UNITED 93

Anyone who saw “Bloody Sunday” (2002) about the events of January 20, 1972 that led to a renewal of The Troubles in Ireland should know what to expect from writer/director Peter Greengrasss’ latest film, “United 93.” His verite style makes the viewer feel like an eyewitness to history. My reactions to both films were remarkably similar, but “United 93” by the very nature of its subject matter - the attack on America on September 11, 2006 - cuts closer to the bone.

“United 93” is a blow by blow re-enactment  of the events of 9/11 told in real time from the moment the passengers prepare to board their flight until it’s eventual descent onto the rural outskirts of Shanksville, Pa. The terrorists are given equal time and presented just as their victims first perceived them - as fellow travelers. It’s impossible to know exactly how they took over the airplane but it was not impossible for the filmmakers to create a time line based on the phone calls made to loved ones from the average citizens on the doomed Boeing 747. Greengrass uses their story to bookend the story of the attack on America as people saw it on their TV screens and in the way the tragedy unfolded at the air traffic control centers on the East Coast.

Paul Greengrass grabs you by the scruff of the neck and drags you though the headquarters of the air traffic controllers who monitor the airways where the implication of information is misunderstood when  transmitted back and forth between civilian and military liaisons in different parts of the country. When the first plane hits the first tower of the World Trade Center, it is thought to be an accident. When the second plane hits the second tower, the truth is on everyone’s lips, and the shock in their expressions as they scramble to find out if any other planes in the air were hijacked. A breakdown in communication between the Civil Aeronautic Authorities and the military is played out with frighteningly frustrating  effect with some of the actual participants portraying themselves. They wanted to make sure Paul Greengrass got it right, feeling they owed it to the surviving relatives and friends who died that day. I felt like I was reliving the events of  9/11 through the prism of their experience.

On United Flight 93, the hijackers take over the plane when they threaten to blow it up. They blurt commands but their demands are murky. Hushed cell phone calls to friends, relatives, and loved ones on the ground by the captive  passengers reveal the hijackers’ true motives. Their intentions can only be guessed. Word about the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon spreads like wild fire throughout the plane in veiled urgent whispers. A counter attack by the few is formulated. All their action, like that in the control centers on the ground, is seen through the camera’s eye.  People are thrown about, wounded or killed as the plane lurches on toward its destiny. The final half hour of “Flight 93” is unbearably real. The plane plummets toward the earth - the end a given.

At first I thought my reactions to “United 93” would be colored by the emotions I expressed for weeks on end after September 11, 2001. My anticipation of sitting through a re-enactment of the events - the fall of the Twin Towers - the attack on the Pentagon - and the imagined reenactment of the passengers becoming masters of their own fates and dying heroes’ deaths was packed with more emotion that than the act of actually sitting through the movie. It was very much akin to the experience I have whenever I  visit  the Viet Nam Memorial in Washington. As a vet I try to visit the wall whenever I visit my sister and friends in the D.C. area. “United 93” is not a memorial per to the passengers on the flight but it is a tribute to the sanctity of their sacrifice.

                                                                                                                      Copyright 2006

The other masterpiece from writer/director Paul Greengrass

“Bloody Sunday” (2002) - An all too realistic recreation of the events surrounding the shooting deaths of thirteen unarmed civilians on January 30^th, 1972 during a massive civil rights march where more than twenty five others were critically wounded in a Catholic section of Northern Ireland. Greengrass puts you in the streets with the demonstrators and in the command center where misinformation is transmitted back and forth between the high ranking officers calling the shots and the soldiers who have to make the ultimate life and death decisions. The confusion of the soldiers at the barricades is balanced by the frustration and outrage of the  marchers. Both factions are portrayed as victims of the ineptitude of the British High Command.

Three other films torn from yesterday’s headlines with the look and feel of reality

“The Four Days of Naples” (1962) (Italian with Eng. subtitles) - Oscar Nominee for Best Foreign Film about the civilians of Naples, particularly the women and children, who fought the Nazis with anything they could lay their hands on while the men of the city were either off fighting with the partisans or constricted for the labor camps.

“The Battle of Algiers” (1965) (Fr. and Algerian with Eng. subtitles) - Gilo Pontecorvo’s acclaimed international award winner was also an Oscar Nominee for Best Foreign Film. Title tells all.  Its grim newsreel look and torture scenes will make your blood curdle.

“Z” (1969) (Fr. with Eng. subtitles) - Costa Gravas’s Oscar Winner for Best Foreign Film delves into the events leading to a political assassination in Greece and the motives behind it and the attempted cover-up. With Yves Montand, Jean Louis Trintingnant, Charels Denner and Irene Papas. Also won an Oscar for editing.

Another film that looks like the real thing

“The War Game” (1967) - Less than an hour, this BBC produced film won an Oscar for Best Documentary. Pete Watkins depicted the aftermath of a nuclear attack with such frightening realism, it never made it to TV. Instead, it was released theatrically to wide critical acclaim.