August 13, 2004

Nine Innings from GETTIN YOUR ASS KICKED

filed under: Stuff to be pissed off about

Holy crap am I mad about this.

First just the facts:

HBO has started running promos for a new sports special called "Nine Innings from Ground Zero."

You can see the trailer here on the HBO website. If you can, go watch it and then come back to read the rest of this. I'll wait.

It's a documentary about the Yankees in the World Series, less than two months after 9/11. It's all about the power of America's game to uplift the national spirit. There are quotes from Guiliani, Bush, etc. talking about how the hand of God reached down to lift New Yorkers from the ashes and give us new hope (I'm paraphrasing).

I remember that World Series. It was, after all, only three years ago - maybe a LITTLE fresh to get the gauzy romantic treatment. It really did feel like some Higher Power reached down and redeemed us - two nights in a row, with two out in the ninth inning, with TWO STRIKES, the Yankees came back to tie it or win it. Lisa and I knelt and wept. After the horror of 9/11, there really was something redemptive in it.

And then something happened:

C'mon. Say it with me. You know what it is.

WE LOST.

It turned out God was just toying with us. Because the untouchable Mariano Rivera gave up the losing run. WE LOST.

So all us Yankee fans, all us New Yorkers, all us children of 9/11 had to abandon that little, shallow bit of comfort that we'd gotten from a game. We had to process that and get over it, and remind ourselves it was, after all, just a game. We had to convince ourselves that, as beautiful as it had felt to feel protected from above, the Yankees losing did NOT mean that God had abandoned us.

HBO and the producers of this show seem to have forgotten that part.

They'll deal with it in the show, I'm sure. But that's not how they're selling it. They're selling it as a miracle of redemption, of the healing power of sport.

To them I say:

FUCK YOU.

Because you know what? They're selling it. They should be ashamed.

And they have the AUDACITY to use a visual motif of DUST for this shameful promo. THEY ARE SELLING A FICTION WITH THE DUST OF 9/11. Shame on them.

I ask HBO, the producers, those who did the promo: "Can you tell me what that dust FELT LIKE in your hair? In your mouth? In your lungs? Oh, you CAN'T? Then FUCK YOURSELF."

Shame. Shame on them.

Posted by rjt at August 13, 2004 12:42 PM
Comments

How do you know these producers haven't been affected by 9/11? And even if they weren't, should we only allow those who were below Canal St. that morning the right to retell the story? Michael Moore sure wasn't there, should he not use 9/11 in his movie title or tell the story? Should CBS not have aired their 9/11 doc in March of '02 for the same reason?

If your problem is with the film, maybe you should see it before commenting. If your problem is with the promo, maybe you should ask yourself what is more shameful:
1 - using 9/11 imagery by a critically acclaimed network that does not depend on advertiser revenue and has always put out first-rate documentaries, or
2- using your personal experience with 9/11 to judge others and tell them to go "f**k" themselves?

Posted by: Dave at August 13, 2004 05:32 PM

Dave:

First: you're right, I have no idea how the producers of the film or the promo were affected by 9/11.

Second: I'm not objecting to the retelling of the story of 9/11. I'm objecting to an emotional packaging of the World Series that followed which relies on a distortion (an implied distortion, but a pretty clear one).

Third: You are correct - my problem is with the promo, as the film has yet to be released.

Fourth: I don't have to puzzle very long over your question. Between a network (whose critical acclaim seems irrelevent to this discussion) using the imagery of 9/11 to pull emotional strings in the promo for a sports documentary, and expressing my personal response to that on my personal website, I'm not going to stay up late agonizing over which is less palatable.

If, of course, somehow against all odds my sparsely-read blog ends up coming to the attention of someone involved with the documentary or the promo and my comments hurt their feelings, then they have my apologies.

But my response to sanctimonious commentary on what I should or shouldn't see fit to write boils down to no more or less than "hey, thanks for reading."

Posted by: rjt at August 13, 2004 11:02 PM