::Flight 93::

Posted by Hari Krishnan


Paul Greengrass has crafted one of the most difficult films to sit through with his intense and unforgettable drama, United 93, a film which details the tragic events of September 11th, 2001. Using mostly unknown actors and without inserting a political agenda into the picture, Greengrass has managed to create a taut, extraordinarily haunting film that not only recreates but also honors the last hours in the lives of the passengers and crew aboard the doomed United Airlines Flight 93.
The events of the morning of September 11 play out in as close to real time as possible, with Greengrass shifting focus between the passengers of Flight 93, air traffic control towers in Boston and New York, the FAA base in Virginia, and a military control center.

United 93 begins with the four hijackers of Flight 93 preparing for the day’s devastating events by praying and shaving their bodies. The film proceeds to show the passengers and crew of UA Flight 93 boarding the plane, with one man racing to catch the flight at the last minute. Delayed on the tarmac at Newark, strangers begin the ritual of making small talk while waiting for the plane to take-off. Nothing extraordinary is going on. At that point, it’s a day just like any other.

Greengrass then shifts the story to follow air traffic controllers as they begin to realize there’s something unusual going on in the skies above America. A controller out of Boston is the first to suspect a plane has been hijacked. Losing touch with American Flight 11, his repeated attempts to raise the plane on the radio are met with silence. Then a voice speaking with a heavy accent is heard and the hijacking is all but confirmed.

David Alan Basche as UA Flight 93 passenger Todd Beamer in United 93.

Even with the evidence piling up, his supervisor and other controllers are unsure how to proceed. Hijackings are so rare, no one really understands how to handle the news. Soon chaos breaks out as more planes are suspected of being hijacked. The FAA’s newly promoted operations manager, Ben Sliney, is quickly overloaded and overwhelmed. Sliney can’t get the information he needs from the control towers. He can’t find his military liaison to brief him and get the military into the loop. It’s Sliney’s first day on the job and he’s expected to handle a situation no one in their wildest dreams imagined would ever happen. [Interesting note: Ben Sliney plays himself in the film]

As we all know now, and as Greengrass illustrates so well in United 93, the people in charge on the ground had no idea the planes were going to crash into buildings. Listening to the air traffic controllers and the military try and figure out where the hijackers were going to land is actually sickening. It’s obvious one hand doesn’t know what the other’s doing, but Greengrass restrains himself from placing blame and instead lays out the story as matter of factly as possible. We have the benefit of hindsight; those trying to decipher the events as they were unfolding did not.

The last act of United 93 plays out with the passengers and crew of UA Flight 93 confronting the hijackers. Via phone calls with friends and relatives, the passengers collectively come to the realization the hijackers don't intend to land the plane. By the time the hijackers take control of Flight 93, three other planes had hit their targets. The people aboard UA Flight 93 knew they were going to crash and that their only course of action was to try and take back the plane. United 93 allows us to be the fly on the wall as the passengers and flight crew work out a plan of attack. Together this group of strangers, these heroes, say good-bye to loved ones and then rush the cockpit.

Granted, we will never know for sure exactly what happened that day on that plane, but Greengrass (Bloody Sunday) did everything he could - with the assistance of family members of the deceased passengers – to recreate the events as they likely played out. He portrays everyone in the film, from the hijackers to the innocent passengers and crew aboard the four planes to the air traffic controllers to members of the military, as ordinary human beings. Each has his or her own motivation; each has their own story to tell.

My first words upon exiting the theater – and I recall this distinctly – were, “How can I possibly review that?” What I meant was how do you suggest to strangers, and to Americans in particular, that they should go pay $10 to watch a film this gut-wrenching, this emotionally difficult to handle? Your decision whether or not to see United 93 shouldn’t be based on reviews of the film. It’s a choice each individual needs to make based on your own state of mind.

Greengrass’ documentary-like style may be too unemotional for some, but I believe Greengrass accomplished what he set out to do with United 93 by paying attention to the facts. The reaction to watching United 93 in a theater is emotional enough, the film doesn’t need to employ any ruses to move audience members.

If you believe you can watch this from an objective point of view, think again. This isn’t so much a film as a memorial to the victims of 9/11. My advice is if you’re willing to put yourself through the experience, bring plenty of tissues.

GRADE: A

United 93 was directed by Paul Greengrass and is rated R for language and some intense sequences of terror and violence.

 

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