United 93

When I first heard that a movie was going to be made about United Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001, I had almost no desire whatsoever to see the movie. Like many, the emotions that I felt so intensely on that day are still fresh enough in my memory that I did not really want to stir them up again. Plus, I was afraid that any attempt to dramatize those events would end up irritating and frustrating me.

However, when the movie was released about 3 weeks ago on April 28, I began to hear comments about it from various people and online reviews, and without exception, everyone I heard from said good things about it. Metacritic.com, one of my favorite online movie review sites, gives it a score of 89 out of 100, a full 13 points higher than the next-highest movie currently in theaters (Inside Man, another great movie, which received a 76 score). That puts United 93 as #45 all-time of the currently-4,180 movies scored on that site (the conept of Metacritic is that they assign a weighted-average score to movies based on a 100-point scale, according to reviews of the movies by film critics around the nation. Because the score reflects the consensus of major film critics, it generally gives a fair, though not perfect, analysis of which movies are worth seeing or not). My other major source is my best friend from high school Guy, whose taste in movies is very similar to mine. On his blog, he reviewed the movie and couldn't say enough good about it, placing it (at least thus far) as the best movie he has seen this year. He even went back again after watching the movie a few times and did a second post singing its praises. As well, he told me several times in the past 3 weeks I should go see it.

So, since I had some time free this evening and needed to return some borrowed stuff to Guy anyway, I decided to drive out to Schaumburg and watch the movie. And what did I think? Well, add me to the list of those who think very highly of this movie. As you would expect, it's a difficult movie to watch, and yet the story is very powerful and the passengers on the airplane worthy of the honor they receive from its telling.

More than probably any other historical movie I have ever seen, the movie does not "dramatize" the events; rather, as much as they possibly could, they try to present the story in a straightforward and historic way. Often "historical" movies enlarge the heroes to "Superman" status, but that does not happen here. No background stories are given of any of the passengers or other characters; indeed, the first time we see the passengers is as they board the airplane. As you watch, you really get a sense of the confusion, and although you know the end of the story, you feel as if you are figuring things out along with the characters. The heroes here are shown in their terror and confusion, yet they pulled together and undoubtedly saved thousands of lives though they were unable to save their own.

Other "historical" movies tend to place harsh judgment on mistakes that were made when a balanced view would have to admit that the mistakes were not malicious nor as foolish as they seem in hindsight if you consider the information available to those making the decisions at that time (without the advantage of interminable analysis that came afterwards). This movie shows the mistakes that were made in honesty, but you understand that those involved did everything within their power with the information available to them at the time.

No political statements were made by the movie. The terrorists were shown to be who they were, devout adherents to a fatally-flawed and hatred-filled religious belief. One of the poignant moments of the show comes as the passengers are about to attempt to take back the plane from the hijackers. Several passengers are shown reciting the Lord's Prayer, interspersed with shots of the hijackers reciting their Muslim prayers. (On a side note, I have to have a lot of respect for the four men who played the roles of the hijackers. Since they were involved with this movie that had such heavy input from the families of the passengers, there is no doubt in my mind that those four actors are dedicated patriotic Americans to whom the actions of those they portrayed are as repulsive and horrifying as to any other American, but they completed their roles in the film in an admirable way. Personally, I would not be too eager to have that role on my resume.)

For the sake of time and the patience of anyone reading this, I will summarize by saying that each element of this film weaves together a story that illustrates the best of what filmmaking can accomplish: to tell a story without embellishment or exaggeration, admitting the humanity of those involved, but showing the actions of a group of people whose courage rose to the level of the extraordinary circumstances into which they were thrust against their will.

Go see the movie. It's important to remember.