Moving, terrifying, surreal

Rating: 8/10 (10 September 2006)

We all know the story here.
United 93 offers great tension and drama all centered around a very real event. The fact this is based on a real life attack which most remember vividly makes it far more powerful than any fiction could be.
One of the constant themes of the film is confusion. So many times throughout the characters on screen are asking "what the hell is going on?" or some variant there of. Different agencies getting different information from different sources, with so much uncertainty it's not surprising the response was so slow.
The film's pacing is slow, but methodical, peaking every few minutes with another major event (one plane hits tower, second plane hits tower, plane hits Pentagon, air traffic grounded).
Sadly, you can't help cheering a little bit for the passengers of United 93. You know they won't succeed but it's hard not to find yourself hoping they will.
The filmmakers made a very wise choice I think by using almost no background music throughout the film, this made it seem much more realistic to the viewer.
There are also a couple of interesting 9/11 facts revealed at the films conclusion. Perhaps most disturbing of all, the authorities didn't know United 93 had been hijacked until four minutes after it crashed.
See it if you can handle it, it will tug at your heartstrings the whole way through.