In roughly real time, Greengrass tells the story of United 93, the only one of the four planes hijacked on September 11 that failed to hit its planned target; the passengers fought back against the hijackers, and the plane crashed into a Pennsylvania field, killing everyone on board.
It's not an easy story to watch, and I can understand why so many are reluctant to see the movie. The final moments are almost unbearably tense, and had my stomach in knots. But the movie is magnificently made. It is neither a cheap action thriller nor a piece of patriotic jingoism, but a serious portrayal of the day's events presented in near-documentary style.
Much of the movie, especially in the first two-thirds, takes place not on the plane, but in the various air control centers. Many of the traffic controllers are playing themselves -- the mind boggles that anyone would be willing to devote weeks to reliving that day -- notably Ben Sliney, who was newly in charge of the national traffic control center (9/11 was his first day on the job).
Greengrass is not out to make political points in his movie, but it is difficult not to be astounded at the incompetence of the military on that morning; it takes Sliney nearly an hour to get a military liaison on site, and the military is unable to take any action because commanders cannot get in touch with the president to authorize any specific rules of engagement. (If you've seen Fahrenheit 9/11, it's nearly impossible not to flash on the image of Bush continuing to read to a classroom of children as the crisis begins.)
The scenes on the plane are painfully suspenseful because we know what's coming. Greengrass has made the smart decision not to cast stars; familiar faces would only be distracting and take us out of the movie's severe realism. Instead, we have a plane full of ordinary-looking people, unfamiliar faces. They are the faces of the passengers on every flight we've ever taken; they are us. Greengrass doesn't even make any effort to tell us who's who; there are no sentimental backstories or monologues about their lives. We know virtually nothing about these people, because they knew nothing about each other.
That's why the movie is so horrifying; the initial moments are utterly familiar and banal -- passengers waiting to board, flight attendants gossiping, pilots running through the pre-flight checklist -- and we can't help but imagine ourselves on that plane. And in the final half hour, which takes place almost entirely on the plane, we find ourselves wondering how we would respond in the face of near-certain death.
As hard as those final sequences are to watch, there is something inspirational about the heroism of these passengers. The most impressive thing about the movie, for me, is that this inspirational quality is never cloying, never cliched, and never tries to present itself as a happy ending of any kind.
Yes, United 93 is an awfully intense experience, and it will be too much for some. But if you can bring yourself to see it, do. It's tremendously moving and deeply cathartic, and it honors the sacrifice made by those passengers in beautifully appropriate fashion.
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