The opinions expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily shared by other DCist editors or writers. This Opinionist is running today, because the film discussed opens in theaters tomorrow.

Four and a half years ago, I ran from the basement of my office building across from Union Station to the street, where I stood and stared at the Capitol Dome, believing, with good reason, that I was about to witness its destruction. An hour later I, along with much of the city, made my way through a tangle of panicked traffic toward my home as thick smoke drifted over Arlington, carrying with it the horrors of the flames at the Pentagon and reflecting the wreckage at an isolated field in Pennsylvania.

Tomorrow, in theaters across the country, a film titled United 93 will officially open, enticing viewers with the specter of our Capitol’s destruction, not by alien lasers or doomsday asteroids but by real terrorists flying an actual plane which held actual people, all of whom are now very actually dead. And that’s OK; we should not shield ourselves from such emotional images — from the footage of the actual events, or from a sculpture of a falling businessman, or from dramatic reenactments funded by major movie studios. We should question, however, whether it is appropriate for individuals to make millions of dollars off such representations, and we should ask ourselves why we so readily accept such overt exploitation of that day’s tragedy.