Brie, a site intern at Pattinson Online.uk wrote a paper focusing on Remember Me and how the film impacted her and others. She also writes about critics and their impact and perspective. The paper was written as a final paper for her Sociology of Pop Culture class.
Remembering Them
by Brie
Life changing moments rarely happen when they are expected or how we expect them. I remember September 11th so clearly in my mind it's almost cliché. You can look at one of the hundreds of photographs your parents have saved as memories and still nothing comes rushing back so clearly as where you were and what you were doing as the Twin Towers fell. I remember this moment, standing unnaturally still as the old black radio in my classroom broadcast exactly what was happening while my classmates and I looked to our seventh grade teacher for confirmation that this was some sick joke or part of a lesson.
Instead, we were told calmly - in an almost eerie way - that we had been attacked and that we needed to continue with our day like it were any other. It was the approach everyone on our campus took that day. Even now I can't understand the logic behind that statement. I know now that this was supposed to be our small way of saying, "You won't take our lives from us. You won't break us." I didn't fully understand this display as a child but I trusted the adults to know how to handle something this unfathomable. However, now that I’ve gotten older I’ve started to question this method of handling the shock and pain of 9/11. The real turning point for me was nothing like the books and films portray it. As I said before, you expect these life changing moments at the times people tell you to expect them - perhaps prom, graduation, college, getting your first car, your first real relationship - any number of things we've been told are the moments we'll remember; the moments that change you as a person.
These events have never resonated with me because, while they had meaning, they didn't change me on the inside. I was, and am, still me. My understanding of life hadn't changed, and honestly, everyone prepares you for these events in life to the degree that you've almost already experienced them in some way. Overexposure. Old news. It wasn't until I saw a movie, certainly not the most respected way to stumble upon one of these moments, that I was truly able to feel what I should have felt all those years ago on September 11th. As corny as it may sound to most, when I saw Remember Me I was finally able to understand, if only on some small level, the complete impact these events had on the people who lived through 9/11 and that has forever changed me. This is why I am so saddened to see the way this movie has been torn apart and ridiculed.
To reaad the rest of Brie's article, please click here:
Pattinson Online.uk Fan Written Paper on Remember Me. It resumes at the 6th paragraph down.
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Regards sur le film Remember Me
...Remember Me Saturday
...Spunk Ransom
...Let Me Sign
...Thinking of Rob
...Emilie de Ravin Fan
...Dedicated to Emilie Blog
...Gregory Jbara Official Web Site
...Respect Robert at LetMeSign.com
3 comments:
Oh my god, thanks for posting this because I feel the exact same way she did.
I wasn't as young as she was, but I still struggled with what it meant. Six months afterwards, I cut it off. I mean, I literally turned off the TV and stopped thinking about it. I turned off my emotions.
When I went to see Remember Me, it awoke something within me. I have begun to process it. I'm reading ten books about it at once, I'm writing fiction to help process, watching every documentary I can find and generally just trying to wrap my mind around it.
Thank God someone else feels this way because everyone around me looks at me like I'm nuts. The whole country has compartmentalized and doesn't want to think about it anymore.
But I can't let myself do that. I need to think of it. I need to feel it. I swear for months now I've walked around feeling like it was September 01. It's bizare.
Anyway, thanks for posting this. I'll go read the rest of the article tomorrow.
Thanks for posting this Kat - I was actually expecting you would mention it sooner or later! I'm feeling too lazy to translate Brie's paper on my site, but it's really interesting and it got lots of comments in a very short time.
karma...
Wow, oh wow. It sounds like you need to do this.
I'm no psychologist, nor do I know you, except for these comments, but IMHO, and I do mean Humble, if this movie awoke something so meaningful, I think you should go with it. It would be good if you could talk to someone about it; I don't necessarily mean a counsellor, but perhaps a friend or relative, but I know sometimes those do not understand.
I think you might be right, that the country hasn't processed it in the way real grief demands. This film has touched of a firestorm of feeling and thought and I honestly don't think the filmmakers were aware how great that would be.
Many by now know that what it did for me was put me back in touch with my son's death; for me, Tyler was my son. But, if one reads the comments on so many other sites (you might know the ones I mean), it has been a touchstone for so many as well a way of putting each person into her/his own particular grief to deal with on another level.
I think Brie's statement about it being a life-changing film is incredible, and more common than perhaps she thinks. I continue to be amazed by this effect.
I hope you can come out of this with some serenity and wisdom, which is hard to come by these days. Good Luck.
xo
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