Real Time, Real World, Real Drama: United 93
A true benchmark of our time is the shortened distance that exists between real events in our world and their rebirth as silver screen dramas. An example of this is writer/director Peter Greengrass’ (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum) United 93, an accounting based on documented facts of what transpired aboard the fated aircraft on September 11, 2001.
Playing out in real time, cross cutting between stories, we get a glimpse of the shock and chaos that erupted for the airlines, air traffic control and military. During this film’s 111-minute running time, four hijackings--the first in the U.S. in 20 years--and the destruction playing out in Manhattan and the nation’s capital, culminates in the heroism and quick thinking on the part of the passengers and crew of Flight 93.
Opening scenes reveal praying and chanting members of Al-Qaeda in a hotel room--interestingly none of them looking nearly as sinister as real-life mug shots, and one sporting a Dudley Do-Right dimpled chin. A beautiful morning as the unsuspecting go about their usual routines. No one notices the anxiety oozing from every pore of the four hijackers, even when the flight is delayed 30 minutes on the tarmac before takeoff.
“We have some planes.” a garbled voice is heard saying in the background of an unresponsive, and first to be hijacked American Airlines Flight 11. Thus, the mayhem begins. We see the panic as the air traffic controller tries to convince those around him that indeed, the flight has changed course and is out of communication with the tower.
Without seeing the view from the cockpit as it points downward to a patchwork quilt of farmland, we all know how this story ends. Flight 93 was the only one of the four hijacked planes that did not hit its intended target that day.
United 93 offers a pure and objective viewpoint from its British director. At the first signs of trouble, none of the officials are believing what is happening with glib and “this can’t be happening” attitudes. There are no movie stars, but some readily recognizable actors. Making full use of an unanchored camera, the essence of the lack of control is underscored.
Make the effort to see United 93 this weekend. Universal Studios is donating 10% of the gross box office of its opening weekend to the effort to buy 1,700 acres near Shanksville, Pennsylvania for the planned memorial of the passengers and crew of Flight 93.
United 93 opens today.
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