United 93
Reviewed by Edward Larsen Terkelsen

France/UK/USA, R, 111 m, 2006
Directed by Paul Greengrass. Stars J.J. Johnson, Ben Sliney, Gregg Henry, et al.

It’s been almost five years since the Islamic fundamentalist vermin socked us on 9/11, but many of my countrymen feel it’s still way too soon to release a (non-documentary) picture based on the day’s events. I disagree. The sense of camaraderie that was rekindled amongst Americans on that terrible day has since taken a dip, what with the division amongst parties in regards to the war in Iraq and so forth. But we need to hark back to what drew us together back then; if we get too much distance on the anguish we felt, we just might lose our resolve to rub out the terrorist screwheads hell-bent on bringing down western civilization. The war against terror, the occupation of Iraq and the hunt for Osama bin Laden still goes on, and if there was ever a picture to remind us why we fight, this is it. Mind, United 93 doesn’t function on the level of propaganda the way many of the WWII films did (though those did serve a vital purpose); it’s remarkably restrained. Director Paul Greengrass doesn’t have to manipulate us into responding emotionally to the horrors on the screen; we’re still reeling from the trauma the movie depicts. Of course, United 93 focuses on the plane that missed its intended target thanks to the determination of a band of courageous passengers. Those passengers are played by a group of relative unknowns, and what’s refreshing is that Greengrass (who directed from his own screenplay) doesn’t present them as the colorful types you usually meet in disaster pics. (You know, the button-up banker, the hotshot salesman, the sweet grandmother…) What we learn about these unfortunate souls is what we would if we were flying through the unfriendly skies with them—that is, precious little. The action on the ground (much of which takes place in the FAA national center) is carried by the actual folks that lived through this nightmare, most notably Ben Sliney. Their amateurism shows, and though I may have preferred watching some seasoned thesps take to these parts, using non-actors does add to the film’s level of authenticity. It’s all shot in a fly-on-the-wall, quasi-documentary style, and that sense of disengagement makes it even more unsettling than if the director had opted for a sensationalist approach. United 93 unfolds in real time, and every frame leading up to its tragic outcome is filled with dread. The last fifteen minutes in particular could very well be the most disquieting ever filmed.

May 1, 2006

Ó Copyright 2007 by Edward Larsen Terkelsen. All rights reserved.