Review of Flight 93 (2006) by Jim P — 20 Aug 2006

[font=Arial]Not to be confused with United 93, the made-for-tv Flight 93 is a lower budget film using "no name brand" actors. They do an extremely credible job of conveying the horror and pathos of September 11th. One cannot walk away from this performance without feeling at least some of the emotion that would have gripped the passengers on this flight, which was of course the "one that got away", in the sense that the hijackers did not achieve their goal of crashing the aircraft into a target (generally believed to have been either the White House or the US Capitol Building).[/font].

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[font=Arial]In addition to the drama being played out inside of the airplane, we also get a fairly good idea of how all of this impacted the various people on the ground. There is an especially compelling portrayal of the conversation between one of the passengers and a Verizon operator (undoubtedly the most factual, as it was the only one of the several phone calls made from the aircraft that was actually recorded).[/font].

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[font=Arial]I expected my emotions to be manipulated by this movie, but not so. There are many adjectives to describe this work: thoughtful, powerful, balanced, honest. Manipulative is not one of them, however.[/font].

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[font=Arial]One of the most striking examples of the films honesty and balance is that we are not pushed to feel anything in particular about the hijackers. They are on a mission, and no judgment is made.[/font].

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[font=Arial]I am hoping to see United 93, the more recent telling of this story, soon. It will be interesting to see how it compares.[/font].

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[font=Arial]In any event, I recommend Flight 93, but keep the Kleenex handy.[/font].