BEFORE: I don't think there's any standard way to mark the 9/11 anniversary now, some people attend ceremonies where the names of the victims are read aloud, some people probably spend the day in quiet reverence, and I think I saw quite a few people who just wanted to go about their business this year. I'm not sure if that was a conscious choice, or perhaps people just forgot.
THE PLOT: A real time account of the events on United Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked on 9/11 that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania when passengers foiled the terrorist plot.
AFTER: Well, I guess I'm forced to re-live the events of 9/11. When the planes hit the WTC in this film, even though I knew it was coming, I still got that same sinking feeling I had 12 years ago.
Other than that, I don't have a lot to say tonight. It seems like the filmmakers were striving for accuracy, which was probably a challenge involving a lot of guesswork as to what took place on that plane. The conversations between air traffic controllers and military personnel were no doubt easier to replicate.
They also tried to cast actors who hadn't been in too many movies, I think, which went a long way towards making them seem like regular people. I recognized a few minor sitcom stars, and one from the CSI franchise, but I didn't spend a lot of time thinking, "Hey, it's THAT guy!", which is good because it didn't distract from the content.
Usually my rating reflects how enjoyable a film is, but I don't think this one can be described in terms of enjoyment, however I think it can still be regarded as an important film. I have to amend my advice from last night about how doing nothing can often be the best course of action, because this film depicts a situation where regular people felt the need to do something, and it was the right call, even if it cost them their lives. They were quite probably thinking of the lives they were saving by preventing their plane from crashing into a building, which I think was later determined to be the U.S. Capitol building.
Starring Christian Clemenson, David Alan Basche, Cheyenne Jackson, Khalid Abdalla, Olivia Thirlby, David Rasche.
RATING: 5 out of 10 radar screens
I've never seen this movie and When I saw the trailer, I remember thinking about how inappropriate it was to yank these events and these people out of the History column and thrust them into Myth And Legend.
ReplyDeleteI'm on the fence regarding stories that revolve around those three planes. On the one hand, 9/11 is part of the tapestry of world culture. On the other, you're going to have to explain to me why your story only works if the boy lost his father in Tower One, as opposed to some other way. If your movie is about a 10-year-old boy coming to grips with loss, and the influence that a parent can have even three years after they die...couldn't you change the cause of death to "fatal heart attack" and avoid coming across as emotionally manipulative?
But my feelings are clear on "United 93." These are real people who died. Horribly, knowing that they had only a few minutes left to live. I don't need or want to see actors pretending to be scared, or pretending to try to find the right thing to do, or pretending to contact loved ones and leave final messages.
Above all, I don't want a movie to say, in effect, "The actual story of United 93 is insufficient. It really needs to be dramatized. The real faces of these people aren't good enough. When people think about the passengers on that plane, they should picture in their mind handsome men and women who went through some sort of audition process first."