Heroes all

Rating: 9/10 (3 May 2006)

Is it too soon? Are we ready? Am I ready? These three questions have been asked in just about every media outlet on the crest of the new 9/11 film release, United 93. Whether, you, I, or the world is ready to relive in graphic detail the events that unfolded on September 11th is up each individual, but whether you find yourself standing in line at a movie theatre, renting the DVD this fall or avoiding it altogether, nothing will take away from the fact that United 93 is a fantastic film that leaves you breathless and shows the world more heroes than just those that were onboard the fateful flight.
United 93 is directed by Paul Greengrass, who is no stranger to fact based-documentary type shot films. In 2002, Greengrass filmed Bloody Sunday which was a dramatization of the Irish civil rights protest march and subsequent massacre by British troops on January 30, 1972. Bloody Sunday was one of the best reviewed films of the year and ended up on many (including yours truly), Best Of lists when the year was recapped.
Based on this previous outing of success, Greengrass was the perfect choice to direct United 93 (note that the studio did not 'choose' him but rather, he pitched it to the executives).
United 93 tells the story of the fourth airplane to be used in the terrorist attacks on 9/11. The story of that plane came to us slowly while we were still digesting the horrors of the attacks on New York. As it was recounted through phone recordings and conversations between the passengers in the air and their loved ones of the ground, the plane was taken over by terrorists with the expected goal of using the flying tube as a weapon, quite possibly flying the plane into the Nation's Capital.
As family and friends spoke to those on United 93, the passengers began to hear of the stories of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and they knew that the intention of the terrorists was to martyr themselves, taking the passengers and crew with them.
The passengers fought back. And their mark in history was recorded.
United 93 does a spectacular job of keeping us on the edge of our seats even as we know how the film will eventually unfold. Greengrass does this by spending much of the time with the stories that we weren't completely aware about. The stories about the ground controllers, the FAA staff and the army all grappling with the unfolding events and determining the next course of action. We relive the events as they lived them  on the front line of events that changed forever the world to which we live.
We learn amongst the chaos that the army had difficulty getting authorization to scramble fighter jets and that those that did eventually make it airborne were unarmed and headed in the wrong direction. We learn that those on the ground in command centres were ill prepared for the events and had problems with communication both internally (trying to determine if there were other flights hijacked at the time) and externally (trying to get an open communication channel to the army). We learn that one man  on his first day on the job  made the executive decision to ground all planes in lieu of any government intervention.
United 93 tells these stories while jumping back and forth to the passengers aboard the plane and we watch as they learn and accept their fate and then react in a manner that would thwart the hijackers intentions as the plane flew into an open field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
United 93 is an emotional punch to the stomach and a jaw dropper to boot. I sat amazed as these people figured things out based on limited intelligence and made decisions of universal impact. All this occurring while I stood dumbfounded in front of an office computer watching streamlined video of the event almost five years ago. I was reacting when then were acting. Heroes all.
You will leave United 93 exhausted, and during water cooler discussions that follow you will not be able to remember a characters name or backstory. That is because their isn't any. Greengrass doesn't follow the typical rules of an event film and keeps to the real time facts - not singling out any one person or institution, but telling the story of how the group of heroes both on the ground and in the air forever etched a mark in our long term memory.
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