UNITED 93

Rating: 5

UNITED 93 begins and ends with prayers in Arabic. Those are offered by the terrorists who seized the plane. There are prayers throughout the film as well, some offered in English and all mouthed in wonder, or in terror, or in fear, or in anger. Writer and director Paul Greengrass has kept politics, at least on a global level, out of his film, but religion, in all it forms, including the fanaticism that led to 9/11 is never far from the reality presented.

Reality is an apt description for this work that plays out in real time. Seamlessly blending actual participants in the awful events of that day doing a more than credible job and anonymous actors, it plays as a re-enactment as much as a docudrama. Thus it is that FAA manager Ben Sliney the man who actually ordered all the planes out of the air when the truth of what was happening became clear, plays himself giving the orders to the actor playing the part of one of his colleagues.

Creating a palpable feeling of tension in a story whose outcome virtually everyone knows is a problem that Greengrass has overcome with aplomb. It comes not from the deliberately mundane representation of life before the hijackings started that day. Indeed, Greengrass dwells on the very ordinariness of that day, examining in great detail the refueling of the plane, the regularly scheduled meetings that are buoyed by standard office jokes, and the way everyone speaks in small talk instead of anything approaching snappy dialogue. It’s the audience, knowing what is about to unfold that imbues every action with a portent, from the report to Sliney that there will be a military air exercise off the Atlantic coast that morning, to the way that someone from the ground crew closes the passenger door on Flight 93 that feels only to the viewer like the sealing of a coffin. The camera work takes the form of cinema verite, hand-held with an unsteadiness of aim, and sometimes of focus, that in the eyes of the audience is a foreshadowing of and then an underscoring for the uncertainty in which everyone and everything is plunged. The sense of immediacy is heightened by Greengrass using improvised dialogue and scenes based on events.

There is also the awful, almost unbearable irony as the viewer witnesses the split-second when the world changed irrevocably, but watches the people on screen react in telescoped time that seems like slow motion to the old paradigm. The ground personnel, civilian and military, react to the first hijacking, and even the second, by trying to figure out where the planes will land. Even when the first plane hits the north tower of the World Trade Center, the gut response from Sliney and others is to wonder how it could have happened on a clear day. The irony is sharpened by cutting away to the flight in the air, the passengers and crew, with the exception of the four hijackers, unaware that anything out of the ordinary is taking place. By the time the hijackers strike, it is swift and savage, and, oddly, a sort of emotional release, as the people on screen finally catch up with the viewer.

Once the truth of the situation begins to take hold, on the ground first, and the in the air, the editing becomes more kinetic as tempers grow short, miscommunications hamper any action, and everyone scrambles to fit response protocols to a situation they don’t adequately anticipate, much less cover. It is nothing short of astonishing to see a military commander all but begging for guidance on what the rules of engagement are for aircraft being used as bombs. And, at what may or may not be a political observation by Greengrass, a comment is made by that commander wondering why the president, whose authorization is required to shoot them down, cannot be located.

UNITED 93 is not just respectful in that it doesn’t sentimentalize those who died, it’s also a gripping drama made all the more potent for being played out by ordinary people rising to the occasion. There is something comforting in seeing the people on the ground remain professionals even as reality crumbled, and in seeing the passengers and crew, none exceptional in the tactical sense, refuse to go like lambs to the slaughter once they found out with phone calls to loved ones what the hijackers were going to do. More, while it can never be known exactly what transpired on board that flight, the story gives something concrete to cling to before these people slip away forever. When is it not too soon to tell this story as a feature film? For some, the time will never be right, for others, this time will do nicely. For those in between, it wait for them to see it and then be angry, inconsolable, and, finally, in some small way, healed.

Click here for the DVD review of UNITED 93.