Teaching Film after 9/11

Abstract

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?

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