Review: 'United 93'

BY GENE SEYMOUR | Newsday Staff Writer

April 25, 2006

(R) With a discerning eye for telling detail and a tautly orchestrated yet scrupulous narrative drive, writer-director Paul Greengrass assembles a persuasive account of what happened aboard the one hijacked plane that didn't hit its intended target on Sept. 11, 2001. As many have feared, the movie is also wrenching to both the heart and the viscera, but those who choose to see it will be deeply, honestly moved. 1:14 (distressing scenes, violence, mild vulgarity). Premieres tonight at Tribeca Film Festival. Opens Friday at area theaters.

The first and most dominant thing that strikes you about "United 93" is its tone. Though the events it chronicles arouse overpowering emotions, the film itself moves with the raw, yet composed austerity of a cinema verite documentary.

But "United 93" can hardly be called clinical or dispassionate. It merely recognizes that its story carries such impact that any gratuitous flourish would vulgarize the memory of those it seeks to honor. By refusing to pander to our feelings, "United 93" ultimately wins them over - though not without a lot of gut-wrenching, heartrending imagery along the way.

If only movies without nearly the baggage "United 93" carries in advance would follow its worthy example. But writer-director Paul Greengrass, who cut his teeth on BBC documentaries before making such features as "Bloody Sunday" and "The Bourne Supremacy," seems to have known from the start that this was no ordinary project: Extra care was needed to tell its story.

By now, you probably don't need to be told the story. The title is taken from the name of the one passenger jet that, of four hijacked by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001, did not fly into a public building. Using all available public records and enjoying full cooperation from the families of the passengers who perished, "United 93" delivers a taut, scrupulous and altogether persuasive account of how a mundane plane ride became a nightmare.

As you watch the crew and passengers walk through the cabin and settle in their seats, you know - as soon as the doors close - that these people are going to die. And yet, "United 93" doesn't toy with such foreknowledge. It maintains its straightforward narrative tone as crisply and unhurriedly as the flight attendants preparing for takeoff.

The movie's real skill comes in the way it juxtaposes the action aboard the flight against what's happening simultaneously on the ground. More than half the movie takes place in air traffic control centers in the northeast as well as the Federal Aviation Agency's command center in Herndon, Va. The film gradually ramps up the tension with such ominous images as the wayward radar blips of captured aircraft that vanish like ghosts from ground crew screens.

Adding to the movie's authenticity is its use of both relatively unknown actors and such real-life players as Ben Sliney, the FAA operations manager on that terrible day, who plays himself. Sliney seems more magnetic than anyone else on the ground, possibly because he appears to be one of the few who acts decisively. Emotions soon become just as chaotic aboard the aircraft. Yet the movie itself maintains enough evenhandedness to show, at one point, both hijackers and passengers praying to themselves just before the captives turn on their captors.

There are many who ask whether it's too soon for a feature film about 9/11 to be released. It's difficult to answer such a question. The memory of that day is so intense that some New Yorkers will forever find it hard to look up at a passing airplane without feeling a chill. What can be said for certain is that "United 93" is a shattering, yet effective tribute to men and women who, when faced with unimaginable terror and all-but-certain death, dared to resist their fate using whatever they could get their hands on. It's hard to imagine worthier solace for our own daily dread.