Forty-nine minutes

Have you ever read Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult? It reads like a script for Columbine: The Lifetime Movie. It has everything: the relentlessly-bullied geek with guns and a grudge; the endlessly-sadistic jock who thinks with his little head a lot more than with his big one; the outwardly-popular but secretly-tormented popular chick who dates the jock now but who hung out with the geek years ago.

The geek is into the chick - he e-mails her a gushy love letter, only to have the chick's Mean Girl friend spam it out to everyone in the school. But the chick's not into him - she only wants to be his friend. She doesn't like him that way. Jock Boy - a cocky hockey player who knows what to do with a big, long stick - is the one who turns her on, even though he treats her like shit.

Before I go on, let me say that this post is not about Nineteen Minutes; it is about the fact that no one has ever written a book about Columbine called Forty-Nine Minutes. Why not?

Someone did make a documentary about 4/20 called 13 Families. I think it should have been called 15 Families, but I can see why others don't.

The massacre began at 11:19 a.m. Mountain time and ended at 12:08 p.m. - forty-nine minutes later. Those were forty-nine minutes that ended 15 lives and changed countless others forever.

I wasn't there, and I don't know anyone who was, but ... in a way, those forty-minute minutes changed my life, as well. I was a few years younger than Eric and Dylan, but only a few. And here I am, nearly seventeen years after I first heard about what they did, still thinking about it nearly every day. It has a way of sticking in the mind.

Have any of you seen a movie called 44 Minutes, about a Southern California bank robbery that went bad?
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Or 102 Minutes, about some flights bound from New York and D.C. to Southern California that never made it to LAX?

Have any of you heard "41 Shots," a Bruce Springsteen song about a guy who was shot to death by the New York police?

The NBK boys together fired 188 shots - Eric, 121; Dylan, 67. On average, that's one shot every fifteen seconds. (Yes, that statistic is meaningless because there were long stretches where they didn't fire any.)

How many shots could they have fired in forty-nine minutes? A lot more than they did.

Seung-Hui Cho fired 170 in nine minutes. That's one shot every three seconds.

Be glad that Eric and Dylan weren't as trigger-happy as Seung-Hui. And be glad that there will never be another mass shooting where the cops will stand around doing nothing while gunmen take their sweet time shooting kids in the head.

There's a huge taboo around making a film about columbine. Not really sure why, it's just one of those cultural things that nobody has been able to touch. Our very own Dave Cullen tried to do it via a Lifetime movie, but it got shot down(Ugh sorry, phrasing...) at the last minute.

Columbine makes a great story, since it features everything most Western folks like in a drama, underdogs, bullies, violence high school drama etc. The powers that be just won't let it happen though.

Are there any books like that? I know we have documentary style recount and stuff, but has anyone written a novelized story of the Columbine event? We have enough data to build up the characters and story. There would have to be some artistic license, but it could still be mostly true to the real events.

radaddio wrote:

There's a huge taboo around making a film about columbine. Not really sure why, it's just one of those cultural things that nobody has been able to touch. Our very own Dave Cullen tried to do it via a Lifetime movie, but it got shot down(Ugh sorry, phrasing...) at the last minute.

It's like when they made a film about Princess Diana, it bombed completely because, even though none of us Brits personally knew her, people just weren't ready to think about it. I guess people just don't like being reminded how fragile they are. I, for one, would love to see a movie about Columbine, as long as it was done accurately, and with zero Cullen involvement.

I think the movie should be called: "Zero Cullen" : )

That's what really gets me, they can make movies about serial killers and stuff but they can't make a movie about a school shooting. God forbid someone see it and go shoot up their school, and then they can blame it on another movie. That just makes me want to punch someone.

I read that book. It was alright I suppose, but there was a lot that didn't sit well with me.

The characters were, as you said, pretty shallow archetypes. The jock, the nerd, the workaholic single mom, etc.

I also thought the twist at the ending was pretty awful.

Not to mention it was odd that the book was set in our world-that is, a world where Columbine happened-yet the shooting so closely parallels Columbine in so many ways that it seems like it ought to have occurred instead of Columbine rather than after it. For example, the ten crosses for the victims was obviously torn right out of the Columbine story. But, in Nineteen Minutes, someone put up a cross for the killer, just as they did for E&D. In real life, that at least made some sense, since Eric and Dylan were dead, too. But the shooter in the book was alive, so it just came off as a lazy, forced reference to reality.

FlyerFan wrote:

That's what really gets me, they can make movies about serial killers and stuff but they can't make a movie about a school shooting. God forbid someone see it and go shoot up their school, and then they can blame it on another movie. That just makes me want to punch someone.

You have to admit it is a valid concern. It'd be pretty hard to make a Columbine movie without it somewhat glorifying Eric and Dylan, even if its inadvertently. The fact that Eric and Dylan got so much attention is what drives copycat shooters. Add in a Hollywood movie after E and D themselves stated "directors will be fighting for this story" and it makes the idea of a shooting even more attractive.

Don't get me wrong i don't think that movies, music, video games, etc.. directly cause shootings. Columbine is not and never has been your typical school shooting though. Its like the more Columbine is discussed on the more misguided loners it attracts. I personally would love to see a movie that humanizes the boys and plays up their mental problems instead of just focusing on their rage and "evilness". That said I completely understand why it won't happen anytime soon. With the damn near daily mass shootings here in the US it might be for the best.

Nirvana92 wrote:

FlyerFan wrote:

That's what really gets me, they can make movies about serial killers and stuff but they can't make a movie about a school shooting. God forbid someone see it and go shoot up their school, and then they can blame it on another movie. That just makes me want to punch someone.

You have to admit it is a valid concern. It'd be pretty hard to make a Columbine movie without it somewhat glorifying Eric and Dylan, even if its inadvertently. The fact that Eric and Dylan got so much attention is what drives copycat shooters. Add in a Hollywood movie after E and D themselves stated "directors will be fighting for this story" and it makes the idea of a shooting even more attractive.

Don't get me wrong i don't think that movies, music, video games, etc.. directly cause shootings. Columbine is not and never has been your typical school shooting though. Its like the more Columbine is discussed on the more misguided loners it attracts. I personally would love to see a movie that humanizes the boys and plays up their mental problems instead of just focusing on their rage and "evilness". That said I completely understand why it won't happen anytime soon. With the damn near daily mass shootings here in the US it might be for the best.

I would LOVE to write a movie humanizing them. I can just see it - I'd open the trailer with a boy hunched over a notebook, reading a hypothesis about the afterlife out loud as he wrote it. He'd close his notebook and we'd get a glimpse of his face - Dylan. There'd be text that said "Littleton, Colorado - late 1990s."Then we'd see footage of him and Eric goofing around at the pizza shop and other everyday things, then the van break-in. "Two boys with promising futures made a mistake that changed their lives - and America," the narrator would say. Then there'd be news fottage of the shooting and one of the boys' friends crying and asking why they would do this. "But there's a side America DIDN'T see," the narrator would say. Then we'd see Eric and Dylan doing normal stuff like asking girls about the stars, etc. And the song playing over the trailer could be "Sun" by Sleeping At Last because "space and time takes viole t things, angry things and makes them kind."

I'm just talking out my English major/Creative Writing minor butt here but I LOVE this idea!

That would be great!

Serious question; Where would you start the timeline at for the movie? I was always thinking that the Van break in would be the best way to frame the story line.

radaddio wrote:

That would be great!

Serious question; Where would you start the timeline at for the movie? I was always thinking that the Van break in would be the best way to frame the story line.

I honestly would like to see it start from their childhood. They both grew up as pretty normal, happy kids. I think it is important to remember that and put emphasis on the point in which things turned dark for them. People often think they were just monsters, they weren't born monsters, something must have caused the change in mental stability.

I also wonder what America would think if a movie like this came out in theaters and if it was graphic, like if they showed the actual murders up close and personal. Certainly the victims families would most likely object to that, maybe not, some of them may want people to know what they've seen and gone through. Who knows. I do not think we will see a movie like that anytime soon anyway.

FlyerFan wrote:

radaddio wrote:

That would be great!

Serious question; Where would you start the timeline at for the movie? I was always thinking that the Van break in would be the best way to frame the story line.

I honestly would like to see it start from their childhood. They both grew up as pretty normal, happy kids. I think it is important to remember that and put emphasis on the point in which things turned dark for them. People often think they were just monsters, they weren't born monsters, something must have caused the change in mental stability.

I also wonder what America would think if a movie like this came out in theaters and if it was graphic, like if they showed the actual murders up close and personal. Certainly the victims families would most likely object to that, maybe not, some of them may want people to know what they've seen and gone through. Who knows. I do not think we will see a movie like that anytime soon anyway.

I honestly think it'd be for the best if a movie pulled no punches. As sad as it is to say it violence is key in a case like Columbine and it'd be important that it was shown on screen. This stuff really happened and censoring the story doesn't change that. American audiences need to understand just how bad these shootings are. The news tends to hype the stories while censoring graphic images, this creating a disconnect between the act and the violence involved. The public at large isnt going to fully understand this problem until they grasp the true weight of it all. You can say "These are KIDS being gun downed in school" but it takes it to another level when you actually see it. As long as the violence wasnt exploitative I would have no issue with it.

That's a good point. I think that, thanks to the news cycles, mass shootings will be the talking point for the foreseeable future.

If it was graphic, it would have to be on par with something like the movie "Saving Private Ryan". There needs to be a feeling of tension and drama that you can't really put into words. Sometimes violence gets portrayed as action, and I think that would be doing the victims a real disservice.

It's an American mindset that we can solve all of our problems by punching them in the face...or shooting them in the face. Since we tend to do this so often, I've always found it odd that we have sacred cows when it comes to certain events and circumstances. Kids are almost always off limits when it comes to violent television, but high school runs that fine line between adulthood and school age that makes producers keep coming back to it. So, I find it odd that no real Columbine movies have been made yet.

I would be down for a book. Anyone could write a book. If it was done for free, then families would have a harder time suing someone.

Do you guys think it would take anything out of the story for it to be artistically 2D animated? I'm not talking cheesy low-grade Frozen or flash-animation stuff. I mean hand-drawn, realistic drawings akin to Atlantis or King of the Hill. I just think it would be incredibly difficult to find just the right actors and actresses.

I'm actually writing a YA novel about a girl who moves in with her estranged dad after her mom dies and she starts going to a school that had an infamous shooting take place there. She befriends the ghost of one of the perpetrators (based on Dylan) after a lot of resistance from him - he feels like utter shit about what happened even years later, but opens up to her after she explains that her father is abusive. They learn from each other and cope with their pasts through the dynamic of a perpetrator of one violent crime and the victim of another bonding and understanding more about what each other have gone through. They boy's name is Will because he gives her the will to speak up about what's going on. If I were to make it a film I would want it to be 2D animated with Will black and white (except his eyes, which are blue) and everything and everyone else in color.

If either of these ideas were put into action I would want Fox Searchlight to produce them if they were live action or Dreamworks if they were animated. I prefer Dreamworks' animation to a Disney's plus there is a LOT more they are willing to do. And Fox Searchlight are pros at live-action aimed at teens - they produced Juno as well as both film adaptations of John Green books so far.

Wow, that sounds like a huge undertaking. Kudos on writing a book. I'm trying my hand at YA fiction writing right now, but with different subject matter.

What if you went with a graphic novel format? It seems like it might translate over pretty well.

That'd be awesome, but I can't draw for shit. I'd need to recruit someone else to work on it with me and collaborate.  I'm willing to do that though! Also, there is a scene at the end of it where Will comes back to life and everything is undone. The girl kisses him when this happens, and color spreads from his lips down to the rest of his body and he takes this huge gasp of air like he's been stuck in water.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] that sounds amazing, have you ever seen Paranorman? It has a great moral about not being afraid of others different from you, and to not seek revenge if you are different and excluded (I felt like it was partially a message about school shooters). The ending of it could be useful to you.

If I could make any medium to present this topic, I always imagined it would be animated.
A lot of serious topics have been handled with animation (Waltz with Bashir, The Missing Picture) but it's difficult in a western society.
Still, if there was some way that no one would get offended, I think it could be respectful, prevent the glorification of E/D and show a neutral story with many sides (imo these factors are essential in portraying Columbine).

I think it'd DEFINITELY be useful in helping tone down the glorification of Eric and Dylan by not using real actors. It reminds me of what JK Rowling said about girls having crushes on Draco Malfoy - they were so distracted by how cute the actor was they didn't realize what a jerk Malfoy was.

WendlaBergman wrote:

I think it'd DEFINITELY be useful in helping tone down the glorification of Eric and Dylan by not using real actors. It reminds me of what JK Rowling said about girls having crushes on Draco Malfoy - they were so distracted by how cute the actor was they didn't realize what a jerk Malfoy was.

See that's why you read the books first. I already knew he was a jackass before the movies came out so I didn't find him attractive at all. LOL

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Best of luck on your writing!

Wendla,I think that is a great idea for a book. I'd love to read that some day.

Since it was mentioned in this thread I would like to ask if anyone knows if the Dave Cullen movie was 86'ed permanently or is just on hold?

I sincerely hope and pray that it is never made but I can easily see them just shelving it for some later date.
Movies often take many years to go from the concept stage to actually being made.

It would be really nice to see a Columbine movie that covers the overall picture of what happened

I've been posting little snippets of my YA book in the Fanfiction section. Very very bare and probably not all that good atm but I decided hey, why not share?

So far I have read both parts

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LPorter101 wrote:

be glad that there will never be another mass shooting where the cops will stand around doing nothing while gunmen take their sweet time shooting kids in the head.

This didn't age well.