4/30/2006

Reviews of "Flight 93"

The reaction overall seems to be extremely positive. If you are interested in seeing what the audiences who have seen Flight 93 think of the movie: click here for detailed reviews and here for a simple survey. The Wall Street Journal review is here. The New York Times review is here. A brief Chicago Tribune review is here.

posted by John Lott at 1:40 PM

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

First, your book The Bias Against Guns is excellent and I use the information in it all the time. On this 9-11 topic, while it is certainly true that some of the conclusions drawn from the few facts that are actually known about 9-11 are subject to scrutiny, that cuts both ways doesn't it? Is there enough data to draw conclusions? Suspensiuon of belief in general may be the most prudent course. Thus, unless one dogmatically believes the "official story" about 9-11, it is difficult not to come to the same conclusion - that the "official story" is pretty "weird and stupid." What is most frustrating about discourse on 9-11 is that virtually all of the real evidence has either been supressed or destroyed in the name of "national security." Why is it a matter of "national security" that we not be able to see the many cc video tapes that document the Pentagon strike, the remains of every single plane, the airport videotapes showing the hijackers, the remains of the hijackers, the FAA voice tapes, the first responder tapes, the flight recorders from every single plane, and the remains of the towers themselves (it was big effort haul away and dispose of the tower rubble without allowing any inspection of any of it)? And why destroy all of the Able Danger files and data (3 terabytes of computer files)? So, we are left a handful of facts, a massive amount of admittedly destroyed and supressed evidence, which produced an official story and invasions of 2 countries, a new "domestic surveillance state," - and the few people out there questioning what happened - they get called "weird and stupid." Perhaps there are some kooky conclusions being drawn. But awefully important questions remain. Don't they?

5/01/2006 3:22 PM  
Blogger John Lott said...

Dear Aaron:

Thanks for taking the time to read the book. I appreciate it.

I agree with you that true believers can exist on both sides. My main problem with the movie is that if you are going to challenge conventional wisdom at least try a little to respond to the arguments from the other side. Take for example their pictures showing that a few windows were exploding out from the World Trade Towers a few floors below the level that had so far collapsed. One theory would be that the air pressure from the building that had collapsed so far created air pressure that caused these windows to be pushed out. The point is that their theory of bombs in the building is not just the only theory, nor even the most believable one, and that the movie producers should at least try once in a while to address alternative explanations.

As to the Able Danger files, it wasn't part of the movie, and I don't know enough to respond to you point. It certainly seems like some explanation for the destruction would be nice. Possibly that is a conspiracy, though my first response is to assume an accident or some other explanation. While I may be misunderstanding you point, you do not seem to be asserting that the loss of data is proof of conspiracy (which is what the movie would seem to do), but that there are questions that need to be answered.

5/02/2006 4:44 PM  

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