United 93 (Theatrical Film Review)

 

Stars: Christian Clemenson, Cheyenne Jackson, David Alan Basche, Peter Hermann, Khalid Abdalla

Director: Paul Greengrass

Critic's rating: 9 out of 10

 

Review by Chuck O'Leary

 

United 93 is the first major feature film dramatizing events that occurred on September 11, 2001, with Oliver Stone's World Trade Center scheduled to follow in August.  However, some people are asking, "Is it still too soon for any movie about the events of 9/11?"  My answer is a resounding no.  It's not too soon.

 

Remember in the days after 9/11 that feeling of numbness, as it seemed like the world would never be the same again?  Well, unfortunately, as Americans these days, we tend to have very short memories, and less than 5 years later, some of us have already seemed to forget.  But we can never afford to forget and let our guard down.  If we do, history is bound to repeat itself.  Yes, sitting through United 93 is painful, but it's a pain we all need to be reminded of every now and then. 

 

As most know, United 93 was the fourth flight hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorists on 9/11, and it was probably headed for the Capitol or the White House before a group of brave passengers tried to overpower the four hijackers before the plane crashed in a Shanksville, Pennsylvania field, killing everyone aboard, but clearly saving countless more lives.  It was the only hijacked flight that morning that failed to achieve its objective because a group of ordinary Americans decided they weren't going down without a fight.

 

Writer-director Paul Greengrass' United 93 is a spellbinding, incredibly powerful docudrama that attempts to recreate what happened from what is known from cockpit transmissions and phone calls made by passengers aboard Flight 93 to loved ones after the plane had been hijacked. 

 

It starts early in the morning of September 11, 2001, with a group of Middle-Eastern men reading the Koran in a hotel room.  Clean-shaven and wearing Western-style clothes so not to attract attention, they soon arrive at Newark International Airport, keeping to themselves, occasionally whispering to one another in Arabic and looking extremely intense.  The bespectacled Ziad Jarrah (Khalid Abdalla) is their leader.

 

We know that Mark Bingham (played by Cheyenne Jackson) arrived at the airport late, just barely making the flight.  Everything pointed to a routine cross-country trip (to San Francisco) on a sunny and clear September morning for the 37 passengers, two pilots and 5 flight attendants on board. But four of those passengers seated in first class were al-Qaeda terrorists on a deadly mission.  Bingham, Todd Beamer (David Alan Basche), Thomas Burnett (Christian Clemenson), Jeremy Glick (Peter Hermann), Richard Guadagno (Daniel Sauli) and the others clearly had no idea of what they'd be forced to eventually do, making them American heroes in the process.

 

What began as a typical flight with an in-flight breakfast being served and the usual chit-chat among strangers suddenly turned horrific when the four intense Arab Muslims stood up, stabbing one poor man, Mark Rothenberg (Chip Zien), in the neck with a box cutter, before storming the cockpit, stabbing the pilots, Captain John Dahl (JJ Johnson) and First Officer Leroy Homer Jr. (Gary Commock), to death, and killing flight attendant Deborah Welsh (Polly Adams), who was trying to assist a bleeding to death Rothenberg.

 

Some won't like United 93 because it shows the true sneaky, vicious face of a cowardly enemy that yells "Allah Akbar" as it brutally murders innocent people.  Others won't like it because it shows the totally inefficient reaction to the situation by the United States government and the lack of proper communication all the way to the very top.  And it's a film that will remind people of how unbelievably negligent two administrations were in dealing with the threat of Islamic terrorism in the eight and a half years in between the first World Trade Center bombing by Islamic extremists in February, 1993 and the attacks on 9/11. 

 

It's become increasingly evident that the U.S. government was caught asleep at the wheel on the morning of 9/11 despite all the warning signs being there.  It's enough to give conspiracy theorists a field day, even though much of the blame can probably be attributed to a false sense of security, political correctness and the special treatment America gives to supposed ally Saudi Arabia.  Do you know that prior to 9/11, Saudi citizens were not required to obtain clearance from the FBI to receive flight training in U.S. flight schools?  As most everyone knows by now, 14 of the 19 suicide hijackers on 9/11 were Saudis.

 

And furthermore, why were potentially deadly objects such as box cutters and knives ever allowed to be carried aboard commercial airliners in the first place?  Who besides terrorists would have even guessed those objects were permitted prior to 9/11?

 

Greengrass was smart to cast mostly unknown actors, which adds to the feeling of authenticity.  Big names would have been a distraction in a film like this, but there are a few faces you might recognize from other projects including Clemenson, who portrays Burnett, the first passenger to hear about two other flights crashing into the World Trade Center and one of the organizers of the revolt, John Rothman as Edward P. Felt, who ran into a restroom to make an emergency call to authorities shortly before Flight 93 crashed, and Gregg Henry as Col. Robert Mahr at NORAD, where it took far longer than it should have to scramble armed fighter planes and get a shoot-down order from President Bush.  All of the performances in the film are top-notch right down to the actors of Arab heritage who have the thankless task of playing the four terrorists.

 

From the confusion on the ground to the heartbreaking final phone calls of passengers to their loved ones to the stirring final moments of ordinary people finding extraordinary courage in the face of overwhelming fear and probable death, this a superb piece of filmmaking that transcends the normal moviegoing experience.  There's not a lot of character development, but Greengrass (Bloody Sunday, The Bourne Supremacy) instead gives the audience a feeling of how it must have felt to have been a passenger on Flight 93, one person amongst a group of strangers who suddenly find themselves face to face with death-worshipping evil.

 

One passenger travelling aboard Flight 93, Donald Greene (David Rasche), was a former pilot, and another passenger, Andrew Garcia (Peter Marinker), was a former flight controller.  From the evidence gathered, the plan was to try and overpower the hijackers and have Greene and Garcia attempt to fly and then land the plane.  We may never know for sure how far they actually got, but God bless them all for trying.

 

United 93 is one of the most gripping and deeply upsetting films I've ever seen.  I honestly left the theater shaking with a combination of anxiety, anger and sadness I haven't felt since the days immediately following 9/11.