Dir. Paul Greengrass
Writ. Paul Greengrass
Act. Lewis Alsamari

The most obvious question that everyone asks about this movie is, is it too soon? United 93 is the first commercially produced movie about the events that unfolded on September 11th, 2001. Director Paul Greengrass sought out the relatives of the victims of United Flight 93 about making this movie and they gave him their blessing. Greengrass has made a very good movie that avoids conspiracy theories and gives us a story of what could have happened aboard the hijacked airplane.

In case you have been living in a cave for six years, the story is about one of the four planes that were hijacked on September 11, 2001. While three of the four crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the fourth plane crashed into a field outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania for unknown reasons. After experts listened to the recordings of the cockpit transmissions, and the numerous phone calls made from the passengers of the flight to their families, it is surmised that hijackers purposely crashed the plane into the ground as the passengers attempted to retake the plane.

First and foremost, if you are not emotionally ready to watch this movie, then don't. From the opening scene, the atmosphere of the movie is understandably dark and never changes. Paul Greengrass, whose previous works I have not liked, does a brilliant job of telling a non political story of the events. Considering the political tensions in America today, it is amazing that there was no "gunman on the grassy knoll" twist to this movie. He does a great job of stating the facts, as we know them, without "artistic" embellishment.

The real winner of the movie is the story. Greengrass does a great job of showing that these ordinary frightened people took upon themselves to try and save themselves and re-take the plane. That is a key element to the story because it could have been easy to make these people super human like and unbelievable. These people were trying to save their own lives as well as the lives of the people on the ground, to me that make them just as big if not bigger heroes that if they were portrayed to be trying to "save the country."

Greengrass also does something that is incredibly respectful to the families on board the plane. At no time during the movie does he name a person on board the plane. It is completely pronouns. We know who the people are because we have seen pictures, read the stories and so on. But if Greengrass had allowed the names to be mentioned in the story, it would have allowed people in the audience to make unknown assumptions about the people involved. Greengrass didn't and I think that it is a great story.

United 93 also provides us a glimpse into what went on in the control rooms of the military, the national command center for air traffic control, as well as the traffic control towers of Boston, New York, and Cleveland. These scenes provide the weakest acting in the movie. But that is ok because most of these people were working as air traffic controllers during 9/11. These were real people playing themselves in the movie. I think that is another brilliant thing Paul Greengrass did in casting this film. Bringing the actual witnesses to these events brought a sense of realism that no actor could bring no mater how good the actor.

One last thing to mention about the story. The 9/11 attacks were about many things that have been overanalyzed by everyone with an opinion. But certainly religion is a major issue in that attack and on the War on Terrorism. The terrorists believe we are infidels, among other things, and that it is their religious belief that we must die (Please note that I wrote the terrorists belief and not Muslim. I believe the terrorists are interpreting the Muslim religion different than most Muslims.) Greengrass shoots a great scene in the movie where the terrorists on board the plane are praying at the say time the passengers on board are praying the Lords Prayer. Possibly the most powerful scene in the movie watching the two different groups praying for strength hoping for two different outcomes. Religion was apart of the attacks and Greengrass gives it the proper time in the movie.

The special effects were great in this movie. They were very basic and simple but the climatic scene as the plane was flying into the ground was very realistic. Of course, Greengrass did add actual news footage into the movie, mainly the second airliner flying into the south tower of The World Trade Center. But I thought the scenes in the airplane were done superbly and without any flaws.

This is a very good movie because of how director/screenwriter Paul Greengrass presented this story. As a kid growing up in school I had many history teachers talk about how my generation really didn't have major event that defined their lives. The teachers mostly were of the age that they could tell you what they were doing when President Kennedy was assassinated. Some of the older ones talked about Pearl Harbor and some went all the way back to the end of World War I. I also remembered that they had this sense of envy that the worst thing my generation had to deal with was the Challenger disaster. After 9/11 I know why they had that envy. United 93 is a good way of dealing with those feelings. If you can, I think this should be a must see for everyone.

Brian - the Naked Gun