Politics aside, "United 93" crashes and burns like its titular airplane

Rating: 5/10 (21 May 2006)

It seems that Paul Greengrass's "United 93" is difficult to review objectively. Because of its subject matter, viewers think it's a great movie simply out of respect for 9/11; however, to review it by removing it from its social context would be irresponsible. Contrary to much of what I have read about "United 93," I would certainly not venture that it is one of the most important films in modern US history. I was fully aware of the time-line of events of 9/11, which made the movie quite dull and as a result not compelling in the slightest.
This is the first of the many problems with the movie: you already know what is going to happen. From start to finish, the entire plot has been fully documented and hammered into every American mind (fundamentally altering our perception of just about every event in the "post-9/11" world). Knowing that 93 will crash, which airplanes are hijacked, and when they reach their targets sucks all of the tension out of the movie. The only exceptions are those events on the airplane that Greengrass had to concoct to fill the real-time drama. The most intense part was waiting to see when and how the terrorists would take over the plane. Unfortunately, this excitement is diluted by the knowledge that Greengrass had to fabricate most of these scenes, since we know very little about the actual occurrences on the plane.
From this notion comes the second problem, which is Greengrass's direction. As we can see from "The Bourne Supremacy," Greengrass is quite fond of the shaky hand-held camera. He uses it in this case to make the film seem more realistic, almost in a documentary sense. We even have some characters playing themselves, like Ben Sliney, to give it more authenticity. His attempts to blur the line between documentary and drama are nothing short of obnoxious and close to nauseating. The cameras in "United 93" are constantly shaking throughout the entire movie, even inside the control rooms. Greengrass also leaves in shots with intense glare from the sun, which did nothing but give me a headache. Instead of making the action seem more real, the camera work, combined with the fabricated action sequences, just makes the viewer more aware that he's watching a movie.
Perhaps most at fault, however, is that there just isn't enough plot material to fill the movie. The first hour is dreadfully boring. We know what's going to happen, we know how the day develops, and we are given no characters with whom to identify. All we have is a ceaselessly fluttering camera giving us no reprieve from the constant motion sickness and nothing to occupy our minds.
Commendably, Greengrass avoids (for the most part) blatant heart-tugging. Since we don't even know any of the characters names, let alone who they are, we can't identify with their sadness. Greengrass carefully avoids that pitfall in the interest of portraying the victims on flight 93 not as tragic figures, but as heroes. In the sense of honoring the characters, he does succeed, but at the expense of the viewers interest.