United 93
Directed by Paul Greengrass
Written by Paul Greengrass
Starring David Alan Basche, Olivia Thirlby, Liza Colon-Zayas, J.J. Johnson, Gary Commock, Trish Gates
I finally saw United 93 for the first time yesterday. So let’s get this out of the way:
I didn’t see the movie when it came out in 2006 because “too soon,” and didn’t own the DVD when the 10 year anniversary rolled around. But the 20th anniversary fell on our usual movie night, so it was finally time.
And it was every bit as tense and nerve-wracking as I expected it to be.
United 93 covers, in low-key, docudrama fashion, the events of 9/11 from the viewpoints of passengers and crew on the doomed airliner, flight controllers on the ground, Strategic Air Command, and even the terrorists hijacking the plane. Except for the terrorists, no one understands what’s happening. First one, then another airliner stops answering air traffic control and turns their transponders off. Even after the first plane hits the World Trade Center off-screen, no one understands what’s going on. Rumors fly as different government functionaries (some playing themselves) try to get answers from different agencies for a situation none of them understand.
And the movie’s almost an hour in before the terrorists hijack United 93.
This is a great film. It’s also a harrowing, tension-filled one despite knowing the ending. There’s no sensationalism, no money shots, no moralizing, no foreshadowing, just an excellent ensemble cast playing ordinary people struggling understand what’s going on and make decisions on limited information.
United 93 is a better film than The Departed, which won the Oscar for Best Picture of 2006. (It was Martin Scorsese’s makeup Oscar for Goodfellas.) I would have to see The Lives of Others (which won for Best Foreign Language film the same year) again to determine which is better.
And you should really see both.
Tags: 9/11 Attacks, Jihad, movie review, movies
Have you seen the Oliver Stone movie, World Trade Center? Apparently it’s not his usual conspiracy angle, but focuses on human stories, especially of first responders.
I myself haven’t seen either – in the beginning it was “too soon”, and then it was mistrust of Hollywood. Yet … I’m curious.
I’m also – to be fully transparent – wondering about explaining it to my 10yo daughter. We’ve talked about it before, but not too deeply, and I haven’t made a point of showing videos to her before. Now … feels like the time to start bringing her up to speed.
The result in Afghanistan is just so fucking … I don’t even know the word.
I have not seen World Trade Center. Review consensus seemed to be: A.) Better than some of his other crap, B.) Not in the same league as United 93.