An Important Film To See

Rating: 10/10 (21 June 2006)

About a month ago I saw Tom Hanks on Inside The Actor's Studio and he said that this was the most film to see and he was right. I saw the film last night with my mother and neither one of us were prepared for what were about to see. I have seen documentaries about 9/11 and the people on Flight 93 and I have read the 9/11 Commission report. But this film takes inside of what happened on United flight 93 on that day that no one will ever forget. The film opens with the hijackers praying and meditating before they leave their hotel room and head for the airport. We see a regular and beautiful morning in which everyone is going to work: the pilots, the stewardess', the people in FAA and in Air Traffic control. We see the passengers including the hijackers wait before boarding the plane. It was a regular and beautiful day until American Airline flight 11 disappears from the radars and on the news we see the horrific images of the World Trade Centers on fire. Within minutes of that morning more attacks took place: the second tower of the WTC, the Pentagon, and then the airplane crash in Shanksville, Pennsylvania that was suppose to have targeted Capital building or the White House. While the passengers are on the plane and in the air everything is pleasant like most flights usually are: breakfast is being served, conversations, and friendly and courteous smiles exchanged. Everyone on the flight is oblivious of the news of the attacks on the ground and then the hijackers unleash terror 70,000 feet above the ground. Gradually, the passengers slowly realized that these hijackers were on a suicide mission and the news of the attacks are reached to them via telephone from their loved ones. No one in Air Traffic Control or in military sectors knew until after the plane had crashed that United Flight 93 was hijacked. My mother and I saw the film and we both left the theatre shaking and in tears. I have seen films that have made me cry and have impacted me, but there are no words to describe the feeling of fear and yet there was a sense of admiration for the passengers as they banded together and took the risk of taking control of the plane. The final moment is so powerful it leaves you shaking and begging them to win. The phone calls made from the passengers to their loved ones and the prayers of both the passengers and the hijackers resonate louder than the airplane engines. There is no one today who could even be prepared to experience on the events that took place on United 93. There are political statements or even any mentioning of partisanship. You don't even hate the hijackers, or at least I didn't. Quite the contrary. They were human beings driven by fanaticism and madness to commit the acts they were trained to believe were honorable to the name of Islam. The one hijacker, Ziad Jarrah, who was trained to fly the plane seemed to be the only one who was willing to back out, but didn't. This was certainly not film made to bring in box office winnings or title. This was a film that commemorates the heroes and the lives taken on September 11, 2001. Warning: the film is very graphic and no one will ever be prepared for a film of this magnitude.