United 93 (2006)

Daniel Sauli
Lewis Alsamari
JJ Johnson
Gary Commock
Polly Adams
Opal Alladin
April Telek

Directed by Paul Greengrass

Plot: A drama that tells the story of the passengers and crew, their families on the ground, and the flight controllers who watched in dawning horror as United Airlines Flight 93 became the fourth hijacked plane on the day of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil: September 11, 2001. 'United 93' recreates the doomed trip in actual time, from takeoff to hijacking to the realization by those onboard that their plane was part of a coordinated attack unfolding on the ground beneath them. The film attempts to understand the abject fear and courageous decisions of those who--over the course of just 90 minutes--transformed from a random assembly of disconnected strangers into bonded allies who confronted an unthinkable situation.

Review: Just like everyone else, I was affected by September 11th. I really wanted to see this film, but wasn’t sure how I would feel about it. I very rarely get affected by movies and have the ability to separate real life and fiction. What I got was a very strange experience.

Let me start by saying this is an excellent movie. The manner in which it was shot, real time, was original and added to the effect of the film. What I liked most about this film was the way the characters were handled. Most films focus on a couple primary characters, but not here. There were no names used in the film and there was no ‘Hero’. This film focuses completely on the events and what these people went through. About halfway through I started getting that emotional feeling I got the day it happened, but in a different way. We all know how it ended, but I was still rooting for these people. Obviously this film is not completely factual, since we will never know what truly happened up there, but is as close as possible. Most of the story is based on messages left to the families by the passengers and the information from the air traffic controllers. The end of this film is troublesome and disturbing to me in a good/bad way. The movie ends the same way the event ended, abruptly, but that is not how a normal movie ends, and this is no normal movie. When the final scene finished, I felt like I had just went through the event with these people, and felt even more grateful for what they did than I did before. Due to the abrupt ending, it hit me even harder. You know what is fixing to happed, but when it does you kind of just sit there in shock for a moment. Although this is a great movie, it’s not for everyone. It is emotionally charged and if you have any feelings it will affect you. I believe this is a film everyone needs to see, but not one everyone will be able to watch.
 

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