Meet the Street: How Sept. 11 Might Change the Movies

Violence, as we all well know, is big business. In the wake of the terrorist acts of Sept. 11, Hollywood is now faced with the moral and financial dilemma of how to portray violence responsibly and with sensitivity to those who were lost in the attacks and their relatives.

Terry George Hollywood screenwriter

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Already, several film and TV projects have been delayed or shelved indefinitely, including the latest Arnold Schwarzenegger blockbuster, Collateral Damage, which was originally scheduled to be released Oct. 3. The Warner Bros. movie, which is about a fireman who tries to avenge the death of his family in a terrorist bombing, is now scheduled to be released early next year.

Terry George, a Hollywood screenwriter, producer and director, was one of the writers on Collateral Damage and also of the Oscar-nominated In the Name of the Father. Here he shares his thoughts on how the events of Sept. 11 are likely to change the movies that get made, not just in terms of how violence is portrayed, but also in how sensitive they are to foreign sensibilities.

TSC: Do you think Warner Brothers should have shelved your movie, Collateral Damage, after the horrendous acts of Sept. 11? Couldn't they just have let the moviegoers decide whether or not this was something they wanted to see?

George: No. I agree with what they did at the time because Warner Brothers has a huge investment in this, and they were acutely aware of people's sensibilities. And the last thing we would want would be for people in general, and particularly relatives and friends of those who died on Sept. 11, to be offended. So, I think they were right to delay it, and pick a better time to release it. As far as I know, they are planning to release it [next year].

TSC: Do you expect that the public, following this tragedy, is still going to like movies that have lots of violence in them?

George: Regarding violence in movies, I think that some of it is surreal, almost comic book, while other movies use violence to enhance the reality. So I think, given that distinction, [people making films] with reality-based violence will become more cautious. And I think one of the major problems that the movie industry now faces -- particularly the big studios that produce the mega-blockbusters -- is that the reality of events on Sept. 11 so overshadowed and engaged and shocked this nation and the world, that any attempt to come close to, or duplicate, or re-enact a similar scenario is going to look pretty foolish and pathetic.

TSC: So what do you think this is going to mean for story lines among your fellow scriptwriters, and for you?

George: I discussed this at a Writers Guild [roundtable Wednesday] night. I'm hopeful that there's a window of opportunity here where psychological and character plots can come to the fore again and we can get back to character-driven or Hitchcockian drama, rather than the mega-blockbuster. I think that would be a good thing.

TSC: Are screenwriters concerned about what impact violence in their movie and television scripts might have on violence in the real world? Are they now worried that producing violent movies and shows could be incendiary and lead to more violence and/or terrorism?

George: I'm not sure that writers believe they caused terrorism. What was discussed [at the roundtable] was that we now very clearly live in a global market. There's been a level of cultural globalization that Hollywood writers, for television and for screen, have to become acutely aware of, because clearly the message from the Islamic world is that some of the culture that emanates from Hollywood and the United States deeply offends a section of their population.

The consensus was that we have to become acutely aware of the impact of our culture on the rest of the world and how it's perceived.

TSC: Isn't that very restricting?

George: No, I think it can be liberating because we should challenge ourselves to look outside the United States and outside Hollywood and Burbank, across the ocean, and see how we can stimulate audiences around the world without offending them. If it's a global market, then the culture and the stories we tell should also be global. They shouldn't reflect an American sensibility, necessarily.

That's a challenge. It's a big challenge, but for me, one of the burning messages coming back from the Middle East and Asia is that with the onset of satellite television and global markets that have access to 24-hour news and 24-hour drama, the world has changed dramatically and we have to be crucially aware that our audience stretches beyond the bounds of the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans.

TSC: Is that going to mean fewer movies about America and Americans?

George: Just as we are fundamentally aware, now, of ethnic and political minorities within the United States, we have to be attuned to sensibilities across the world. It seems that Hollywood has learned how to responsibly treat ethnic minorities as well as gender minorities -- homosexuals and lesbians, or whatever. We are acutely aware of their political perspective.

I think that we should stretch that beyond, to realize that there are whole sections of the marketplace that no longer want to be portrayed stereotypically.

TSC: Do you expect the movie studios to decrease their budgets for blockbusters that contain violence?

George: I think it's too early to say that yet. Who knows what effect the war will have on the common culture? Certainly in the past, films have either set out to eulogize heroes who were caught up in war, or to try to understand the inner workings of what went on in a particular war situation, whether that was Vietnam or the Second World War.

What I understand is there is a deep feeling and desire now among writers and producers to use the medium -- probably the most powerful medium in the world -- positively to enact some change and take us beyond the terrible events of Sept. 11.

TSC: At the same time, violence is a very big seller for the studios. If the studios do end up toning down the amount of violence in their films, will this hurt their bottom line?

George: I'm not really sure that we are going to remove a lot of violence. But I think the way it's portrayed, or the recreation of it -- there's going to be considerably more thought put into that.

It's increasingly obvious that entertainment is a huge and developing market, so I don't think any single event is going to stop the need for people to want to be entertained and informed. In fact, I think that it will be the exact opposite: that they will want to know what is going on, and sooner or later they are going to be looking for dramatic analyses of this.

TSC: What sort of movie would you make that would intelligently explore the issue of terrorism on U.S. soil?

George: Actually, it's one of the things I write about quite a lot. For me, I want to get inside the head of characters and see what motivates them. I think I, along with most of the country, am desperate to know what possibly could motivate 19 intelligent young men to not only commit suicide but to carry out such an act of rage and anger.

I want to see Mohamed Atta's life story. I want somebody to write that book or write that movie so that, honestly, we can get inside there and see what it was that drove him to this level of rage, so that we understand that and attempt to, in some way, come to some understanding of it.

TSC: Are the reports true that the FBI is working with some of your colleagues to think out of the box and try and figure out what these people might do next?

George: There were reports in Variety and in Reuters that there was a panel out on the West Coast set up some time ago consisting of writers and screenwriters advising the U.S. Army about particular scenarios and how to deal with those. There have been such think tanks going back to the Second World War.

I have to say, though, that if this was Sept. 10 and that panel sat down, I don't think anybody would have given much credence to what happened on Sept. 11 in its scope. As Tom Clancy said, "This was not a credible scenario." We have to understand we are up against some particularly clever and ruthless people, and try to find out what motivates them to deal with the foundations of this anger.

TSC: In closing, how has this affected your outlook for your work and your career?

George: Quite deeply. Particularly in my career, I use political events to explore the morality of individuals and how they come to moral decisions. For me, this is an enormous challenge to see if I can find a way to interpret this to explain to an American audience and the rest of the world, "Here's what drives these people, and here's our counterargument. Here is the moral good that can possibly come out of this and how we can battle this apparent rage and anger and evil."