of empirical knowledge now exits about them. I measure the films against this information and assess their creative departures from the records and their poetic uses of image, character and setting.

Symbolic, poetic, mythological or ideological meanings typically arise within the gaps or interstices between what is factually known and what the films may creatively propose about the events in question. I aim to be sensitive to the poetic and artistic uses of film but also to hold the films in question to the known record of events. To do this, I spend time talking about many non-film subjects as background to the filmmaking – the 9/11 investigation, the history of al Qaeda, construction methods used in the World Trade Center, and the aftermath of the attacks as manifest in the Iraq War and controversies over forcible renditions and harsh interrogation methods.

I’ve written the book to be accessible, avoiding jargon. The ideal readers include scholars but also a more general audience interested in the topic. The book shows how films have interpreted the attacks and how the films themselves may be interpreted, and it also provides the context of events on which the films draw.

Because the attacks were so deeply traumatic, documentary filmmakers turned to narrative as means for processing the trauma and for understanding the terms of this epic atrocity.