United 93 (28 April 2006)
directed by Paul Greengrass
starring Christian Clemenson, Trish Gates, David Alan Basche, Cheyenne Jackson, Opal Alladin, Starla Benford, J. J. Johnson, Nancy McDoniel, Polly Adams, Richard Bekins, Susan Blommaert, Gary Commock, Liza Colón-Zayas, Lorna Dallas, Denny Dillon, Tom O'Rourke, Simon Poland, Erich Redman, Michael J. Reynolds, John Rothman, Daniel Sauli, Khalid Abdalla, Zewis Alsamari, Omar Berdouni, Jamie Harding
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MPAA rating: Studio: Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Studio Canal, Universal Pictures, Working Title Films Script: Paul Greengrass Music: John Powell Running time: 111 minutes Tags: air traffic controllers; airplanes; Drama; Historical; murder; New York City; September 11 2001; terrorism Tactical strength: [7/10]
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for language, and some intense sequences of terror and violence
I think we have all heard one way or another about how the passengers of United flight 93 figured out that their hijackers planned to crash the plane into a critical US target and somehow the passengers overcame the hijackers and the plane crashed in Pennsylvania with no survivors. United 93 makes this story more personal by dramatizing the events inside the passenger cabin as well as the general chaos taking place among all the air traffic control centers on September 11, 2001.
Director Paul Greengrass does an excellent job at controlling the emotion both on the screen and in the theater. On the screen, we follow the passengers from their initial panic, to understanding that they probably will die, and deciding that they would rather take action and have some control over their own death. To emphasize the everyday nature of these people, Greengrass doesn't cast any big-name stars. These people represent a cross-section of our society and understand that only luck prevented us, and still prevents us, from having to cope with the same experience. No single character ever expresses their emotional changes verbally, but you can easily see these ordinary people take charge of their own fates in spite of the impossible odds.
In addition to watching the hijacked passengers, we see scenes set in both the military and civilian air traffic control centers. These people work hard to figure out exactly what has happened, and you admire their hard work and determination in spite of all the confusion and communication problems between the military and civilian controllers.
Greengrass has carefully crafted a non-political movie. The development has a documentary feeling, and the film never seems to point a finger at any particular entity with blame or condemnation. We all remember where we were and how we felt on the morning of September 11th, and Greengrass takes us back to that day and lets us experiences the day from several different sets of perspectives. We have plenty of tributes to the police and fire personnel that responded to the emergency, and we have seen way too much footage of grieving individuals posting a picture on a shrine of missing persons. Greengrass doesn't even portray the hijackers as villains. He shows these four men having doubts, hesitating, getting nervous, and arguing. Nothing condones their actions, but we watch passengers deal with a hijack situation who never need to know about the political messages or Osama Bin Laden.
United 93 walks us through the transition from before 9/11 to after 9/11. Our lives take place with a much more hectic set of background noises playing than before, and with United 93, we watch the exact moment when the background noise increased.
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