Documentary style - but a bit too film-school

Rating: Null/10 (30 April 2006)

This film will move you for what certain points in the film symbolize. We know how it ends, yes. But I confess to a tear as the final cards rolled explaining what happened, in brief. The same about midway through the film as they were about to cut to the 93 cabin, even in the boarding area as the terrorists sit right next to the other passengers.
There are flaws in the film-making. The Blair Witch tussle-with-the-camera 'realism' is slightly overdone at the FAA center when the goofy and incompetent Air Force liaison is brought in at one point. There's one or two other points in the film, as well. The 'realism' is also had by some improv, and people stumbling over their lines, just 'as in real life'. But it doesn't play in film, in my opinion. Dirty Harry, NYPD Blue, had this sort of indy camera work. But the actors crisply delivered their lines, without stumbling over them. And that made for 'realism'. People know that these, and this movie, are a staged show - lights, camera, action. That's exactly what you don't want to remind them. They should not necessarily have scripted more. I mean, Sliney (not mentioned in IMDb cast list as of 30 APR 2006) knew what he said and did at the time. That's fine. But he and others should have run through the delivery at bit, first; a couple of takes at least. It takes one out of the film when the gal at Northwest Air Defense (NEADS), who is always feeding the officers bad info, seems to almost be looking into the camera as she muffs her lines.
The first bit of the film, people boarding 93, the cuts to the FAA center and NEADS, really do have a documentary feel. You can suspend disbelief. Every now and then, these problems, just mentioned, pop right before you on the screen. But the bit before they really concentrate on the cabin drama is interesting, and sickening really. NEADS is portrayed as being just completely clueless. The FAA is on top of things. And local flight controllers, more like the military, just can't seem to believe what they are seeing and hearing in the transmissions. Everything just happens so fast that bureaucracy is slow to act. Some behave, as we're led to believe they actually did, as if they had all day to make decisions.
So Air Defense has an air 'scenario' planned for that day, up in the North Atlantic. Plenty of planes to go. But there are no planes in the air. When completely misinformed about what is going on, they still turn on the TV to see CNN broadcasting the smoke from the first WTC tower. And they are told - that's a small plane. They cut to Sliney at FAA and he says - look at that damage. There's no way that's a small aircraft. Where's our American 11? Umm . . that has to be American 11. I don't know the actual story. But according to Sliney, the FAA didn't miss a beat. So in real life, if that's the truth, the military was clueless because the FAA relied upon this incompetent liaison who seemed not to know what to do without his papers to push and pen nearby. The fact is, it didn't occur to anyone at FAA to simply pick up the phone, and call NEADS. Sliney - this is Sliney. We're convinced that's American 11 in the side of the WTC. We're tracking up to ten other possible hijacks at this very minute (they brought out a white board in the control center, and began listing suspicious flights). What are you going to do? But he never made that call. Heck with the liaison. Get him another another donut and some coffee, and make the call yourself.
So they get to the plane. The cockpit door is pretty much swinging open all the time. But when the hijackers do attack, the door is closed. They force a stewardess to give the 'secret knock', co-pilot opens the door, and he's attacked and wounded with a knife. The captain, with his lunch tray over his lap, fights back with his arms. But he's quickly done. And the stu is killed. The terrorists get control of the plunging aircraft. And two others herd the passengers, and other stewardesses, to the back of coach, but not before attacking one or two that had been in first class, sitting with them.
The reason these passengers hesitate is because they imagine that the hijackers will just land in Cuba, or something. And they'll be freed. One man insists on that explanation. And he's just not going to be wrong. Apparently he's in this scenario because he, too, was on a phone. Ultimately, Greenglass has the passengers literally putting this know-it-all down, before they rush the two hijackers in the coach cabin. The other reason they hesitate is because one hijacker appears to have plastic explosive rigged to some lantern batteries, which was probably also described in phone calls. Turns out, the explosive is just modeling clay. But that holds them in check.
Finally they make the rush, first getting the modeling clay guy. Then they get this kid who viciously had been attacking passengers with his knife. He goes down. Then with the cart they literally start poking holes in the cockpit door. They are about to break through when the co-pilot terrorist crashes the plane into the field.
It's the story of the passenger's selfless heroism; and dueling religions in the film, as the passengers resort to Hail Marys and Our Fathers, and the terrorists their prayers to Allah. Some might give a bad review to the film because it might be seen to encourage resolve in Afganistan, and Iraq. And that's not their politics. While the film is flawed, it's a film worth seeing, as many of the passenger's families have recommended.