Would have benefitted from better focus and a tighter running time, but the last 20 minutes or so make it worth the effort

Rating: 6/10 (30 January 2018)

United 93 tells the true story of a plane that was hijacked on September 11th 2001 and the passengers on-board the plane fighting back against the terrorists in order to foil their plans...
Given that the majority of the media focus at the time was on the planes that actually crashed into the Twin Towers, this harrowing true story is one that people may have forgotten about or overlooked. Having watched the film, it's not an experience that I'm likely to forget and I'm more than willing to commend the bravery of the passengers for their actions on that fateful morning. However, as a piece of cinema I didn't find United 93 to be entirely satisfying...
The film is apparently shot in real-time and presumably Greengrass has done this to make the film feel more realistic and to perhaps draw the audience into the events as they happen. I think part of the problem with this film is that Greengrass has gone a little overboard with finer details - there is about a 30 minute build-up showing people waiting at the airport, waiting to board the plane etc and it's probably past the half hour mark before the plane even takes off. I'm sure in his mind that Greengrass did this perhaps as a way of building suspense, but I just found it a little tedious and unnecessary.
Also as the film is called United 93 I did expect the film to focus pretty much all of its attention on that flight. However, on various occasions the film cuts back to various air-traffic control centres with varying threats or actual hijackings taking place. There's nothing wrong with any of this per se, but it does make the film feel a little cluttered and unfocused at times - it's like Greengrass couldn't decide whether to make a documentary about the events of 9/11 or a film about the bravery of the passengers on-board flight UA 93. By trying to do both, the film. feels padded and far longer than it needs to be.

However, once you get past the hour mark, Greengrass does crank up the tension and in the last 20 minutes or so I literally could not take my eyes off the screen. I would still recommend watching this film, but do feel that with a shorter running time and slightly better focus that I may have enjoyed it more than I did.