The debate swirling around United 93 is whether or not it is too soon for a film of this kind to be released. There has been an abundance of documentaries concerning the tragic events of 9/11, but up until now the world of fictionalized dramatizations has been understood, for the most part, to be out of bounds. It's a rational concern. For something of this magnitude, it's a lot easier to wrap one's self in media coverage, inquiries and official reports, or first-hand footage because there is a connotation, or at least the subconscious perception of, truthfulness in these kinds of sources. If a script is written, actors are used, and special effects are employed, will it lessen or perhaps will it enhance the impact of the source subject? Given the historically long track record of maudlin or facile screen adaptations of other real life events, the public has cause for worry. And the unfortunate truth is, be it six months or six decades from now, not every film concerning 9/11 will be made with as much tact, respect and overall impact as United 93. For now, though, in terms of raw authenticity and unflinching poignancy, this is the motion picture upon which others will be judged.
United 93 represents a very specific kind of filmmaking. It concerns itself little with defining characters per se, and it feels no need to stop along the way to flesh out any of the details. If you miss a point of information in the movie, it will either be repeated several times again by a character, or not at all, and you'll just have to wait for the DVD to replay the scene again. Although events transpire more or less in real time, this is no episode of 24, even though you still have terrorists, airplanes at risk of crashing, and heroes emerging from unlikely places. By depicting everything as it happens, the picture takes on an added kind of urgency, and, unlike a documentary, where we recognize the source material has limitations in terms of point of view and its innate ability to capture everything else that's going on, at a certain point we trust the filmmakers to have assembled many pieces of the puzzle, and are now opting to show as much as possible without sacrificing the pace and drive of the piece.
I realize I've already used words such as 'trust', 'authenticity', and 'truthfulness' in this review so far, and perhaps that speaks best to the film's character. Few will be able to genuinely fault writer/director Paul Greengrass for making United 93 too soon after 9/11, because there is no question that he made the movie in order to tell an important story and, more importantly, to tell it properly. While his script is no doubt assembled from a lot of reconstructed conversations and extant facts, it still takes the time to show ordinary, everyday things which we all take for granted, never aware when we wake up in the morning it could be our last day alive. It's the "Our Town" of our millenia.
Weaving all of these elements into a cohesive whole is no easy task, and the film's 3 editors are to be commended in particular. Although the unfamiliar actors do not trigger familiarity at their appearance onscreen, through their trauma and decisive heroism they are nevertheless unforgettable by its conclusion (sort of a mixed blessing, in the sense that it helps ensure the victims themselves are never forgotten, but because of the in-the-moment format of the picture, are we remembering an actor's face when we leave the theatre? I can only hope they will insert pictures of the real-life people somewhere on the bonus features of the DVD). There are also subtle balancing moments, as when one of the terrorists makes a phone call to someone and says "I love you", and then a short while later many of the passengers are in turn calling their loved ones to say goodbye. At a poignant moment late in the picture, the hostages begin to say the "Our Father", and then it cuts to the frantic hijackers, softly speaking prayers of their own in their moment of desparation.
Even those who think they have soaked up as much information on the tragedy as possible are bound to find new discoveries and impact in the film. Many difficult decisions had to be made in a very short window of time. For myself, I'd long held the impression that the airports and security organizations themselves were unprepared for the crisis. I was intrigued to discover the air traffic control centres, the FAA and NORAD personnel appeared to have been, more or less, working through the chaos as quickly and succinctly as was humanly possible (although by a certain point, it was admittedly intensely frustrating to hear the swirling speculation from all channels as to the exact location of Flight 11). In several instances, these departments were just waiting for word back from higher powers. Sadly, given the White House's sluggish, dragging response to other catastrophes on U.S. soil, such as Hurricane Katrina, the lack of quick, decisive action from the country's leaders is not that much of a surprise.
Yet this is an impression and opinion of my own, and it is precisely one of the things that makes United 93 so remarkable and unique. It allows the viewer the opportunity to draw their own conclusions. It fights like hell to sustain impartiality, or at least stays as far away from a trace of melodrama as possible. We thereby relive 9/11 ourselves that day, including the confusion, the shock, and the questions. Moreover, as we approach the five year anniversary of 9/11, the film allows us to remember the profound loss of lives, and reminds us that as disastrous as it was to have had airplanes fly directly into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, there might also have been a gaping scar in the Capitol Building too, had things turned out as planned.
