UNITED 93: A Full Review

UNITED 93 (Universal, Rated 'R', 113 minutes) Written and directed by Paul Greengrass, based on the actual events of 9/11. My grade: A

A lot of the debate surrounding this movie has been about whether or not it is "too soon" for a serious movie about the events that surround the tragedies of 9/11. My opinion is that it could never be too soon--the responsibility of art and artists, and filmmaking is still an art, is to examine the world around us and try to tell stories that illuminate the human condition by using the art form of choice. Artists are falling down on the job if they DON'T turn their attention to the tragedies and triumphs of the present day no matter how raw the wound may still be. Let the art speak for itself and let the chips fall where they may.

Four and a half years after "that day" comes United 93, the first of a slew of theatrical studio releases about 9/11. A somber, cinema verite-style look at the hijackings which focuses on the events that took place on the eponymous flight which crached into a Pennsylvania corn field, this is a movie that every real sense seems to do everything exactly right--which ultimately proves to be both a strength and a weakness for the movie.

Wisely eschewing recognizable "star" faces in favor of unknown character actors who look like the people they are portraying--or, in a few memorable roles, casting a key figure from that day to actually play themselves--United 93 begins just a couple of hours before the hijackings begin and ends when the lives of the passengers of Flight 93 ends as they plunge to their deaths in that field. This is a focused, raw piece of work--there is no real character development, no exposition, relatively little hypothesizing, no plot twists, no politics (other than that of the hijackers obviously, and the examination of why they would commit such an atrocity isn't examined at a level any deeper than you could get from the newspaper or what's been said on TV). The movie unfolds more or less in real time from the moment the passengers of the ill-fated flight prepare to board to the moment they die.

Juxtaposed with the events on the plane, we meet several staffers of both the central air traffic control, run by (and played well by) director Ben Sliney as well as several other air traffic controllers both civillian and military who were there on that day and tried to make sense of the confusion and tragedy unfolding in front of them.

The highlights of the film, from a dramatic storytelling perspective, are when Sliney, getting more and more conflicting information makes the decision to halt all air traffic in the United States, a decision that wasn't really his to make, but one that proved essential to getting a hold of the unfolding tragedy. Sliney, hired as a consultant on the movie, proved to be better playing himself than the actor originally hired in the role. As portrayed here, Sliney conveys the sheer magnitude and awesome responsibility of trying to manage the nation's air travel when faced with a tragedy of unknown proportions. The other highlight obviously is when the passengers realize that the plane they are on will never "land" as long as the hijackers are in control, and they finally, reluctantly, decide to take on their hijackers to try and regain control. Intercut with this realization are reenactments of some of the real life calls the doomed passengers made to loved ones in the flight's final moments.

Before concluding this review I feel I must emphasize that I haven't seen many movies that are technically, artistically better made than this one. Every performance (within the narrow constraints of character the script allows) is pitch perfect, the camerawork and editing make you feel that you are in the air traffic control center and that you are on flight 93. Every frame is absorbing and the dialogue is written in such a way that there is no poetry, nothing that feels false, something that detracts a bit from the jargon-heavy traffic control scenes, but lends poignancy to the simple, direct words spoken by those on the plane. All that being said...

...when I walked out of the movie, after the inevitable tears had been shed, I found myself wondering what it was I had just taken part in. I didn't feel a catharsis of any kind, because I didn't learn anything particularly new and because the ending of the movie was as tragic and pointless as real life. I gained some admiration for the civillian air traffic controllers and for the passengers and crew of the flight, trying to do their best in an impossible situation, but I didn't walk away necessarily thinking they were heroes. I didn't even have any more loathing for the hijackers than I already did, especially since I already understood what they were trying to accomplish with their misguided mission and the movie makes it clear that even a zealot does not embark on a mission like this easily. Frankly, after the tears had dried and the movie's grip had ended, I felt kind of empty, not sure what to make of it all. Compared to how I felt after movies like Schindler's List, To Kill A Mockingbird, The English Patient, Malcolm X and even JFK had ended, it says something that my reaction was so dry and that I didn't feel compelled to think a great deal about it afterwards. I think a lot of people who go to see United 93 might leave feeling the same way, and if the only real value of the movie is for us all to have a communal cry as we look back at these tragic events before we get on with our daily lives, well, then this is not a bad thing, but certainly far less then we would expect from a work of art that has been so heavily debated and carefully crafted.

United 93 deserves to be considered one of the best movies of the year (if not the best so far), but for a project like this perhaps something more than a documentary-style retelling is required for the movie to be the transcendant experience it's filmmakers clearly want it to be.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Quick Notes

On the lighter side, the Associated Press reports that Muhamad Noor Che Musa, 33, is about to wed Wook Kundor, 104 in Malaysia. Said Muhamad, "I am not after her money, as she is poor." Maybe Kanye West can come up with a new rap hit--"Ain't Nothin' But A Gravedigger."

Do you feel dirty? I know I do. Sorry about that, I'm going to hell.
* * * * * *
And the quote of the day is about right wing pundit Bill O'Reilly, and it comes from none other than G. Gordon Liddy:

"He's no good at radio, and part of that reason is because his most nuanced response to a complex question is 'Shut up!'"

Oh G., you're so full of truthiness!

Peace...