Interesting , engaging, and well done

Rating: 8/10 (8 May 2006)

Excellent quasi-documentary of a tragic flight. The airport traffic control center scenes were especially dramatic and authentic-appearing as the boss shown was the real guy in charge that very day, not an actor. He was a natural! And, I especially liked the everyday lead-in scenes to the main story that showed travelers, planes, airports, employees, etc., going about their typical daily business and jobs before any alarms were raised. Really well done story development.
As much of this film's story is necessarily supposition as there were no survivors to tell the real story, surely a lot of it is not exactly as it happened and much was surely added for dramatic effect to make an engrossing movie. All facts cannot be known so a lot of guesswork and deduction was obviously necessary, and we just can't know how much of what was shown in the film really happened and how much was dramatic film-making. The plane flight scenes were scary and effective, with the passengers showing their individual humanity in their many emotions ranging from cool control all the way to abject basket cases. The Arabic hijackers were shown as vicious, cruel and sadistic as hell but this may have been exaggerated for effect as they may have actually been more coolly efficient; we just don't know what really happened. But, what was shown made for an extremely dramatic film even if it may not have been wholly accurate.
The military's part in the film was shown as frantic and unorganized, and pathetic in results, as no one really knew what the hell to do so they ran around in circles. No one higher up seemed to want to make the "big' decision to attack the hijacked airliner even as it sped toward Washington, D.C.! Finally sending up 2 unarmed jets was a sure sign of hopeless unpreparedness and incompetence from the outfit that is supposed to guard our country. It was really embarrassing and maddening to me to know that at least some of what was shown actually happened. Are we better prepared now?
The only criticism I have of the film-making is that it took at least 5 minutes for the many angry male passengers to storm the cockpit and get to the pilot, having to overcome just two Arabs, one food cart in the way, and one thin cockpit door. The filmmakers surely had to guess about those details, but I thought those determined men could have easily gotten to the pilot in much less time, as 5 minutes is an eternity in a severe crisis situation like that. The stretched-out time line was most likely an example of artistic license done to draw out the intense dramatic tension. Getting there quicker probably wouldn't have made any difference in the outcome anyway but it was the only thing in the film that rang false to me.
The filmmaker did do an overall great job in scaring the wits out of us and portraying the actual terror that had to be in the hearts of those doomed passengers. And, the heroism of those who finally attacked the hijackers should be lauded forever as a sign of true American courage and part of what makes us a great and powerful country.