Review of United 93 (2006) by Mark K — 11 Sep 2011

When I saw this film, it was in a nearly empty theater. That in itself was somewhat significant, in that the choice of most people was that they had already made up their minds about the film. For good reasons, perhaps, and to avoid pain almost certainly. People are too distracted and busy in our everyday lives, and this sort of ignorance and "not being awake" is what some people take advantage of, everyday. Sometimes with chilling results:

I'm glad I went when I did. There were no distractions.

Now as to the film itself. Rarely has the power of film to tell a story been so well executed. It's a simple story, but contains many layers to it. The technical construction of the film is flawless.

I felt emotionally drained and saddened, numbed by the experience of watching about as accurate a depiction of the events as could be managed. I found myself grasping at straws of who to blame, as we all do in these kinds of circumstances -- but in the end I came up almost completely empty. Like life itself, the events of 9-11 unfolded at a pace too quick for the reaction times of human organizations to react in a technological age.

There's heroism in every frame of the film, in large ways and small, but it's all hopelessly futile. I could only watch, helpless as the rest.

It's also a movie full of paradoxes. The hijackers go through the motions of life even when they are committed to killing the passengers around them. They were numbed by their dedication before they executed their plan, but some shreds of humanity remained: For a brief moment they allow an attendant to help one of the passengers they stabbed, possibly an automatic function to calm the passengers, and buy time, but it's hard to say.

If anyone thinks they were portrayed as too human, (I heard a lot of "not brutal enough") we can't forget they are made up of the same matter as the rest of us. I found the fact they could drink water, buckle their seat belts and allow first aid and then carry out their plan as almost more evil and calculating: For these simple acts had only one purpose, to further their mission. The people were weapons just as the plane was.

The reactions of the passengers were wholly realistic as they came to grips with the realization that unless they did something, that their survival was not possible.

I was curiously elated that the director and filmmakers chose the portrayal of human survival as the main cause for the passengers acting as they did. I was relieved at the lack of foolish patriotic jingoism that usually accompanies these types of documentaries. The only nod to nations was the reaction of one European passenger arguing to reason with the hijackers.

Leave patriotism for the firefighters and police in those films. The people on the plane had no time to think about what history would say about them. They used their time in the only way they knew how.

We can't know for certain what happened, but as I left the theater I felt the cold truth creep in. That's why I couldn't place blame in one place.

It offers no answers. It simply is what it is, and that troubles me too.

It causes me concern for our younger people. They have inherited this flight's legacy of truth. I hope they will know whether to make the right choice when they are confronted with their own decisions that can affect many people.

Five stars of five for achievement on the film.

Two stars for the world we've created.

I wish, for my childs' sake, we could simply rewind the film and start over. But we can't. We can only watch as it races by us, and try to make the right choices.