Discussions about work, pending vacations, the weather, and random bits of phone calls all provide the film's ballast, working to ground in reality a decidedly surreal event. If it initially comes off as boring, it's because conversations at airports are universally boring. None of that changes just because the plane's about to be hijacked. Neither does the normal pre-flight prep work, which Greengrass films in some amount of detail[2], only because we know how the film will end, it comes with a sense of foreboding you wouldn't normally find.
The shot of the plane being fueled instantly brings to mind that these cross-country flights were selected because they would have more explosive fuel on board. Greengrass lingers on the cabin door as it's being closed for just a second longer than normal and the result is ominous. It takes your breath away because you realize it's a death sentence, that no one is getting off that flight.
But United 93 really achieves greatness after the hijackings have thrown both the flight and the air traffic control centers into pandemonium. From the FAA trying to get in contact with the military to the military trying to clarify their rules of engagement and find a President who's suddenly nowhere to be found, Greengrass successfully shows us an infrastructure unprepared without attempting to pin the blame.
For the goal of United 93 is not to explain why September 11 happened, but rather to show what happened. Greengrass could have easily followed the cry, "Where is the President?" with a shot of him in that Florida classroom reading a children's book, and I suspect a number of directors would have done just that, but he doesn't go there because there's no need. Besides, most of the audience already has that shot in the back of their heads anyway.
Instead, he goes to the faces of perplexed air traffic controllers, to the panicked passengers, even to the terrorist praying in the cockpit, and in doing so he humanizes the tragedy. Then, in what is the film's most powerful sequence, the passengers of United 93 begin calling the outside world and we watch as terrified faces are attached to these phone recordings we've heard so many times. In the midst of all this chaos the camera focuses on people hunched over, desperate for a quiet pocket where they might be able to better hear, tearfully telling someone they love them.
Article comments
1 - Casey Lunkley
Anyone who reads the 9/11 Commission's Report and compares it to United 93 can come to the conclusion pretty quickly that this was a money-making machine, and not some "brave" crusade from a director.
And I have a hard time believing you gave it the title of "best film in a decade" without a heavy bias on the subject matter.
2 - Lucas McNelly
if you read the review, you see that i didn't do that at all.
the title was not mine, it was added by the powers that be. i said it "makes a case for being the best American film of the decade".
3 - Michael J. West
Casey, did you see United 93?
4 - Casey Lunkley
Lucas, I did read the review. Three quarters of your review revolves around emotion, and what happened on 9/11.
And yes, Michael, I saw the movie. Though, I didn't pay for it. (Shh!)
5 - RogerMDillon
You wrote it was too soon for you to see the movie, Casey. Guess your aticle was just a lot of hot air.
6 - Casey
I saw the movie after I wrote the article, genius.