Review of United 93 (2006) by Nathan H — 09 Jul 2009

I never had much interest in seeing "United 93," particularly because I thought it would be a Toby Keith Americana hero-worship type of film, and we know so little of what happened on that flight that (although I appreciate the sacrifices of all on 9/11) I really didn't want to see Hollywood creating a fictionalized propaganda piece that might color future generations' perceptions of what happened that day.

Fortunately, "United 93" does just the opposite of what I feared. It re-creates the day of 9/11 from the perspective of the air traffic controllers, and from the perspective of the passengers aboard the plane. All are confused, all are scared, and some make heroic choices while others simply have so little information that they don't know how to act. It's incredibly chaotic, and the film's shaky cinematography establishes very well the fractured nature of that morning. Air traffic controllers stare at screens filled with blinking dots, attempting to make contact with possible hijackings, attempting to make contact with planes that simply disappear...they learn that there have been crashes not from other pilots or supervisors, but by watching CNN footage.

The end of the film weakens its impact a bit, likely because of the 2006 release date. We have a few screens of text that tell us how the plane was brought down by the passengers, and that fighter jets could not possibly have downed the plane, etc. For a film that allows its images to stand on their own, it was disappointing to see the filmmakers using the last few minutes to dispel 9/11 myths. Were the film to be released today, after all of the research and committee hearings have concluded, it likely wouldn't have needed those screens. Watching it now, they feel like an Oliver Stone tactic, an exploration of media or government myths, and it simply feels out of place in a film so raw.

Overall, though it took me so many years to finally watch this story, I'm glad I did. Very well-made, and a great reminder of the fortitude not just of the firefighters (portrayed in "World Trade Center"), but of the air traffic personnel in making sense of a chaotic day, and helping to sort out (and keep safe) the thousands of airplanes in the sky on a deadly morning.