United 93

Well, there is not a lot to say about this movie, except that there is probably no better way to imagine what that fatal plane ride must have been like for the passengers aboard United 93 than to see this film.

Writer-director Paul Greengrass very thoroughly researched even the minutest of details to accurately portray the events of the morning of September 11, 2001. And the film is made in such a way that you would be forgiven for thinking just for a moment that he somehow had cameras in place to record the actual unfoldings of that terrible day. It's just that real.

Mr. Greengrass should also be praised to the skies for avoiding the temptation to "set up" all the characters in that saccharine manner we have seen in so many disaster movies: the fights at home with the spouse, the making of plans for the weekend, etc., as the doomed characters rush out the door, late for their flight. None of that is present here, and in fact, there is scarcely anything in the way of the kind of character introductions most movie-goers are accustomed to, and to be honest, it is very refreshing. Granted, everyone knows what happened to United Airlines flight 93 that day, so the conventions of traditional narrative storytelling are appropriately dispensed with.

That is not to say the film doesn't grab you and hold you for the duration. Once the flight takes off in the film, the events unfold in real time, just as they did in real life. You feel, as the victims and personnel on the ground did, at first a sense of confusion, then a sense of realization, as passengers get word of the terror unfolding at the World Trade Center, and finally of doom, as the passengers realize they are probably bound for the White House or the Capitol. Then, just like that, with no fanfare nor artificial bravery, nor phony heroic speeches, the passengers of flight 93 take action. And the knot in your stomach tightens a little more.

I was fascinated to learn during the end credits that many of the ground personnel--flight controllers, military duty officers and the like--who were involved with flight 93 played themselves in the movie, further adding to the realism of the experience.

After I saw the movie, a friend and I talked about whether we would have been fearless enough to stand up to the hijackers on that flight, had we been in the victims' shoes. Honestly, I don't know. I would like to think so, but I just don't know. These are the kinds of things this film makes you think about.

When this movie opened, there were stories in the press of couples outside movie theatres debating whether to see it. Understandably, reliving that morning through the prism of this one chapter will make many uncomfortable. That's as it should be, for everyone knows how this story ends. But for those who want a vivid, unadorned, documentary telling of flight 93, this movie is brilliant.