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An Emotional Tie to History through a Hollywood Film
By Aishleen Radetich, with comments by Melissa Barrero, Michael Berilla, Yue Chen, Samantha DiStefano, Rachel Dorrell, Kelsey Duffy, Jack Golden, Patrick Hammond, Lynsey Hervey, Suzanne Hyslip, Kaitlyn Landers, Thomas Mazzucco, Sarah Morgan, Parimal Patel, Erika Ross, Teresa Salvatore

Events in history often stray from the actual truth as time passes and different individuals offer their own perspectives on what they believe to have happened. Often in the media important things are left out or told in a different light to the general public in order to gain attention and support from them. History is also often forgotten because of the loss of emotional ties that are connected to specific events, which more or less affect the way in which people remember the event. The idea of learning about historical events and understanding what actually happened is extremely difficult without actually living through them. However, textbooks or history classes are not the only way society as a whole can try to understand a...
A Contention with Greengrass
By David Primak, with comment by Kenneth Herring

Robert Burgoyne applies an interesting term, "acting out," in his analysis of United 93. He says that Dominick La Capra defines this term as "a melancholy possession of the subject by the past." Burgoyne expands on this meaning and sees the film as insisting to stick to a narrow and literal representation of the events that occurred. This focus on the re-creation of the traumatic events are, according to him, "largely depleted of context of temporal extension."
United 93 -- Too Soon?
By Taylor Kite

As 21st century Americans, we live in a time and place where the word “terrorism” evokes strong and relevant emotions. Undoubtedly the isolated incident that comes to mind first upon thinking of terrorism is the tragedies of September 11, 2001. This is the day that changed our world forever. That said, the impact it had on the American people and their outlook on life and what it meant to be an American was more significant than most other areas. American children watched the television, confused and lost, as the two towers came crashing down. This confusion grew into concern when they saw their parents try to hide their emotions and saw the man they understood to be the leader of our country go in front of the world...
Simply Watching
By Andrew Wright

Very little will ever be known about how the hijacking of United 93 took place. We know that four hijackers -- Ziad Jarrah, Ahmed al-Nami, Hamza al-Ghamdi, and Mohand al-Sheri -- forcefully took over the plane at 9:28 A.M. on September 11, 2001. By 9:57, the hostages aboard the flight had learned that they were to be used as a suicidal weapon. At 10:03, United Flight 93 crashed into the earth near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. While we do have the conversations many hostages had with their loved ones, we can never truly know how the passengers spent their terrifying final seconds and minutes. Director Paul Greengrass must be afforded artistic license when presenting these scenes. However, we do have a complete record of the actions of...