Tragically real. Review on United 93 Movie

May 2, 2006. New York City.

I am just a visitor in New York, on a beautiful day in May, with an unusually free, solitary day on my hands. Watching a movie is usually what I do on these days…although the movie I picked to watch was an unusual choice for me. ”United 93”, a movie about the hijacked Flight 93 aircraft on 9/11, the one that never reached its destiny of the Capitol building in Washington DC, and crashed somewhere outside the city thanks to the heroics of its passengers. Anticipating a Hollywood’ish, dramatized account of something so real and recent, watching it in New York city, which is still reeling from the after effects of September 11th….not something I would normally do or look forward to…..but for some reason, I did end up watching the movie…and I’m so glad I did.

This movie is a recreation of actual events on United Flight 93, on the day of 9/11, screenplay based on telephone calls made by passengers on the plane to loved ones on the outside. None of the 40 passengers survived.

DIRECTOR- Paul Greengrass (British Director, “Bourne Supremacy”, “Bloody Sunday”)

CAST- Largely unknown actors.

PLOT- September 11, 2001….7-8 am…..A seemingly innocuous day for the air traffic control personnel in Boston. They are coordinating the take off of flights from the airport. The usual mix-ups and delays. Bunch of people, 40 or so of them, getting on flight United 93 from Boston to San Francisco….a motley bunch of people…some young, some old, some happy, some irritable fliers. Amongst this group are four very discernibly nervous, edgy, Middle Eastern looking passengers. (Now the reason I noticed them is because I was looking out for them, knowing how the story unfolds…but prior to the whole 9/11 event, to the innocent eye, they wouldn’t really have stood out or looked too conspicuous). Flight 93 takes a while to get off the runway, thanks to scheduling reasons, much to the anxiety of the four mysterious passengers, but it does eventually take off.

Meanwhile, the air traffic control people are experiencing something slightly different from their usual run of the mill day….a flight disappears from their radar, foreign sounding voices from the cockpit….could it possibly be a hijack….but how could that be…none of them have ever experienced that……as the chief of the centre says…the last he heard of a hijacked plane was all of 20 years ago! It soon becomes evident, to air traffic people all over the States, that a number of planes are disappearing from their radar, a number of pilots not responding…and before they know it someone asks them to turn on CNN and they see the first of four hijacked flights crash into the Twin Towers in New York. While the officials are still trying to figure out which of the missing planes it is, another one crashes into the Twin Towers.

On Flight 93 meanwhile, the four mysterious men are getting edgier by the minute…they rush to the toilet in turn…one of them taking his bag with him, a bag which has a disassembled bomb in it, which he promptly assembles and straps onto himself. About a half hour into the flight, two of the men rush upto the cockpit, slit the throats of the pilots, take over the control of the flight stick, while two of them remain behind to threaten the passengers and keep them quiet by threatening them with the strapped on bomb and some pen knives. The passengers are understandably nervous….not quite figuring out initially why they are being hijacked. As there are only two hijackers right up front, keeping watch over them some of the passengers, air hostesses, get bold and start using the aircraft phone to call outside. That is when the news starts trickling in, bit by bit, to the doomed passengers of Flight 93…loved ones they talk to tell them about the two planes crashing into the Twin Towers, one apparently crashing into the Capitol building in Washington.

They also figure out that their pilot has been killed and that their flight has changed its course. Seeing only two visibly nervous hijackers in front of them, understanding what fate awaits them if they do nothing, a bunch of passengers coordinate an assault on the hijackers, with a view to ultimately take over the controls of the flight and steer it to safety. While they are able to overcome the hijackers and diffuse the bomb, prevent the plane from crashing into Washington, they are not quite able to save themselves.

MY TAKE-

A movie that could have quite as easily taken the dramatic turn, is told in a simple, documentary like manner. No big actors, no big dramatic scenes, no overwhelming, tragic background music…nothing but the simple attempt to re-create reality. The villains of the piece are not shown as larger than life, menacing looking figures….yes, they are evil, but they are also human and have all the frailty that goes with being human. What is terrifying about them is the fixity of their purpose, the constant stream of prayer that comes out of their lips, the unshakeable belief that God is on their side and has ordained this mission. Neither are the passengers on board made out to be super-human.

Yes, they are heroes, but their actions are no more heroic than what the situation would call for. What strikes the viewer is that even in the time of extreme fear and panic, human beings can use their intelligence, and come together to try and overcome an untenable situation. Not a pleasant movie to watch. While the bravery and courage of the passengers is what one would like to take away from the experience, what remained with me long after, and still lingers, is the complete senselessness behind acts of terror, and the chilling justification used by the perpetrators that God somehow condones these acts.