united 93

one of the first things i noticed during united 93 was that there were no recognizable stars. there were no established heroes, characters whose fates would be more important than those in the background. everyone here was a real person, someone that we, like the passengers on the plane, would get to know only for the space of just over an hour.  the movie could have made several wrong turns, weakening it, softening it into a drama that would be entertaining and forgotten. thankfully, there wasn't one false step.

united 93 does not establish heroes or sentiment. perhaps a second or third viewing would reveal the names of some characters, but i don't know anyone's names, and i like that. that could have easily led to melodrama on a story that has just begun to fade from the "too soon" area. the day starts with different groups of people: pilots, stewardesses, and passengers getting ready for their flight, airport and national flight controls at another day at work. no one looked like actors, and several of them, including the chief of the faa, were the actual people, playing themselves.  the jobs weren't populated with young and attractive employees like an agency in 24. these were real people. and slowly, odd things began to happen. american airlines flight 11 stopped responding to the traffic controllers, which, as time went on, got more people involved. then, suddenly, it blinked from the screen, leaving the traffic monitors perplexed, but momentarily unaware of what that disappearing blink meant.
the events of 9/11 hold an innate interest for me; seeing the images of the exploded world trade centers inevitably causes something inside of me to turn liquid, no matter how many times i've seen it. it happened again, and i felt as speechless as the air traffic controllers seeing the unbelievable with their own eyes. for moments, reality stopped.

i had no idea that the air traffic over the united states was monitored and controlled in so many different ways, probably because i'd never thought about it. like most things, it's a giant, complicated web, and it can be difficult to see the big picture immediately. one group saw a radar blip. another heard on cnn that a small plane had hit the world trace tower. a third group was had only enough information to speculate if those two events were related.
soon, united flight 93 was taken over. while the movie does not give any sympathy for the terrorists, it does remind us that hijacking a plane was a pretty stressful move on their part, too. as the passengers realize that this is not a standard "land the plane and ask for ransom" situation, their only option becomes to fight back. as this is happening, the movie spends more time on the plane and less elsewhere. the purpose is not to provide coverage of everyone's point of view, nor is there closure on what happened at with the air traffic control or the military; this is about united 93. the passengers fight back only on the last 10 minutes. it is not long and drawn out, not adding any unnecessary tension, knowing that the story inherently holds plenty, and is most potent when kept raw. when their story ends, the story ends.

it's great movie. the action isn't cool, it's harrowing. the film is shot handheld, not in an indulgent borne supremacy way (though same director), but so that we forget we're watching at home and feel we're there, watching. outwardly, united 93 was the least dramatic of the attacks on september 11; the plane didn't hit an iconic building, but crashed in a pennsylvanian field. the crash killed everyone. but hearing their story, told as honestly and sincerely as possible, is sobering.