United 93 - A review ***LONG***

[Dominic]

This is a film that is garnering a lot of controversial attention right now, both good and bad, and I can certainly see why. Some of the comments I've heard from people I know include:

"It's too soon."
"How dare they fictionalize something so tragic."
"I won't see it because I don't want to relive that day."

These are all valid points, and I understand the emotion behind them. I was not all that interested in seeing it either, until I read some of the glowing reviews in the media and felt it was worth checking out.

So, how was it?

I waited a couple days to write this review to make sure I wasn't resorting to hyperbole based on the very strong emotions this movie provoked in me, but quite simply, United 93 is one of the very best motion pictures I have ever seen. It's certainly the best film I've seen in the last five years.

Director Peter Greengrass uses the same documentary-style approach that he used in Bloody Sunday, and, to a lesser degree, The Bourne Supremecy, to great effect. In fact, it's reminiscent of another great document of a real-life event: The Battle of Algiers.

Greengrass's screemplay is sparse and full of language and conversations that wouldn't be out of place on a city bus or your own workplace. In other words, it's not showy, it's not theatrical, and it is very un-melodramatic.

There is no melodrama at all, in fact. We are not told to demonize the hijackers, nor are we asked to understand them. The same goes for the passengers and flight crew on the doomed flight. Greengrass gives us snippets of conversation and quick glances of these people, as if we are on the flight with them. They are the same faces and voices we hear (and try to ignore) every time we board a commercial flight ourselves. In other words, unremarkable.

The movie cuts back and forth between Flight 93 and the various ground crews and military who are trying their best to figure out what's going on. First, a plane refuses to respond to an air traffic controller. Next, something hits one of the World Trade Towers. The FAA and the folks at NORAD scramble to find out what's happening, all the way up to when the Pentagon is attacked. The confusion and fear and helplessness as the head of National Air traffic control grounds all air traffic into and out of the country is palpable. And the way Greegrass shoots it, it's like you're evesdropping on people at work. There is no "acting" going on.

The reason it all seem so real is that Greengrass used nine to ten of the real-life people on the ground to portray themselves. From Ben Sliney, who was on his first day on the job as the Head of National Air Traffic Control, to other Air Traffic Controllers, and even to various military personnel at Cheyenne Mountain who were responding to the emergency back in 1991, a lot of the people on screen are playing themselves. Greengrass gets better performances out of these non-actors as he could have from real actors. They are in their element, they know how to react to the situation at hand, they know what to say and what the protocols are. In my mind, this casting decision makes the movie.

Naturally, any scenes showing what happened on United 93 are based on cell-phone calls, Flight Data recorder info, and specualtion. But again, Greengrass refuses to "dramatize" the happenings as one would expect. He puts his camera in the plane as if it was jut another passenger, with all the knowledge and lack of knowledge that that entails.

We never really know which passengers are Todd Beamer or Mark Bingham or anyone else, and by the time "Let's roll" shows up on screen it is in such an offhand, terrified manner that you barely notice it. There are two recognizable faces on the plane among the mostly unknown cast: David Rasche and Denny Dillon. It's almost a welcome sight, being reminded that what you're watching is "only a movie," because to be honest, the tension and emotion during the last fifteen minutes of the film (all taking place on the plane) is almost unbearable to endure.

From the moment the 4 terrorists take over the plane to when the passengers try and take it back and it crashes into the Pennsylvania countryside, United 93 is the most riveting, most nerve-wracking piece of cinema I have ever seen. And trust me, I do not mean this in an entertaining sort of way.

Yes, we all know what happened. Yes, it's possible we're being manipulated by the filmmakers to remember that day and the emotions we went through. But United 93 is so technically brilliant, so devastatingly real that I don't think it would've mattered if 911 had never happened and this was a completely fictional movie of an ill-fated hijacking. It would still pack the same emotional wallop, still drive me to sit in the theater for five minutes after the movie was over so that I could compose myself.

The acting - by everyone involved - is superb.

The people on the plane are us. All of us. No heroes, no villains, just people. People forced to do do what they can to survive. And the filmmakers show that in all its chaos, all its terror, and all its humanity.

When I left the theater I was visibly shaken, in a way that was unlike any other movie-going experience in my past. It made me angry. And sad. And overwhelmed at both the complexities of our modern-day lives and the sheer capacity for compassion we all have for one another, regardless of what color our skin is, or what religion we choose to practice.

United 93 is a great film. I'm not going to make any proclamations like, "every American should see this movie." I understand those who don't want to see it. But I am glad I saw it. Greengrass is an amazing filmmaker, and for him to pull off this story without resorting to cliches, melodrama or blatant manipulation is simply remarkable.