Has 9/11 made an impact on cinema, and has it changed cinema forever?

Has 9/11 made an impact on cinema, and has it changed cinema forever?

Presenter: To most of the world not just America, 9/11 has been a touchy subject. Some people fear it and avoid it completely, others like to tell the story or tell their story. Many film-makers throughout the past years have tried their hand at 9/11 and intertwining the subject into their work.

Presenter: In this presentation I will be exploring some of the films that have been impacted by 9/11 and some films which have allegoric themes of 9/11. The 3 films i will be deconstructing and discussing will be Christopher Nolans dark masterpiece The Dark knight and the pretty much unknown Matt Reeves' hand held disaster film Cloverfield and actor/director Jon Favreau's comic-book movie Iron man. Firstly The Dark knight, the 9/11 allegory in this is massive but somewhat none obvious to the audience because its used so subtly.

Presenter: Jesse carey is an Interactive media producer and she says this about The dark knight. "It would be a mistake to say The Dark Knight is just a comic book movie. No, this is a cold look at post-9/11 America and how we view right and wrong in a world gone mad. And with a plot that analyzes everything from torture to wiretapping, the allegory is thick."

Projector: Image of the Dark knight film poster
Presenter: This has many connitations to 9/11 including the rubble of the world trade center and the burning building behind batman also the bit of dust and debree floating through the air. No doubt the 9/11 allgory of just the allegory is thick and Nolan did this on purpose to make the audience think of 9/11.

Presenter: The plot of that film is Gotham City is gripped by of terror. The motive of the criminal does not appear to be money. In one memorable scene, the Joker sets fire to a mountain of cash and there are no demands made of the Gotham police. The villain causes mayhem and murder simply because he can. Also the usual methods dont work on him. When the Joker is arrested, the police leave him alone in a room with Batman who beats him up to find out what his plans are. But no amount of violence even from as powerful a figure as Batman makes any difference. The Joker is past the stage where he cares about pain.

Projector: The Dark knight interigation scene

Presenter: Continuing with the Superhero theme, In Iron man, Tony Stark gets taken hostage by terrorist and is made to make armed weapons for terrorists. This is remoninsent of 9/11 and although the film isn't based around 9/11 and terrorist just has some themes during the start of the film, including the terrorist video camera scene. 

Projector: Opening sequence to Iron man

Presenter: This shows that even films dont have to be based upon the themes of 9/11 to still have the imagery of terrorists and 9/11.

Presenter: The film Cloverfield is chocked full of 9/11 imagery. The main 9/11 imagary is the camera angles and the amatur filming from the main character who is filming it through his video camera just like they did on September 11th. We thr whole film through his eyes just like most of what we saw from 9/11 was from the citizens whose video cameras caught the terror on camera.

Presenter: The monster in the film represents the terrorists, its has no clear motive but is just destroys the city through pure chaos. We dont know where it came from or why it is here we just know it is causing destruction. The first half of the film we see nothing of this monster you just see wrecked buildings, debree and clouds of smoke which is clear iconograpy of 9/11 and when the monster does come in it removes most of the horror because you know it is fantasy again. Reeves is smart in doing this because just before it gets too much and become more or less a reeinactment of the events of 9/11.

Projector: Various scenes of 9/11

Presenter: Overall 9/11 has not just impacted the lives of people all around the world, it has impacted history and the future and everything that will be created in the future including films or any type of media, will be impacted by 9/11.