If you're ready

Rating: 10/10 (5 January 2007)

If you're ready or close to ready to see a movie about September 11, I will strongly recommend United 93.
I have not seen Flight 93, which was made for TV and I have read is much more sentimentalized. This one has not an ounce of sap. It is more nearly a documentary than a feature (of course it is a re-enactment and not a documentary, but it has some of that feel). The DVD extras include 45 minutes of interviews with several of the families of the passengers and crew (they resent the word "victims"), all of whom gave permission for the movie, and I think all of whom met the actors who played the parts of their loved ones. They got to see it before it was released to the public, and the movie gave some of them a bit more peace.
I saw World Trade Center, which was not bad but was Hollywoodized. This movie has actors we are not familiar with, so we will not be distracted by them, and many of them look eerily like the folks they play. The flight crew and air traffic controllers are played by people who do those jobs in real life, not by actors.
A Oscar nomination for Best Picture is not out of line. Even though we know the plot, we are mesmerized, both by the heroes and the villains. We get a lot of time in the air traffic control centers in Boston, Newark, and a military command center. The scene where the Newark controllers are trying to locate a missing plane and then they see it hit the second tower is indescribable.
I don't say it is a must-see, because reliving that morning is not something everyone is ready to do. But when you reach that place, start with this movie.
It is rated R for violence and "intense sequences of terror and violence," though the distributors will appeal or have appealed. I believe many teenagers are ready to see this. There is maybe one word of profanity. There are some scenes with blood but it is not gory or overdone. The issue is whether a child can handle the fear. Watching the movie, your heartbeat goes up several times (I think I noticed a heartbeat sound effect a few times, but I did not resent it as manipulative like I often do some musical choices). I was gripping the arms of my chair when the pilot tilted the plane to throw off the passengers' attack. I am trying to remember at what age I could have seen this, and been able to separate the fear from the events. Maybe 12 but certainly no younger. Most kids it would be more like 14 or 15. I do not know that they need to change the rating, as it would be a good idea for kids to have parents available to talk to about this movie. I guess since it's seen at home now it doesn't matter so much, but I wanted to describe some of this for folks who might want to see it with their kids.