a film about big events in life and how you very rarely hear a sound

Rating: 9/10 (1 May 2006)

Where was I on September 11, 2001? Where was I as America was under attack? I was sleeping. I got a frantic call from my big sister, and when I turned on the TV to see what happened all I got was static. I lived eight miles away from ground zero and I felt cut off from the world. As I finally found a channel on the TV that worked I saw the Twin Towers fall on live. I didn't hear any explosions, I just saw a picture of two giant buildings falling. I saw smoke rise as I drove to work later that afternoon. The world had forever changed, but except for the pictures of anguish and shots of buildings falling down I heard no explosive sounds from my vantage point. Do you remember a sound? Except if you were in lower Manhattan probably not.
UNITED 93 is a film about an isolated moment in the middle of extreme chaos. It's about mundane people living their mundane lives thrust into the most horrifying event in modern history. It's a film about what a true hero is. It's about evil men whose true cowardice united ordinary people. But on a deeper level it's a film about big events in life and how you very rarely hear a sound.
On September 11th 2001, four planes were hijacked. Two hit the World Trade Center, and one hit the Pentagon. The last plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. That plane was UNITED 93, to some it could have looked like a footnote to that horrible day. But it became a symbol, because ordinary men and women took back the plane and gave their lives to save lives on the ground. Greenglass puts us right in the middle of this life and death drama. We meet the hijackers, we meet the flight crew, and we meet the passengers. We don't get to know them, but in real life do you really know who's sitting next to you? The film watches as people get ready for takeoff, as tower officials look at the skies on computer monitors. We check in with the FAA, the military, and we see that on September 11th life was pretty normal. Then we watch helplessly as every one of these people is thrown into a tailspin when a plane disappears off a computer monitor. We watch as a tiny green blip just disappears. That flight hit the North Tower and it had just begun.
What Greenglass wisely does is not focus on the carnage. We don't even see the first plane hit the World Trade Center, and when the second one finally does there is not a big explosion. We see it on a TV, with the CNN ticker tape moving slowly by. We see smoke, but we see no carnage. Only Silence. In a more conventional film we would probably see every explosion, but even as United 93 hits the ground we hear nothing, only silence. Because for the most part things only blow up in the movies.
This device works well. It makes UNITED 93 feel real. The people feel real. The action feels real. I liken it to watching a home movie. United 93 is so simple and effective I almost looked for the time and date stamps in the corner of the screen. It's natural and raw. That's why it is so effective and that's why it needed to be made now.
September 11th's history is still being written. As we get further and further from it a romantic version of these events will begin to unfold. You want proof check out a World War II film made in the 40's and compare it to PEARL HARBOR. UNITED 93 is a film that's effectiveness will be felt 50 years from now when that generations Michael Bay decides to make a silly film about a girl and a guy who find love on the 65 floor of the trade center as they fall. But in the here and now UNITED 93 will stand as a record of Hero's who saved the day, of the confusion that overtook us all, and of the raw power of real life.