A Harrowing Docudrama
United 93 (2006) is a docudrama that chronicles some of the events occurring during the Islamist terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, that killed about 3000 people. This is one of the most powerful you-are-there films ever made. It is riveting and gut-wrenching, yet respectful and, in some ways, inspirational. But it is heartbreaking, and there's no question that for many viewers, it is too harrowing.
The United 93 Special Edition DVD contains two documentaries made about four years after the events of the terrible day dramatized in the movie. Both help — only a little, but that is the most that can reasonably be expected — in coming to terms with 9/11. The combination of the outstanding feature film and the excellent documentaries makes this DVD one of the year's best.
The FAA and the Air Force
Many of the scenes in United 93 take place at civilian air traffic control facilities. What begins as a routine day for the controllers turns into a nightmare as a commercial jetliner rams into one tower of the World Trade Center, followed minutes later by a second plane smashing into the other tower. The crisis deepens when a third aircraft plows into the Pentagon, and the controllers are unable to determine the status of several flights.
Other scenes in the film are set at the Northeast Air Defense Command Center. Air Force officers are shown trying to get military planes in the air that have the authority to take action against hijacked jetliners, but their efforts are hampered by limited resources and restrictive procedures.
Real-life air traffic controllers and real-life military personnel play the key roles in these scenes, which feel quite authentic. In fact, some of the people shown actually participated in the events being reenacted and are playing themselves. The most memorable of these is national operations manager Ben Sliney, the man who made the call to completely shut down American airspace.
Passengers and Crew
The movie's focus is on United Flight 93 out of Newark, a nonstop to San Francisco. Crew consists of a pilot, a first officer and five flight attendants. Although the plane has seats for over 180 passengers, on September 11, 2001, there are only 37 on board, four of which are hijackers.
The flight is a little late taking off due to congestion, but it eventually gets airborne, where the hijackers use a mix of deception and violence to gain control. The film shows one of the hijackers flying the plane with a picture of the U.S. Capitol building in front of him. But when the passengers and flight attendants learn via cellphones about other jetliners crashing into landmark buildings, they mount a desperate counterattack against the hijackers.
The crew and passengers are portrayed by professional actors, but not well-known ones, and this helps make the scenes on the flight chillingly believable. In fact, even though history tells us that United 93 crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside, killing all 44 people on board, the movie is so skillfully made that at times the tension becomes almost unbearable.
Thought-Provoking Commentary by Writer-Director
The DVD provides feature-length audio commentary for United 93 by writer-director Paul Greengrass. He supplies many interesting production details. For example, he once planned to open the film at Osama bin Laden's headquarters in Afghanistan, went to Morocco and shot footage, and then decided not to use it. He also says he originally intended to hire a professional actor for the key role of Ben Sliney and use the real Sliney in only a brief cameo, but ended up with the national operations manager playing himself.
In addition, Greengrass makes some provocative remarks about the film's subject matter. He says the conflict between what he considers the medieval mindset of the hijackers and the modernity of 21st-century America goes to the heart of 9/11, and he tried to show that visually in his movie. Also, toward the end of his commentary, he states, "The truth of 9/11 seems to me to be that we went to war in the space of two short hours against an enemy we never saw and barely understood in a state of confusion."
