Christian Adams - The Hapless German On United 93
There's always one little dig they have to put in, isn't there? There's always some pandering to the current mythology. While Paul Greengrass' excellent new film does everything it can to preserve verisimilitude, making the film almost exactly as long as the flight itself, and even having real people in it, there's always room for an allegory. Greengrass himself admits this, and in his statement about the film on the official website suggests that the dilemma of the people on flight 93 reflects that of the western world today: do we strike first or do we wait for the terrorists to fulfill their plans? This is a surprisingly conservative viewpoint for a film that does everything it can to be as neutral as possible, but it also happens to be the defining political allegory of the film.
The allegory is complete, because the film also presents the liberal perspective of the dilemma. There is one European passenger on the plane, a German, Christian Adams, who pleads appeasement with the other passengers, and then is mobbed by them when he bawls incomprehensible pleas to the terrorists themselves. It's not clear if he's trying to warn them or just trying to distance himself from the proceedings. There's no way of knowing if this really happened or not. In the film, the German is a cowardly snake. Adams is presumably not one of the list of heroes that the film is dedicated to. Nor is it known if his family was consulted in the making of the movie, as so many other survivors' families were.
But the Germans are funny, as everyone knows, and even this film needs its comic relief.
Comments
I guess one of the english knackers (probably the only one that wasn't drunk) on the plane had the time to phone home and complain about the german coward. The truth must be told, right?
Bulette; June 14, 2006 11:18 PM
What's a knacker? You've made that word up.
Ben; June 15, 2006 12:22 AM
If they wanted to make a political statement, or if this is just an example of artistic freedom, couldn't they have -with the same artistic freedom, and some tact- used a fictional name instead of staining that of a real person?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5042616.stm
hsing; June 15, 2006 1:48 AM
This is for all the fags that don't know what a knacker is:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=knacker
Bulette; June 15, 2006 7:28 AM
Not surprising at all of Hollyweird and se Germans.
Pete; June 15, 2006 11:30 AM
I believe the modern English term for "knacker" is "chav."
Anglofritz Comment Policy Amendment (No: 130696):
Anyone using archaic Gaelic words on this forum may legitimately, and without recourse to evidence, be suspected of homosexuality.
Hey, I don't make the rules.
But in principle you are right - if there had been a chav on board United 93, he might well have grassed on the kraut.
Ben; June 15, 2006 12:03 PM
Surely knacker is the singular for knackers, which in my day (-which incidently is today) meant bollocks. As in "Get your smackers round me knackers", a chat up line often used (-with little success) by some of my friends in my youth....
Word
Anonymous; June 16, 2006 7:39 PM
"Nor is it known if his family was consulted in the making of the movie, as so many other survivors' families were."
The family of Christian Adams refused to be interviewed by the movie makers. His wife said that would be too painful
Atlantiker; July 7, 2006 9:34 AM
I'm American. And an American unhappy with the negative stereotyping Americans typically endure at the hands of judgmental Europeans. That said, I was appalled at the way the German passenger was portrayed, a character unmistakably identifiable and linked to the only German on board that flight. It's a slander. Greengrass should be ashamed. He could have made the point (about European appeasement--which I think is fair critisism) without sacrificing the reputation of one of the terrorists' victims--adding insult to injury, as the saying goes. Christian Adams's family should sue.
Sean Smith; September 13, 2006 12:06 AM
"I guess one of the english knackers (probably the only one that wasn't drunk) on the plane had the time to phone home and complain about the german coward. The truth must be told, right? "
You've only guessed... and got it wrong. There were simply no German coward. Actually one passenger said he didn't want to die, but he said it in English and he can't be linked with Christian.
This "German coward" is pure propaganda.
Estelle; September 14, 2006 9:21 AM
Here's an interesting twist: the decision of to make the German victim into the classic Airport 19?? character who cracks under pressure was made by the German actor who played him. Greenglass allowed the actors to improvise their performances based on what they knew about "their" victim. In most cases, that knowledge was based on communication with the families, but not in the case of Christian Adams. Thus, the actor himself decided to chew some scenary and give an otherwise excellent docudrama an unneeded "Hollywood" dimension. Greenglass' responsibility is that he did nothing to curb this guy's performance. It's a little similar to what Orlando Jones did for the "character" of Jar-Jar Binks in Star Wars I, leading to endless tirades about Lucas' bigotry. Maybe all movies need a PC consultant (not talking about computers here) as well as a technical advisor :).
dlp; February 27, 2007 8:06 PM
Maybe Greengrass was in the wrong letting this German be portrayed as being a coward toward the Muslim terrorists if there was no evidence. I guess he was simply assuming he was like 98-99% of all Europeans when it comes to cowering to them. There was that 1 to 2 percent chance he wasn't a coward though so he shouldn't have assumed he was.
Eric Peters; January 15, 2008 6:00 PM