Subtly anti-American?

Rating: 9/10 (14 May 2006)

I was puzzled why the director chose to frame the depiction of events with an extended sequence of the hijackers in their hotel preparing themselves ritualistically: praying, reading the Koran, shaving body hair, and then continued to focus on them, with extended close-ups, as they boarded the plane, waited for the right moment to seize control. They were also cast as Hollywood-handsome. The effect was to subtly make us see the events through the eyes of the hijackers and to humanize them. No leaving-home sequences for any of the passengers, saying goodbye to family or friends, all material that could have been obtained from research, nothing to humanize the victims as fully as the terrorists. Why?