It's time we looked

FOR the last couple of weeks, the national media have been in a full-scale hand-wringing tizzy over the impending arrival of "United 93," the first big studio project to deal directly with the events of Sept. 11. From Internet bloggers to the news weeklies, everybody has been posing pretty much the same question about the movie, which chronicles the deadly events involving the hijacked plane that crashed in a Pennsylvania field well short of its intended target.

Is it too soon?

The outcry has raised legitimate issues. Newsweek asked of the film: "Will anyone want to see it?" Bloggers have argued about whether anyone should profit from any money the movie makes. The New York Times questioned whether audiences should have been warned before seeing the film's no-holds-barred trailer, which was pulled from one New York theater after unnerved audience members voiced complaints. The hubbub over the trailer inspired an online discussion among a foursome of editors at Slate, in which Associate Editor Michael Agger opined: "I see this trailer as an unwelcome and somewhat grotesque reminder of the great Onion headline published after 9/11: 'American Life Turns Into Bad Jerry Bruckheimer Movie.' "

While I respect the fact that New Yorkers in particular may see this issue in a very different light from the rest of us, I think everyone is looking at this film, made by British writer-director Paul Greengrass, through the wrong end of the telescope. Instead of asking "Is it too soon?" I wish people would say, "What took so long?"

For 4 1/2 years, not a week, perhaps even a day, has gone by without mention of Sept. 11. Our newspapers and magazines have been filled with stories, often illustrated by graphic photographs of the tragedy. Stacks of books have been written. The war on terrorism has been a central focus of our political lives. So many documentaries and TV movies have been made about 9/11 that reviewers now contrast the new offerings the way film critics compare vintage versus latter-day Scorsese films. The playing of never-before-heard tapes detailing the frantic chaos in Flight 93's cockpit made headlines last week as jurors pondered the fate of Al Qaeda zealot Zacarias Moussaoui.