The Fact Is

Rating: 9/10 (20 November 2008)

NO ONE knows what happened on board the subject flight. We can only infer. We know only the outcome. If you keep THIS fact in view you need not worry over how good a documentary this film appears or pretends to be.
Paul Greengrass did not set out to make a documentary. He said so from the outset. He says so in his DVD commentary. If others call into question his detachment, perspective, integrity or sense of timing I commend him for his skill, tact and honesty. Was he opportunistic? If you make a film it had better be about something you care very much about. No matter what he had aimed for he had to know the end result would be viewed through the lenses of many others who knew what they thought had happened. Faced with this challenge his direction, writing and editing earned their professional recognition.
It's hard enough to move within a Boeing 757 when it's powered down on the tarmac. And try sitting through a transcontinental flight on a clear day with your eyes volitionally closed from takeoff to landing. For these reasons Barry Ackroyd's photography deserves special praise. It strives to emulate what you would see and the way you would see it if you were on board.
The sound and sound editing are spot on. John Powell's minimalist musical score is sobering and complements the film perfectly, for without the stream of images I find the score unlistenable.
Before James Cameron's film, when I'd heard a Broadway stage musical version of the Titanic disaster was in production, I'd thought the effort at best supremely callous. That view changed when I later learned the cast members, without prompting or compensation, visited the families and descendants of the victims each was cast to portray as well as the very few remaining survivors and their families. The results showed on the stage. It appears a very similar approach was taken here.
Should the film have been released first-run as a commercial feature let alone made so soon? It's been seven years as of this writing. We are at times blessed with short memories and faulty recollections. The events were thrust upon us. The film is not, for one either views it or doesn't. That should always be a choice resorted to and exercised with gratitude.