An uncomfortable film

Rating: 10/10 (14 June 2006)

This film moved me perhaps more than any other. Comparisons with Schindler's List are not relevant: Spielberg's film has been discredited by news that Herr Schindler may not have been the saint he appeared to be in the film. United 93, on the other hand, appears to stay as close to the truth as it can.
Nevertheless, "truth" is rarely absolute. The film portrays the truth devoid of context and this is its stumbling point. The truth behind these attacks is very complex and, if lessons are to be learnt, I think Greengrass could have attempted to contextualise the deaths of these innocent people by pointing out (perhaps in the written epilogues) that similar deaths are caused on a daily basis...and it is this fact that probably lay behind the decision of the hijackers to do what they did.
I realise that this may be offensive to some people, but it is not intended to be. The actions of the hijackers were horrific and the film does a great service in ensuring that the victims on United 93 will never be allowed to fade away into statistics. Their memory will be preserved for eternity. As a work of art, the film is also astonishingly good. At one point I almost left the cinema so ashamed was I that I had paid money to see the final minutes of these people's lives.
However, I think that the message we should draw from this film must be that it is never acceptable to kill innocent people in war, whether they are American citizens in an aeroplane or Afghan wedding guests or a mother and child in a house where Al Qaeda's leader has been located.
I fear that the film will further harden prejudices against Muslims. The image of attackers praying in Arabic juxtaposed against victims praying the same Christian prayer left me feeling very uncomfortable. Of course, it is not the film's fault that people feel this prejudice against people. That is down to manipulation by the media and the governments' (wilful) failures to address this problem. However, I wonder why Greengrass didn't try to redress the imbalance by pointing out that horrifying as these deaths were, they are repeated regularly in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan as bombs explode in employment offices, missiles home in on market places and shells fall on beaches.