"United 93": Taut, riveting, intense - but nothing to applaud
By Gene Lalor
Posted On May 10, 2006

Some movies you want to see, and so you do. Some movies you don’t want to see, so you don’t. Some films you don’t want to see but feel you have to. In this rarified category would be The Passion of the Christ a few years ago. A current example would be United 93.

I had heard all the hype that it was excellent, but perhaps too soon after the horrors of September 11th, 2001 to hit the silver screen. And I had heard the stories of the families of the passengers on that flight who generally approved the making of the film -- and who received ten percent of the first weekend’s profits for the planned memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Nothing wrong with that.

There’s also virtually nothing wrong with the movie. It’s hard to say that it was suspenseful since we all certainly knew the story of 9-11 and the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. And we all knew the ending in that empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The A&E cable channel had already shown its version, which was well done but which primarily focused on the families back home more than on the passengers. It’s also true that precious little, aside from the telephone calls and the faceless sounds from United Flight 93, is known about what happened in the cabin and cockpit of the plane. We can make educated assumptions, however. That said, United 93 is indeed taut and riveting, intense, and infuriating.

My only problem with the film would have to be the too-sympathetic portrayal of the terrorists, a/k/a "fanatics," a/k/a Muslim murderers, who perpetrated this horror. The opening scene is set in their motel room and we see them praying, and they are seen repeatedly praying while ensconced in their well-chosen first class seats on the plane. As Ol’ Rhett said to Scarlet, “Frankly, I don’t give a damn!” If, in fact, the Muslim apologists are correct when they say their religion is one of peace, then these criminals were apostates, at best. If, on the other hand, Mohammedanism is a twisted, bloodthirsty excuse for a religion, then these murderers are just that, bloodthirsty and murderous, and they deserve nothing but contempt. Either way, despite Bill Maher’s contention that they were “heroes,” they don’t merit sympathy. Somehow, I doubt Allah or the Quran would endorse mass murder of innocents, whatever the motives of the terrorists.

British director Paul Greengrass was faced with the challenge of filming a story with a known denouement and wisely chose unknown actors to do it. A Brad Pitt or a Katie Holmes would have been distractions in this film. He uses a documentary technique, replete with jiggling cameras and blocked shots. Greengrass has said that, “The events of 9-11 had a massive effect on me,” and it shows. That day had a massive effect on most Americans as well, though many of us have either forgotten or have simply chosen not to remember all that happened that day and all that followed. Todd Beemer and Jeremy Glick, two of the best known passengers on United 93, have gained a certain renown in the ensuing years but this film shows they were not the only heroes on that flight. Few specifics will ever be known of the actions of the others. Beemer’s telephoned words, “Let’s roll,” give him the cachet of leader of these heroes, but Greengrass shows most of the unlucky passengers on the flight acted with bravery and heroism. I, for one, choose to believe that was the case.

The forty four people on the massive Boeing 757 included thirty three passengers headed for San Francisco. The film shows they knew, after the pilot and co-pilot had been murdered and the cockpit seized, that there would be no demands, no ransom, that this was a suicide mission. They were not privy to the chaos on the ground that the moviegoer witnesses, the turf battles among the CIA, FBI, the FAA and the military establishment that facilitated the hijacking and resulted in the confusion as to how to deal with it. But, they knew the World Trade Center had been hit twice and they knew the Pentagon had been attacked, both targeted by guided missiles in the form of commercial airliners, and they came to realize that they had the grave misfortune of being passengers on another such missile. Most Americans would have acted as these people did and not simply sat back and be party to this act of war. They had to be confused and terrified beyond imagining but there was no time for hesitation with Washington, D.C. twenty minutes away, and so they acted. Desparate, using only boiling water and Coke cans as weapons and a serving cart as a battering ram, we see them charge the cockpit and struggle with the terrorists in a final, furious scene of mayhem. And we see United flight 93 plunge into that empty field at what the 9-11 Commission says was five hundred eighty miles per hour.

The passengers failed to survive and failed to keep the plane in the air, but they succeeded in making one of the suicide missions of that day an abject failure. The targets–the White House or the Capitol Building still stand.

When we entered the theater, again, as a matter of doing something we felt we had to do despite knowing in detail the story of United 93, I asked the young movie attendant whether he had seen the movie. He gushed and said, “I did! I really enjoyed it!” Stunned at the thought of enjoying such a tale, I asked why. Realizing then what he had said, the young man backtracked and looked embarrassed. It’s not a film people enjoy, but it’s a film every American should see at least once.

United 93 shows much more than just the terror, the pain, and the valor of the passengers on that flight. It vividly demonstrates what the 9-11 Commission clinically detailed–the manifest failures of our defenses and preparedness of our military and civilian leaders on September 11, 2001. You may or may not have a tear in your eye and a lump in your throat at the end of this film. But you should be infuriated!

When the lights came up at the end of the film, there was a total, stunned silence in the audience. No movement. No applause.

There was nothing to applaud.

Gene Lalor can be reached at aberlet98 at aol dot com.

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