Will be on my film of the year list, I'm sure of it

Rating: 10/10 (27 June 2006)

STAR RATING: ***** The Works **** Just Misses the Mark *** That Little Bit In Between ** Lagging Behind * The Pits
A re-enactment of the terrifying events abroad United Airlines Flight 93 on September 11 2001, as several suicide bombers took control of the plane and attempted to crash it into The Pentagon. Due to the courage and determination of a group of passengers, the plane never reached it's target but unfortunately all the passengers on board were killed. Juxtaposed with this story is that of those working in the control tower and their desperate struggle to maintain order and their sanity as the terrifying events unravel.
The five years since the biggest act of terrorism America (and indeed the world) has ever witnessed have flown by. And film-makers (and potential film-makers) have actually shown an admirable deal of restraint in waiting so long before inevitably a film detailing these events was made. It's a controversial project that Paul Greengrass has taken on but from this, you get the impression no-one could have done it better if they'd tried.
United 93 is such a brilliant film because I struggle to think of a film that has succeeded so well in what it was setting out to do before. Because of the subject matter, it could never be described as an 'enjoyable' film, but it re-creates what must have happened on board that flight so meticulously it is genuinely almost as if you were actually on board the flight yourself at the time. There's no Hollywood style sensationalism or sentimentality, those trapped on board and those scurrying around on the ground all behave as humanly and realistically as though they were re-enacting a story on Crimewatch, their disbelief and horror captured magically. Even the terrorists themselves are given a wonderfully human edge, as we see their fear and apprehension, without ever being made to pity them the way we pity the other passengers. Their brilliantly human behaviour makes the tension on board the plane absolutely palpable and, as I said, feeling as though you could just as easily have been on board the plane with them.
It's a lot of little things that roll United 93 along. The opening featuring an overhead of the New York skyline at night as we hear Muslim prayers being sung by the terrorists in their rented hotel rooms gives a creepy and quietly foreboding sense that the big, bustling city where so many people are walking about minding their business and no one suspects a thing is under threat, the use of a digital camera, adding immeasurably to the 'real' feel the film has and the sudden ending which doesn't delve into the aftermath and make the film become sappy in any way. The film-makers set out to achieve a desired result and they got it spot on with this. If it's not still on my top ten list by the end of the year, something really brilliant will have to come along to knock it off. Never an easy or enjoyable film, but a brilliantly real one that genuinely plays as though someone recorded the events on board that plane for real and played them back to a shocked audience (though such a thing wouldn't be empirically possible, of course!) An absolute must-see. *****