9/11 Film Flies High

By Tony Buchsbaum

When it was released earlier this year, United 93 generated big buzz for being the first major film to depict 9/11 in all its horror. Director Paul Greengrass did a lot of very frank press about how he had the victims' families' permission and blessing to do the film, which dramatizes what happened on the United aircraft whose passengers fought for control before the plane crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania.

I wasn't sure about seeing the film in a theater; I have my own 9/11 connections, my own ghosts, and I wasn't willing to bare them or share them, even in the dark, in a theater of strangers. But at home, watching a DVD -- that's a different story.

I'm glad that I have now seen United 93, and I highly recommend it. Greengrass has crafted a drama that would be horrifying even if it weren't true, or at least based on truth. Of course, there's no way to know what really happened on the plane, save for recordings and recollections of phone calls the passengers made to their loved ones once the hijackers took control. But it hardly matters. The film is a harrowing depiction nonetheless.

It begins on that stunning morning when thoughts of terrorism and its aftermath had no spot on our consciousness, no blip on our collective radar. "Homeland Security" was not a phrase that had entered our lexicon. We were not at war. The President was seen as simply inept or illequipped, not an embarrassment. It was just another September Tuesday, and a few dozen passengers boarded their flight from Newark to Los Angeles. During the first half of the film, the scenes aboard the plane are gloriously dull because, well, who knew? We know, of course, as citizens and as the audience: the hijackers are shown as intimately as the passengers, taking their morning prayers, displaying expressions and emotions that could only be read as ambivalence. Though we argue that these men were inhuman, Greengrass shows them to be entirely human, with all the doubt that implies. They know what they're about to do, and in the film they're clearly unsure.

We see what's going on at air traffic control in Newark, and later in Boston, as planes do not respond to communications, then disappear from the scopes. We see the reactions as the two planes strike the towers of the World Trade Center. Everything we all felt in those moments is on the faces and in the eyes of the actors: the shock, the disbelief, the knowledge that nothing will ever be the same again.

All during this time, life on United 93 is normal. But soon enough, the hijackers take the plane, plunging the passengers and the audience into an unstoppable nosedive of tragedy.

Aside from a few actors whose faces you might recognize, most everyone in United 93 will be strangers to you, and that was a wise choice. We didn't know the real people; having that slight disconnect of seeing recognizable actors portraying them wouldn't have worked nearly as well. The fact that these actors seem like ordinary people gives the film an enhanced verisimilitude -- and frankly makes it all the more brutal to watch.

United 93 is, for all intents and purposes, a reenactment. Greengrass has assembled teams in front of and behind the camera who were clearly dedicated to capturing one slice of the massive events of that day and to do doing thoughtful, at times even restrained tribute to the men and women who successfully diverted the plane from its destination in Washington, DC. That they are to be applauded and honored goes without saying; that the film should be, as well, must be acknowledged.

It Could Be Lupus

A lot of people just can’t seem to get enough of the House, the television series featuring an acerbic diagnostician played with a flawless mid-Atlantic American accent by Golden Globe-winning British performer Hugh Laurie.

Though House is a medical drama, the series’ creator and executive producer, Canadian David Shore (Law & Order, Due South), has said it’s no coincidence that the mystery elements of House are so compelling. One reason is that the character of Dr. Gregory House was inspired in part by that original party sleuth and fellow drug user, Sherlock Holmes. As well, Shore’s intention with this Tuesday night FOX-TV series was that it be a detection show, like CSI, but one in which “germs were the suspects.”

While Shore has stayed true to that goal, he’s also allowed the personal characteristics of his show’s principal players to develop. Lisa Edelstein, as New Jersey hospital administrator Dr. Lisa Cuddy, is officious and prickly, yet retains a passion for medicine. Lovely Jennifer Morrison is self-righteous as Dr. Allison Cameron, Omar Epps shows his hotshot stripes as Dr. Eric Foreman, and Robert Sean and Jesse Spencer come off as totally believable in their respective roles as House’s best (and perhaps only) friend and a hot young Australian doctor. In season two, guest stars included Sela Ward (as House’s ex-wife), Ron Livingston, LL Cool J, and Cynthia Nixon.

But as talented as the cast and guest stars may be, the show’s growing fanbase tunes in week after week for Laurie’s occasionally obnoxious, damaged, but endearing Dr. Gregory House, who complains freely about his “nine to three” job, lacks the social skills to maintain a relationship, and whose constant pain from an injury he sustained prior to the show’s premiere gives the character’s lack of patience with his patients the roots to make it all believable.

With House we have a young show--season three premiered on September 5--that was spot-on coming out of the box. The writing, under Shore’s direction, is sharp and witty, the characters well thought out and developed, and the acting ... well, I’m a fan, but I can’t help but think it was tough to go wrong with Hugh Laurie. He’s come a long (long, long, long) way from his Blackadder days or even his time with the Cambridge Footlights, where he met--and for a while dated--Emma Thompson. Thompson later cast him in her 1995 production of Sense and Sensibility and was once quoted as saying that Laurie is “one of those rare people who manages to be lugubriously sexy, like a well-hung eel.”

If you’ve not yet taken the House plunge, season two of the series went on sale on DVD last month. The six-disc collection features all 24 episodes from the second season and includes some bonus material, including Valley Girl versions of a couple of key scenes.

Get Yer Hands Off My Scuppers and Swab the Deck

Tuesday the 19th of September -- is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. So... you know... get yer hands off my scuppers and swab the deck n’ stuff.

In case you’re skeptical, from Wikipedia (not always reliable but, in this case, the best we’ve got):

International Talk Like a Pirate Day is a parodic holiday invented in 1995 by two Americans, John Baur ("Ol' Chum Bucket") and Mark Summers ("Cap'n Slappy"), who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like pirates. For example, instead of "hello," an observer of this holiday would greet his mates with "Ahoy, me hearty!" The date was selected because it is the birthday of Summers' ex-wife and would consequently be easy for him to remember.

Well, as long as there’s a good reason.

Operations. Relations. Complications.

Everyone keeps talking about medical show and nighttime soap Grey’s Anatomy, despite the fact that the show’s official plotline sounds drier than hospital commissary toast:

A drama centered on the personal and professional lives of five surgical interns and their supervisors.

The show’s tagline brings it a bit closer:

Operations. Relations. Complications.

Now we’re getting someplace.

According to IMDB, it took some thinking before the final title stuck. The fairly unimaginative working titles for the show included Complications, Procedure, Surgeons and Under the Knife. A rose by another other name? Sure. But would it have smelled as sweet?

Season three of Grey’s Anatomy premieres September 21st on ABC. If that’s too far away, season two is available on DVD as of this week. The DVD package includes all 27 episodes of season two on six discs, plus lots of fun extras including commentary by director Jeff Melman and writer Krista Vernoff, four extended episodes, deleted scenes, an exclusive set tour and “Creating ‘Pink Mist’: Anatomy of a Special Effect.”

Strunz & Farah to Release 16th Album

Masters of the classical guitar, the Grammy-nominated duo of Strunz & Farah will release Fantaseo, their 16th album, in mid-October.

Jorge Strunz and Ardeshir Farah have been performing together since 1980. From Costa Rica and Iran respectively, their meeting marked the first time that Latin American and Middle Eastern music came together on the guitar.

For those who haven’t heard them, on their Web site, Strunz & Farah attempt to explain their music:

Often mistaken for flamenco, the music is not, although flamenco is one influence. Flamenco is a Southern Spanish form played strictly with fingernails (no plectrum) and which follows specific rhythmic and harmonic rules for each toque or form. True improvisation, a major feature of Strunz & Farah's music, is not found in flamenco, where the music is structured in what are known as falsetas, or short passages that are composed. It is the assembly of the falsetas that is improvised in flamenco, which ones where and when.

There’s more, of course, all quite interesting. If you get the chance, try for both a listen and a read.

Fantaseo includes nine new compositions and brings together an international ensemble including violin, bass, Latin and Middle Eastern percussion and the Armenian shvi. As well, nternationally renowned jazz flutist Hubert Laws joins them on “Luxuriance.”

“This album represents a more eclectic and lyrical expression than the previous few releases,” says Jorge Strunz.

Fantaseo goes on sale October 17th.

A Short Break From Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

Please indulge me while we take a short break from our scheduled musical programming for me to (ahem) plug my book.

Calculated Loss is a financial thriller set against the backdrop of the stock market and haute cuisine. And while those two things would seem to have nothing to do with each other, they have even less to do with music.

If you’d like to read an excerpt of this entirely non-musical book, it’s here.