{"id":355,"date":"2006-04-28T01:56:58","date_gmt":"2006-04-28T05:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/?p=355"},"modified":"2009-09-14T19:01:17","modified_gmt":"2009-09-14T23:01:17","slug":"united-93-2006-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/?p=355","title":{"rendered":"United 93 (2006) – Movie Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Why<\/p>\n

Why We Fight: American citizens take back their flight in United 93<\/span><\/p>\n<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

United, They Stood Up<\/span><\/em><\/h1>\n

[xrr rating=4.5\/5]<\/p>\n

United 93 <\/em>Starring David Alan Basche, Peter Hermann, Richard Bekins, Cheyenne Jackson, Lewis Alsamari, J.J. Johnson, Trish Gates, and Polly Adams. Written and\u00a0Directed by Paul Greengrass. (Universal Studios\/Working Title, 2006, Color, 111 minutes. MPAA Rating: R)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Everybody remembers exactly where he was on September 11, 2001. I was taking a photojournalism course at the Defense Information School at Fort Meade, Maryland, and\u2014ironically\u2014taking part in an exercise on how military reporters should cover terrorist attacks. In fact, we were discussing the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and how, by the time the bombers came to trial, its significance had been buried because Americans\u2019 attention was diverted by the O. J. Simpson \u201ctrial of the century.\u201d At that moment, a Navy petty officer burst into the classroom and told our Air Force instructor to turn on the television\u2014that the World Trade Center had just been struck by an airplane.<\/p>\n

We laughed in disbelief. As Army soldiers, being suddenly thrust by cadre into \u201clive\u201d training scenarios was old hat. We thought we were going to cover a \u201cterrorist event\u201d as a practical writing exercise. But, when the projector switched from the PowerPoint slideshow to the live \u201cToday\u201d show broadcast, we knew from the ominous visual of smoke pouring from the North Tower that this was no exercise.<\/p>\n

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, rumors abounded that Fort Meade was next, because the National Security Agency is located there. By day\u2019s end, I was standing outside our barracks, rifle in hand. I will never forget the emotions and thoughts that poured through me that day\u2014revulsion, nausea, fear, anger, hatred. And finally, relief, because I had been spared the hell so cruelly inflicted on so many of my fellow Americans. As long as I live, I never want to relive that day. None of us do.<\/p>\n

Thus, when trailers for\u00a0United 93<\/em> began screening in Los Angeles theaters shortly before its release, some in the audience wailed, \u201cToo soon! Too soon!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Too soon? <\/em>From the morning Imperial Japan attacked the U.S. at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, until she surrendered in ignominious defeat on August 15, 1945, 1,348 days had passed. On April 28, 2006,\u00a0United 93<\/em>\u2019s opening day, 1,689 days of the War on Terror had gone by\u2014almost a full year longer than America\u2019s involvement in World War II. Surely time enough has passed to allow us to reflect upon and honor those who died that day.<\/p>\n

Although Americans were generally familiar with the events that took place on United Airlines Flight 93, most of what we knew had been the subject of dry news reportage and \u201cwhat if\u201d conjecture. Now, culling transcripts of cockpit flight recorders, 9-1-1 emergency calls, interviews with surviving family members, and eyewitness accounts, writer and director Paul Greengrass has taken the threads of innumerable and seemingly random facts, and woven them into a powerful visual narrative.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0United 93<\/em>, <\/em>Greengrass\u2019s masterful direction gives us the feeling that we are reliving September 11 all over again. He takes us from the flight\u2019s takeover by Muslim terrorists to the events on the ground as the World Trade Center and Pentagon are hit by the three other hijacked planes. He follows United 93\u2019s doomed course, in scenes inter-cutting between the airplane and the various air traffic control towers on the East Coast; he ends with the passengers retaking control of the plane from the hijackers, and its tragic crash in a field outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

By transforming my theater seat into a cramped seat in coach, as the forty-first passenger alongside those who would soon die on that hijacked flight from Newark,\u00a0Flight 93 <\/em>thrust the events in my face with visual and aural brutality, compelling me to relive that day\u2014and to recall its lessons.<\/p>\n

Filming in \u201creal time,\u201d much like Fox TV\u2019s popular action series \u201c24,\u201d cinematographer Barry Ackroyd and his crew skillfully captured the action with handheld cameras. It\u2019s a method I usually eschew for its forced \u201crealism,\u201d but Ackroyd made it work by avoiding show-offish, unnecessary camera movement. By shooting mostly with telephoto lenses, he instills in viewers a sense of claustrophobia that heightens the emotional anxiety. John Powell\u2019s dark, percussion-laden soundtrack pummels the ears at rapid-fire tempo, ratcheting up the tension to cardiac arrest levels. Throughout the film, my own heart was racing, my brow was sweaty, and I got that same nauseous feeling in my gut that I so vividly remember from that day.<\/p>\n

When the end credits rolled, there was nothing but dead silence in the theater where I saw it.\u00a0United 93 <\/em>masterfully achieved its objective of re-creating onscreen the nightmare that Americans went through on September 11th.<\/p>\n

However, despite the fact that\u00a0United 93<\/em> totally connected with me\u00a0emotionally<\/em> as a viewer, it suffers from the primary flaw of telling much of the story from the hijackers\u2019 point of view. The viewer learns more about what motivated\u00a0them<\/em> to take over the plane than he will ever find out about the private motives of\u00a0the passengers<\/em>, whose dialogue is rather threadbare. We know that through AirFone conversations with relatives, the passengers found out that hijacked planes had already hit New York and Washington, that their own flight therefore was doomed, and that this knowledge motivated them to wrest back control of the plane. But we never really find out <\/em>what\u00a0personally <\/em>inspired each of them to their valorous actions. We never really get to know the Jeremy Glicks or Todd Beamers. I agree with those critics who have pointed that their dialogue should have been beefed up, and that these heroes should have been more clearly drawn.<\/p>\n

Yet I don\u2019t think Greengrass himself fully understands what compelled the onboard rebellion. In a recent interview, he explained his film\u2019s depiction of the American passengers:<\/p>\n

I suppose what I most wanted it to explore was the relationship between individual moments and collective will\u2026You can\u2019t lead if the group\u2019s not there with the will, and vice versa. Where does leadership come from? It comes from the desire to be led\u2026The order of the airplane was completely subverted\u2026They seized control of the plane, pinned everybody in the back and they were in charge, and something happened in the course of 20-25 minutes\u2026but you\u2019ve always got that challenge of: what do you do when a bunch of people take over an airplane? You can\u2019t just sit there!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While acknowledging and accurately depicting the American passengers\u2019 courage, the British director, it seems, hasn\u2019t begun to grasp the spirit of\u00a0independence <\/em>that most Americans still regard as their birthright. What induced these men and women to action could hardly be reduced simply to some group dynamic of a \u201cdesire to be led\u201d\u2014remember, these were American, not German, passengers\u2014but rather, embodied the individualistic, \u201cdon\u2019t tread on me\u201d streak that fires us up when push comes to shove.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Greengrass\u2019s detachment does not undermine the movie\u2019s strengths. One scene in particular captures what makes the American spirit so unique and indomitable. As the passengers start attacking the hijackers to take back the plane, a frightened Swedish passenger tries to block them, standing astride the aisle like a lunch hall monitor. \u201cJust do what they say,\u201d he lectures. \u201cGive in to their demands…co-operate, and we will be safe.\u201d\u00a0The Americans must shove the Swedish weenie aside in order to reach their attackers and regain control of the cockpit. I have yet to see a more succinct metaphor for European dithering and condescension as obstacles to righteous American action.<\/p>\n

Another critique\u2014that\u00a0United 93<\/em> is Politically Correct\u2014is, I think, mostly unfounded. The movie makes no bones about distinguishing its villains from its heroes; it just does so without heavy-handed sloganeering, which would have wrecked <\/em>the taut, montage narrative structure. Composer Powell\u2019s menacing and foreboding passages, especially while the terrorists are praying, underscore their vicious brutality, just as upbeat, martial music accompanies scenes of Americans fighting back. Nor does the film disguise the facts that the hijackers were motivated by Islamism, or that the passengers took back the airplane to prevent its striking the U.S. Capitol, and, they hoped, to allow them to return safely to their loved ones.<\/p>\n

A year after September 11, I spotted a bumper sticker on a passing car while driving the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Next to an image of the American flag were printed these words: \u201c9\/11: Remember. Rebuild. Recover.\u201d I could not help but think that there was one \u201cR\u201d missing in that slogan.\u00a0United 93<\/em> does a brilliant job in reminding us that on a Boeing 757, a group of heroic citizens taught <\/em>us the response befitting a free people in the face of wanton savagery\u2014Revenge.<\/em> And the film left me experiencing another \u201cR\u201d as well:\u00a0Reverence<\/em> for the memories of those heroes.<\/p>\n

Every American ought to invest two hours of his life in watching\u00a0United 93<\/em>, because it graphically depicts the inspiring acts, courage, and hope that helped spark the flames of direct action against Islam. David Beamer, father of slain hero Todd Beamer, said of United 93<\/em>: \u201cThis film is a wake-up call. And although we abhor terrorism as a tactic, we are at war with a real enemy and it is personal.\u201d<\/p>\n

No, it is not too soon for this movie. Rather, let us hope that it is not too late.<\/p>\n

Robert L. Jones is a photojournalist living and working in Minnesota. His work has appeared in <\/span>Black & White Magazine<\/span><\/span>, <\/span>Entrepreneur<\/span><\/span>, <\/span>Hoy! New York<\/span><\/span>, the New York <\/span>Post<\/span><\/span>, <\/span><\/em>RCA Victor <\/span>(Japan)<\/span><\/em>, <\/span>Scene in San Antonio<\/span><\/span>, <\/span>Spirit Magazine<\/span><\/span> (Canada), <\/span>Top Producer<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0 and the Trenton <\/span>Times<\/span><\/span>. Mr. Jones is a past entertainment editor of <\/span>The New Individualist<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why We Fight: American citizens take back their flight in United 93 United, They Stood Up [xrr rating=4.5\/5] United 93 Starring David Alan Basche, Peter Hermann, Richard Bekins, Cheyenne Jackson, Lewis Alsamari, J.J. Johnson, Trish Gates, and Polly Adams. Written and\u00a0Directed by Paul Greengrass. (Universal Studios\/Working Title, 2006, Color, 111 minutes. MPAA Rating: R) Everybody […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,35,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-docudramas","category-dramas","category-mreview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":560,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions\/560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesing4movies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}