Review of United 93 (2006) by Jason R — 03 Dec 2012

There is no way to know what exactly went on in that plane on that fateful day. What Paul Greengrass has managed to do here is provide a reasonable account of what likely occurred. Additionally, he has shown the complete chaos that happened in the control rooms trying to figure this situation out, and through this has pointed out that bureaucracy hamstrung the efforts to find the doomed planes and take any sort of action. The atmosphere of the film as a whole is broken up a bit due to this, however, but the scenes in the plane appropriately put the scenario into perspective, and the hatred, the desperation of the passengers' plights comes across very well. And for the viewer, you want them to succeed. You know better, you want them to land the plane safely and be okay. But you know it doesn't happen.

A portrayal of heroes, especially those that lost their lives, is difficult to do, especially when it is nationalistic. Avoiding the jingoism that can happen is difficult, if not impossible, but Greengrass does the job well enough to tell the tale. As an American, it is almost impossible to not be emotional, and it is important to know that this emotion is driven from the knowledge that these phone calls of goodbye were real, not jazzed up for drama. A hard task was accomplished here, well enough at least to provide some historical perspective, and faces to the names of those who deserve our memory and thanks.