"Do we have any communication with the President at all?"

Rating: 10/10 (7 November 2006)

I have yet to see any of the films that have been coming out lately about the 9/11 attacks, and I had deep reservations about this movie, simply because I had a hard time imagining how they could make a movie about what happened that day and really do justice to the events that took place and the people that were involved. I guess I just couldn't imagine how they could make a movie about 9/11 and keep politics out of it, but director Paul Greengrass has done just that, and with spectacular success. I think that the only line in the entire movie which might have carried some political message is the one I put in my summary line above, but even this would only be a political statement if it were forced to be.
In reality, no they didn't have any communication with the President, but that was because he was sitting in that classroom in Florida. He was making a public appearance and was simply not available for standard contact, I guess you would say. Bush largely escapes criticism in Greengrass's film, which I must say is something of a relief. I think we have seen plenty of films that bash Bush for his response to and behavior during the 9/11 attacks, regardless of how relevant they are. Greengrass understands that we don't need to see that anymore.
The government itself, however, receives the full blow of harsh criticism, spearheaded by such scenes as the air traffic controllers trying to get permission to act against the hijacked planes before they reach major metropolitan areas. They are still struggling to get this permission more than an hour after the second plane has hit the World Trade Center, and if I remember correctly, up until that time they were only given something like two or three jets. Unarmed ones.
Most importantly, the film tells the powerful story of the people aboard the flight that took control of the airplane from the hijackers and disrupted what may very well have been the destruction of the White House. Regardless of the lives lost (the White House had been evacuated long before the plane would have hit), to have lost the White House would have done catastrophic psychological damage to the country. In a different way than the loss of life in New York had, but if the White House had been hit, people would barely have noticed the Pentagon.
The film succeeds not only as a humanitarian story about the incredible bravery that took place on board United 93, but also as a telling of the events as they happened. It succeeds as a crackling thriller as good as any of Tom Clancy's "Ryan" films, with the added bonus that everything that takes place is real. It works as a thriller without even needing to resort to fiction or contrived situations. The tension that you feel is so real that it's almost like you're watching the news.
As I said, I haven't seen World Trade Center, and I'm a little nervous about it, mostly because Nicholas Cage is starring, but if they can make movies this good about the 9/11 attacks, leave the politics at the door, and tell the story so powerfully and with so much respect for those lost, then it will settle my reservations about films about 9/11. Whether this can be done with the second Iraq war, however, remains a mystery.