Review of United 93 (2006) by Andrewh. — 18 Jul 2006

I watched this one last night and I wasn't impressed. What's the point of the film? What is the message of the film? Perhaps the point is to be a historical document in which case a message isn't necessarily appropriate.

But if it's a historical document, (and I found myself thinking this during it) how much of it is actually historical? Was hot water really used as a weapon? Why, in a film supposedly about Flight 93, does more than half of it deal with the WTC? If the writer had simply accepted that his movie was not a documentary, he might've felt more liberated to engage in exploration of the some the rivettingly interesting dynamics that another director (like Oliver Stone) would be glad to have the opportunity to use to say something.

As it is, we are left with a film that has either a completely distinct location from any film ever shot or a film with no location at all. Frankly, after watching it, I don't care which. I remember 9/11 and it hurt me.

Watching this film at times allowed me to remember that pain, but not to deal with it, not to understand it in a different way, and not to feel it more deeply than I originally had, so I say phooey. Well, now we know that tragedy plus time plus a bad writer/director equals boring.