united 93

Of the four aircraft hijacked that day, United 93 was the only one that did not reach its target. It crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 10:03am. No one survived. - United 93, title card.

for the longest time, I wasn't prepared to watch this film. It was too much, almost in a perverse way. I remember when I first heard about the various films that would be released that had 9/11 as its central subject matter - I thought: "This is disgusting. How could anyone try to profit from this? Who would want to recreate/rehash the horrors of that day? Isn't is much too soon?"

For a while, I dismissed United 93 as merely one of these films, and not until I had watched more of Paul Greengrass' work, that I became interested in watching this film. I recall having a conversation with my documentary media prof about the use of "realism" in Hollywood these days - films like Children of Men, for example, borrows from the realist genre (I suppose documentary is only a branch of realism), and so does United 93. My prof had not seen the film, and pointed out to me that she simply wouldn't be able to stomach it....I had to agree, until yesterday.

I began watching with a fair bit of trepidation - afraid of the political subtext, afraid of possible melodrama...but bravely, my sister and I sat down to watch it.what I found instead of my various fears was an incredibly beautiful, incredibly brave, and touching film. Greengrass doesn't create heroes or villains, he does an amazing job of creating a character out of all the passengers on that plane...he is fair with his camera, and when I found myself crying, I was crying because the circumstances that each of these people were trapped in. Greengrass doesn't villify (is that a word?) the four men who hijacked the plane - in many ways he showcases their desperation as being similar to the desperation to the passengers on board. one particularly moving scene consists of alternating frames between the hijackers praying in Arabic to Allah, and certain passengers praying the Lord's Prayer. It gave me a sense that everyone is trapped within a vicious system that has polarized religion/politics, but that at the end of the day, we all just want to be saved.

I highly recommend the film - even though I cried through much of it (I like to cry, ok?): it is honest, yet inspirational...a beautifully-crafted film.