United 93, a film released in theaters this past Friday, has raised a series of questions and conflicts related to its integrity and timing. We are just shy of the five-year anniversary of September 11 and the foremost question being asked is: Are we ready to relive that day?

War films are not unusual in the modern world — Black Hawk Down, Jarhead and Saving Private Ryan all produced big bucks in the box office. But can an unconventional war film, released while an unconventional war is raging, have the same effect? And is it appropriate? Have we healed enough to start making money off our own wounds?

This film tells the story of the United Airlines flight that departed from Newark with a destination of San Francisco on September 11, 2001. However, as we all know, the flight never arrived. It crashed in Pennsylvania after the passengers on board took a stand against the hijackers. The film has no big name actors — the director, Paul Greengrass, wanted to keep the movie as true to life as possible.

The problem is, it may be too soon.

The news is suddenly packed with reminders of that day: the release of the cockpit tapes, the covering up of the cockpit tapes, the family interviews. There is a movie due out on August 11 called World Trade Center, chronicling the true story of two police officers trapped beneath the tower rubble — but it’s being written up as a film about the “refusal to bow down to terrorism.” Many people are wondering if the sudden releases of 9/11 footage and movies like United 93 and World Trade Center are not just propaganda for an unconventional war.

It’s been done before. Casablanca was a romance set in a time of war that was blatantly supportive of the cause. The Dirty Dozen glorified war when it turned convicts into wartime heroes. Some people are afraid that we are not ready for United 93 to take flight, that it is only being used as a tool to raise the level of patriotism.

Even if that is not the intent of the filmmakers at all, one cannot help but wonder: When does it become wrong for Hollywood to make money off tragic events from which the nation is still in the process of healing?

The choice is in the hands of the people. No one is forcing anyone to watch this film, and Universal Pictures, the company behind this film, is donating more than one million dollars to a memorial for the people depicted in the story.

According to polls, though, Americans have agreed that this is one movie to avoid. It’s just too much too soon.