Realistic and powerful.

Rating: 10/10 (7 June 2006)

The attack on September 11 which we all know about is yet again recorded in this tragic docudrama about the fourth hijacked plane -- and the only one to not reach its target. With almost limitless realism, United 93 fills you up with such emotion that you can't help but feel like you're experiencing the events.
Inspired by Gus Van Sant's movie Elephant, director-writer Paul Greengrass silences any attempt to commercialize this movie and portrays the events on United Flight 93 like they were meant to be. This story fills us with anger, sadness, fear, anxiety, and shock as virtually unknown actors (some playing themselves) are shown watching as the terror rises in New York and Washington. Greengrass directs this movie in such a way that leaves you breathless. His hand-held swinging, shaky camera comes right into the action and portrays every real emotion that the people on United 93 would have had.
Never in my life have I seen such a powerful, and realistic portrayal of an actual event, making the movie almost too hard to watch. And although you want to look away, and though you know the inevitable will happen, Greengrass manages to convince you that there is hope. The characters show both human emotion and forced emotion (the four Terrorists hiding their fear and pushing themselves towards death). As the movie switches back and fourth between flight 93 and the flight control room, we are exposed to dialog documented from actual conversations and transcripts from September 11.
The movie stays true to the events without going overboard, and truly focuses on the humanity, the inevitable tragedy that we all hadn't see coming. The audience feels almost motionless as United 93 comes to a closing, throwing the characters into countless near-death emotions, swinging the camera back and fourth as if it was really happening. What we now would call a painful day, America never saw coming ('A hijacking? Yeah right!').
United 93 really inspired me both artistically and emotionally. More complicated than it looks, Greengrass presented to us a raw and truly unbelievable film that examines real-life horror. This is definitely a movie to remember, and one that in my opinion truly deserves recognition.