If there is one
thing riskier than making a film about the war on terror, it’s making a movie
about the horrible day that started the damn thing in the first place. Paul
Greengrass was brave enough to make such a film and thankfully he was skilful
enough to make it in a way that would be tasteful, accurate, and nail biting
all at once. With United 93 (2006) he
placed his focus not on politicians or soldiers, but on ordinary people who
fought back against their captors and more than likely helped to avoid an even
bigger catastrophe.
Considering its
subject matter Greengrass’ film of course did not make a fortune at the
box-office and I was also hesitant to see it for a while. Watching any movie
that deals with Sept.11 feels a bit like homework assignment: you don’t really
want to do it, but you probably should. Everyone who was young enough to have
experienced that day knows exactly what happened since the images of the towers
collapsing kept playing on CNN all day long. I remember being in math class in
Peru when our teacher asked my fellow students and I if we knew a plane had hit
the towers. I thought he meant historically, as in back in the 70s a small
propeller plane hit the roof, but no, he meant that very day. Cue to six years
later at the University of Sherbrooke and I make the decision to experiment
part of that day again when the movie comes out on DVD.
I can only
imagine what it must have been like for anyone with a close personal connection
to those events to see United 93 on
the big screen because as just an ordinary witness who saw it from afar seeing
them recreated on the small screen still packs quite a punch. Greengrass’
signature films are of course the two best entries in the Jason Bourne
franchise, which each have their own very gritty moments amidst the intense
action, but here Greengrass rightfully went with a very minimalist approach.
The biggest name on the cast is Christian Clemenson, a character actor who did
great work on Boston Legal, but he is
definitely not Tom Cruise famous. Everyone else in the cast is played by either
unknown professional actors, actual airline employees, or even people who were
there that day such as FAA operations manager Ben Sliney.
It was Sliney who
made the decision to ground every single plane in the United States and close
the airspace after the first three planes hit the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.
An unprecedented act at the time, made even more impressive by the fact that it
was his first day on the job. One can only imagine what it must have been like
for him to recreate those moments for the cameras.
The moments with
Sliney and his staff are tense enough as they watch the world change forever,
but when the action cuts back to aboard United 93 you feel a sense of
helplessness. You know what is coming for those passengers and it as though you
are there with them. Of course at the time they had no idea of their fate, all
they knew was that their plane had been hijacked by men claiming to have a bomb
onboard and, thanks to their air phones, that the World Trade Centre and the
Pentagon had been struck. Realizing that if they did nothing they would not
only die, but also die as a weapon against many more people, they chose to rise
up and try to take back control of the plane.
When discussing
the movie with someone else who had seen it I was asked what is the point of a
movie like United 93 or Oliver
Stone’s World Trade Centre. As a devout
film fan I would say one obvious reason is that it provides an opportunity to
make a very powerful piece of filmmaking. As a person who, along with millions
of others, witnessed the horror of that day I would say that more importantly
it is a reminder that there was not just evil on Sept. 11, but also bravery.
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