Stunning but not sensationalist

Rating: 10/10 (6 September 2009)

It would be hard to overstate the impact on ones senses and mind of the final minutes of the film United 93. A cacophony of sounds and images fill the screen and our ears. Screaming, cries of desperation, panic and anguish accompany the desperate attack the passengers launch against hijackers who are intent on killing all aboard. Imagine trying to reach and the wrest the controls of an aircraft from a man who can send the plane towards the ground in an instant, but delay the attack for a moment and you will die anyway. That terrible reality faced the passengers and left them no option but to try, even though they must have known they stood little chance of surviving the incident. The film was shown on the BBC tonight and I can imagine living rooms around the country being full of people sitting stunned in their arm chairs at its conclusion. Other comments on this site confirm that my reaction to the ending in particular is a common one. And yet the film does not sensationalise or give the events of that day the Hollywood treatment. Instead in many ways it is understated but always incredibly realistic. The acting was almost too good to be called such. Filmed like a fly on the wall documentary, it felt like we were being presented with snippets of real life action as it occurred. People spoke as real people do in such circumstances. At one point the passengers learn fragments of truth about the other terrorist attacks taking place at the time. But the information is incomplete, sometimes incorrect, and being filtered in from many sources via mobile phones being used by the passengers to talk to loved ones. As rumours spread and word passes round, the same phrases, such as "The World Trade Centre has been hit" are repeated over and over again. If one was to read the script one might think the sheer number of repetitions would be ridiculous and yet it accurately conveys how people in such desperate circumstances would seek to inform others around them of what they had learned themselves and accurately portrays how it is natural in such circumstances to repeat something in order to comprehend the magnitude of it ourselves and as a way of comprehending the implications such news has for our own predicament. The film also did an excellent job of representing all the grey areas of human nature rather than resorting to caricature.