United 93
Directed by Paul Greengrass (2006)
It may have taken three years, but I’m glad I finally got around to sitting through Paul Greengrass’ deeply affecting, terse and brilliant film concerning the events on the only plane hijacked on 9/11 that didn’t find it’s target.
It’s a brilliantly directed and paced docudrama, that captures the shock and subsequent slow-building panic of that day back in 2001. The actions of those on UA-93 and on the ground are depicted in an eminently believable, and heartbreaking narrative, that slowly builds in real-time to it’s devastating conclusion. What I found most interesting about the piece is that it doesn’t suggest some giant global conspiracy, or act of stupidity on behalf of the authorities that could have prevented anything on the day — it demonstrates perfectly how what now seems obvious was at the time completely inconceivable.
We can never go back to how our minds worked before 9/11. The concept of hijacked commercial airliners flying kamikaze into buildings was simply not something the average person would be able to conceive for a minute. The air-traffic controllers, and even the lower-echelons of the military could not have realised the scale — and for want of less complimentary words, brilliance and ingenuity — of the attack, and were powerless to stop anything before it was too late.
Thus the actions of those on UA-93 are thrown into even sharper relief, their tenaciousness and bravery was something truly remarkable, and it’s never too late to be reminded of it.
I couldn’t recommend United 93 enough.
