Writing for Our Post-9/11 Times: Part I

There is a scene in a little-known but fine film from 1947 called Odd Man Out that, ever since I first saw it a few years ago, has stayed with me for its metaphoric power. The film is about a leader of the Irish Republican Army, the I.R.A., played by a young James Mason, who is shot during a robbery shortly after the opening credits and who spends the rest of the film seeking refuge, all the while losing blood and growing weaker and weaker. No one gives him aid, not even sympathizers, some of wh...