Review of United 93 (2006) by Jay S — 02 Feb 2018

The title suggests that the plot surrounds the ill-fated United airlines plane, but it's a movie that entails 9/11 as a whole. Paul Greengrass ignores all the traditional Hollywood cliches of having a lead hero to focus on, having plot exposition to explain things, or incorporating character development so that we're attached to certain individuals.

But rather Greengrass opts for a gorilla style direction as if someone was holding a camcorder and filming the day's events and watching it all unfold unexpectedly in real time. We're simply thrown into the chaos of that day while watching all the reactions and confusion from one occurrence after another.

All of that works, and works extremely well at that. The final 15 minutes left me shaken with the most intense moments i've ever sat through in any film, despite knowing what the outcome would be.

This was an extraordinary film to say the least.