Much Better Than I Thought It Was Going To Be.

Rating: 8/10 (2 May 2006)

I had a hard time deciding whether or not to go see the film United 93. I didn't make the decision to go see it until the other day when I saw Paul Greengrass, the director of the film, interviewed on the Today show. He explained how he got the approval of every family member of the passengers on the actual flight United 93 before making the film.
The major worry I had going in to movie was the fact that it was going to be hokey, and, in fact, be dishonorable to the families who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001. I tried my best to go into the theater with an open mind, but when the subject matter is as controversial as this it was hard to go in there without having a predetermined idea of what it was going to be like. My original idea that the film wasn't going to be good was completely off...
The first thing you realize about United 93 is that there is no major score that accompanies it. That's a good thing, because that last thing I wanted was a suspenseful or thrilling score that would become the signature of United 93 distracting from what the film is actually about. You also notice that the movie is filmed on hand-held cameras so that the viewer gets the affect that he is actually experiencing the events of that day. It was a gritty way to film it, and possibly the only way it could have been done correctly.
Paul Greengrass decided to shoot the film on real-time. Real-time means that however long the film is that's how long the events actually took. This is another way that Greengrass pulls the audience into the horrific events, and, because of that style of film-making, the film is extremely difficult to watch at times.
The major triumph of this film is that it doesn't exploit 9/11 in any way. Instead, it's a terrifying portrayal of an event that no American will ever forget. This film is not played out in the way a thriller would, but it unfolds on a necessary slow pace that lets the viewer soak in every detail that happened less than five years ago. Most of America has no idea about a lot that occurred on 9/11 and this film teaches a lot on what went on in all the Aircraft control rooms as people learned that we were being attacked. Much of what went on the actual flight United 93 is unknown, because we only know what the passengers, that called their family members, told, which, was enough to base an entire film on.
At the beginning of the United 93, it does fall into a few clichés. One is where a passenger makes it to the plane just in time. Whether or not that actually happened we will never know, but because it's a common cliché in films with airplanes, which makes me think it may not have happened. However, never does the dialogue on board the plane become unbelievable, and the reason for that is because Paul Greengrass shot really long takes, some even 40 minutes long, so that the relatively inexperienced cast could get comfortable in their surroundings and deliver the dialogue smoothly and effectively. Even the famous line, "let's roll" isn't given a lot of focus, and if you don't listen for it, you could miss it.
The final 20 or so minutes of United 93 is some of the most haunting film-making I have ever seen. There is one scene where the passengers are reciting the Lord's Prayer in the cabin of the plane; while the hijackers are praying for the act of violence they are about to carry out.
There's nothing I could say that could give you an idea of the affect that this film will have on you, or that it had on me, and many other people. This film was made the best way a film based on 9/11 could have been made at this point in time, meaning, a film this close to the actual events. Oliver Stone's film World Trade Center will have a lot to live up to, and if it's not even on par with United 93, then I believe it will be trashed. United 93 is the best film of the year so far, and the most disturbing film in years. United 93 gets a 7.5 out of 10.