April 29, 2006
 
RUTHERFORD ON FILM: ‘United 93’: Re-Creation of Real-Time 9/11 Events and Heroics Mesmerize Audience
 
By Tony Rutherford
Huntington News Network Writer
 
Huntington, WV (HNN) -- Do something, do something NOW!
 
Considering the foregone conclusion, “United 93” accents an exhilarating, somber and heroic docu-drama punctuated by occasionally blurry and often jumpy TV-news styled ‘steadicam’ footage. The scenes aboard what was to be the fourth air missile on 9/11 stay solid until the hijacking after which the camera’s perspective from the eyes of passengers and crew enunciates with intentionally confused clarity and nervous haste in real time of a conjecture of the final moments on of the Fourth plane that would eventually crash in Pennsylvania.
 
The film’s opening transitions from sleepy early morning New York and sterling Manhattan sunrise to scenes of normally boring rituals, taken for granted routines --- a parting hug, a thank you, a plan to celebrate vacation time in London, a forecast of good weather --- when passengers and crew board the flight.
 
Simultaneously, filmmaker Paul (“Bourne Supremacy”) Greengrass settles on the normally tension filled duties of air traffic controllers. The maps, screens and computers bear resemblance to a ‘war room’ or CNN’s incoming feeds at their world headquarters, but in a sea of blue skies, the controllers have adapted to carefully separating precious lives coming and departing on steel encased flying missiles filled with combustible jet . While the writer/director had spotty accounts from families who lost a loved one of the events aboard United Airline Flight 93, Greengrass’s ensemble cast of unknown actors partially improvises the actions of their real-life counterpart based on insights provided through the cooperation of family members who for instance received ‘I love you, good bye’ phone calls before the now famous “Let’s roll” yell instituted an attempt to take back the aircraft.
 
Appropriately, few, if any, names are mentioned throughout. The individuals intersect not by their personalities or backgrounds, but by their job or decision to travel on September 11, 2001. You want to know more about the elderly woman on the flight taking medication or the man whispering into his phone, but their existence remains veiled trapped forever in the day’s tragedy. This creates a subtle theme that no one life is more important than another, even as heroes formulate spontaneous team-building under the most deadly of all circumstances.
 
When not focusing on the flight’s escalating frenzy, British director Greengrass centers on the inept chains of command be it the military, F.A.A., NORAD, or the controllers. Early on, a gentle fluidity weaves the air traffic control centers to the passengers and crew boarding then awaiting take off of UA 93. Gaining momentum, the juxtaposing of locations enunciates the horrid castration of normalcy that awaits as plane after plane explodes its target, as the military stays stymied awaiting rules of engagement orders from the President, and as television viewers watch a viciously well time and coordinated surprise attack unfold in living rooms from California to Maine.
 
The hijackers on board United 93 seem like nervous young men attempting to find both the nerve and the patience to follow their prescribed mission, which from their perspective, will glorify Allah. The reference should not be taken as anti-Islamic, just a reminder, that the zealous terrorists prayed, read the Koran, and praised God for events that Americans would later call the work of the devil. By including this short segment of their preparation and devotion, the director injects a provocative concept that often equally intense prayers flow toward heaven in circumstances where only one side wins.
 
Scenes of the World Trade Center hours before those planes would mortally wound the structures and souls inside have more than symbolic meaning --- they represent normalcy awaiting a seismic tremor of unprecedented proportion that will impact the psyche of all Americans. Due to terror visiting the Emerald Isle of New York and the center of democracy in D.C., time consuming miscommunications would soon leave us vulnerable to agenda manipulation by those with political power. In fact, in the name of patriotism, principles of free speech and particularly the questioning of dissent would nearly take on the scarlet letter brand of traitor.
 
Ironically, those aboard the United flight likely had a clear view of the towers on take off. And, more ironically, improved reaction time or an unanticipated air traffic jam could have placed those on 93 with a front and center view of one of the planes hitting a tower.
 
More fortuitously, “United 93” respects the attempt by its passengers to take back the cockpit and their group minded sacrifice. When the men and women attempt to tackle a hijacker and pummel the cockpit door, you want it to crack open, you want that prospective passenger pilot to take the controls, and you want to see a smooth landing a la the fictional “Airport” movies.
 
None of these deviations and hopes for a miracle lessen efforts of what the heroic passengers attempted to execute; they merely inscribe the director’s mastery of the material which reaches off the screen at least fleetingly into a ‘feel good,’ good guys prevail Hollywood climax.
 
Is it time to bring films about 9/11 to the screen? A prize-winning documentary filmmaker does not question the TIMING but rather the HOW. Working with less than a full account of exact sentences spoken matters not. The “Why would he hit the building?” uttered by a controller or a “Where is the military?” by another rises even higher on the relevance chain if you take the time to watch the end credits, as many of the controllers are not actors; they play themselves in order to ensure that their reactions re-create their thoughts on that dreadful day when the sky fell upon the United States.
 
Without question, you feel the queasy uneasy filling in your stomach. Could this happen again? Perhaps, not an aerial plot, but, alas, another well orchestrated plan that would leave leaders asking questions and waiting for answers instead of taking action to stymie the assault.