Hollywood portrays agonizing realism in 'United 93'
By Susannah Elliott, Entertainment Editor
May 3, 2006 | 11:46 p.m.
The theatrical trailer for “United 93” is somewhat misleading. It shows the casual conversations of pilots and stewardesses, people on their cell phones entering the airport and others boarding their flights like a normal day. The pilot comments on a 30-minute delay because of traffic, and it cuts to shots of passengers and stewardesses talking about their families at home. Then, we’re quickly hit with clips of panic and confusion.
“That’s a lotta smoke…”
“We got another hijacking?!”
Quotes are dissected and put out-of-context (we hear someone say “weapons” and nothing else). Scenes are juxtaposed to make “United 93” look like an overly dramatized thriller, rather than the shockingly realistic milestone it really is. Its Web site features a large-text background reading, “NEVER FORGET,” with melodramatic piano and vocals playing over it. All signs point to the movie’s being a cheap stunt to make money from a 5-year-old national emergency.
However, writer and director Paul Greengrass made the movie with full support of the families of the Flight 93 passengers, and it’s obvious he was very careful to present the story with respect to all involved. There are no conventional heroes. In the 111 minutes of real-time filming, we learn nothing of the passengers on the flight other than what we would have if we had been on the plane that day. The hijackers aren’t sneering villains – in fact, you may feel a little sympathetic toward them as they sit nervously awaiting the time to complete their tasks.
On the ground, we meet anonymous civilians and military air traffic controllers, all trying to make sense of what is happening to the planes that leave their flight paths and the cockpits that won’t answer. The people are nameless and real, and some who were working on Sept. 11 were even able to play themselves.
One of these actors was Ben Sliney, the newly promoted FAA Director of Operations whose first day on the job was Sept. 11. He plays himself in “United 93” and manages to become the closest anyone can to being the central character. As we shift from control center to plane to control center, the story itself becomes the main character, but Sliney’s voice is heard above others on the ground.
The problem people may have with the film is that it’s too heartbreakingly realistic. Greengrass used handheld cameras that sometimes get annoyingly shaky while filming, but it accomplishes the fly-on-the-wall viewpoint the audience should feel as the events unfold. This, however, may also cause viewers to experience too much empathy for the passengers. It’s agonizing to watch the passengers eating dinner and reading with their heads down, having no idea of the terrorists’ plan surrounding them. It’s even more agonizing to watch them realize their hopeless fate.
“United 93” is a disturbing film. It is a very real portrayal of a particularly disturbing event in history. What makes it most terrifying is the realization that these are actors, but they are not characters. They are real people reacting to a situation that changed American lives forever. Confusion masked some horror of the events of Sept. 11. Reliving them with a more complete understanding of the attack on our nation is almost more horrifying than going through them the first time.
Many are familiar with the story of the one hijacked plane that didn’t make its target; it has become a kind of legend. On the “United 93” Web site, director Greengrass said, “It tells the story of the day through a meticulous re-enactment of events surrounding United 93, the last of the four hijacked aircraft, in the belief that by examining this single event, something much larger can be found – the shape of our world today.”
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