Feeling 'United'

Rating: 8/10 (30 April 2006)

The opening of the story is somber and really feels like something out of Munich as the middle eastern men sat in their hotels preparing for the morning's events citing parts of the Koran and facing Mecca for the first prayer of the day. Greengrass's love for hand-held cameras is well reflected in the first scene and gives the opening a sense of tension without feeling totally like a documentary. For anyone who has seen Paradise Now, you will recognize the shaving of all body hair before the act of faith. This is key, I believe, because it shows the filmmakers attention to detail to the religion. This made me feel immediately that the problem was not the faith, but the interpretation of the faith by the hijackers.
The tension builds in the airport as passengers board United 93 and the terrorists feeling anxious as a delay cripples their plan to leave on time concerned that the attacks made by the others would prevent their takeoff. This suspension is finally subsided as United 93 lifts into the air, but is immediately superseded by the FAA being unable to raise AA11 which was heard over the radio with an odd transmission. The news is passed to the New York branch of the FAA and the group is notified to watch AA11 for odd characteristics.
The tension builds as the wondering whether several other aircraft that are unable to be raised. The audience is sucked in with the overwhelming amount of information to be kept up with. As AA11 hits the first tower, the two other real hijacks at the time, AA77 and United 175 are mixed in with a dozen other proposed hijackings including Delta flights. The military and FAA fight for action against each other with rights to fly and clearance from the FAA to the USAF's lack of available fighting aircraft. For near 45 minutes we rarely return to United 93 only to see major developments including the commencing of the hijacking. The tension builds because you want to know more about 93. The film keeps that tension and builds more and more of a case against the terrorists with their desperation and anxiety when the news comes in about the successful completion of two other planes.
We return to United 93 where people are calling their families and informing people of the hijacking. One passenger saying the Lord's prayer with a Verizon worker while we intercut with prayers of other passengers and the prayers to Allah by the hijackers.
As the plane inches closer to the Washington area do the passengers rally in the back and plan to attack their hijackers. The tension is taken from the ground to the air as we don't go back to the ground for the last part of the movie only knowing that mayhem has overcome the FAA and the USAF as the order was given to land all planes.
In the last scene, the passengers storm the hijackers, but are quickly thwarted when the new plane's pilot rocks the plane back and forth. The passengers continue onward and beat the living shnock out of one of the hijackers. They continue forward and the plane rocks again. The tension builds. You can see the terrorists eyes that he is prepared to ditch if the mission becomes any more compromised. I was sure, no matter what I already knew, that the passengers would make it to the cockpit and take control of the plane and be safe once again. They continue forward and encounter the second hijacker that slows them down a bit, but is soon overcome by the ensuing mob. The passengers make it to the forward galley and begin to ram the door to the cockpit with everything they can. Third hijacker props himself against the door to hold back the passengers so that the fourth can continue to fly. The tension is unbearable. You, as a viewer, know that time is running out. The free-handedness of the shots makes you think you are in Saving Private Ryan or some intense war sequence with all the yelling and shouting and utter desperation on both ends. The quick and close shots hold you and keep you wanting more.
As the final shot in the movie ended, I sat there, unintelligible. I had only once felt like this once before in my life. The memories of that day rung so loud I couldn't escape it. I cried and remembered my vow that day to never forget.
The movie is very emotionally driven and very rarely distracting with the filming style. It does not feel like a documentary. But there is one actress in the USAF (played by herself) that can't act and she sounds fake and breaks the tension when she speaks. It is like nails on a chalkboard. But other than that, the film keeps an incredible tension.
No matter what people say, the film is not as much propaganda as people say it is. Munich was more propaganda than United 93. Not that I don't like Munich, but the movie is what I tried to capture in my first 9-11 video that I made at magnet. Just the intensity and horribleness of it all.
It really was moving. I neither recommend this movie or denounce it, however, for the same reason that I didn't do that for The Passion of the Christ. Each person has his or her own time for seeing that kind of thing. If you aren't ready for it, don't go to it. It is an emotional roller-coaster.