It’s such a hard thing to review a movie that has such a huge impact the American people’s lives, but I’ll take a shot at it. I watched United 93 knowing that it would be emotional and indeed several people in the audience were crying. It’s more emotional knowing that the people in the movie were actually real and not just a figment of some one’s imagination. I want to make perfectly clear that I’m not being callous or cold, but that I’m reviewing the movie as a movie and nothing else. I’ll try to be as objective as possible.
We all know the basic plot of the movie. Four Middle Eastern men hijack a plane – United 93 – on September 11th. Due to certain circumstances there are major delays in the plane taking off and the ring leader of the terrorists waits too long to take over the cockpit. Had this not happened, the plane probably would have flown into the White House, but as it was, the passengers on the plane were able to contact their family and learn of the other attacks on the twin tower and the Pentagon. When they learned that there was no negotiating, the passengers took action and stood up to the terrorists, eventually crashing the plane into a field in Pennsylvania. Ok, so this much I know. There is a lack of development of the characters, there are no back stories or explanations, not even any names. I’m not saying that this is a bad thing. The director just doesn’t want to waste any time in things that don’t matter in the movie. These people were real so we are already familiar with them, we don’t need any added fluff. When they call their families the audience can imagine what it would feel like to have gotten that phone call. We don’t really know what happened on the flight, and what the conversations were or how exactly the passengers took back the plane, but the movie was probably the best depiction based on the phone calls to the passengers’ families. Another thing as well, they weren’t using cell phones, the passengers were using the airplane phones. Cell phones shouldn’t work at that altitude.
I think the movie captures the essence of that day and the grief of all of America. We see what we have inside ourselves, the bravery and courage to stand up against the terrorists, and we even see ourselves in the terrorists. We all have both attributes to want to live or die for a cause, humans are no different, and this movie shows that. The terrorists will die crashing into a building, to die serving Allah, and the passengers will die to prevent that destruction. I’m just saying, humans are not so different. Many people will not want to see this movie and no one really wants to relive that moment, but this is not about the world trade center victims, it’s about the heroes on the flight. I think the most effective part of the movie was not in the plane, but with the different airline and air traffic towers. The military is the last to know about the hijacked planes and can do nothing to save United 93 since they have no idea that the plane had been hijacked, they were still looking at Delta 11 or another plane. There’s mass confusion and panic and it was depicted amazingly both on the plane as well as on land. No one knows how to react or what to do, but they do their best to contain the situation. Probably the only part of the movie that I really didn’t like was the ending where the view is from the cockpit and we just see the ground spinning closer and then a fade to black. There’s no closure and I feel that maybe if there had been a cut to the airplane towers or military or even the news events it would have made the ending more resolute, but that’s probably the major complaint.
Personally, I did not leave the movie emotional or crying, I viewed it solely as a movie and tried to be as objective as possible. But there’s no way anyone can not be affected by this movie. It’s personal, a moment in history no one will forget. I don’t know if it was necessary to have this movie, we all know the events and we all don’t really want to relive that moment, but then why have it? We watch it as a reminder of what can happen and as a testament to human courage. It’s not a pretty movie, it’s not plot-driven, and there are no real character devices so as a movie, it’s not that great, but as a memorial to 9/11 then it speaks wonders.
"United 93" opens April 28, 2006 and is rated R. Drama. Written and directed by Paul Greengrass. Starring Lewis Alsamari, JJ Johnson, Gary Commock, Trish Gates.
