United 93

On September 11, 2001 four American planes were hijacked over US airspace. Two were flown into the World Trade Center in New York. One was flown into the Pentagon in Washington. The fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. This was United Airlines flight 93.

United 93 is a difficult film to watch. Gritty, tense and detached, this film evokes both a heavy sadness and a sense of foreboding. The outcome is already known and inescapable. Forty passengers and crew died on that plane, their last moments were terrifying and violent. Capturing a sense of what they experienced without exploiting it or sensationalising it must have been a difficult and emotional task for both cast and crew. However United 93 succeeds in paying tribute to the bravery of those on the flight without being sentimental or melodramatic.

Directed by British filmmaker Paul Greengrass, this docudrama recreates the events surrounding the fourth plane hijacked on September 11, 2001. The film begins the evening before the hijacking as four young men pray and prepare themselves. They are nervous, even seeming unsure at points yet ultimately committed to their task.

The film then switches between the events on the plane itself and the various air traffic control towers. The camera follows the action dispassionately moving between people and capturing the events almost by happenstance.

United 93 has been painstakingly researched. Made with the support and assistance of the families of the victims, the film offers a scenario of what occurred on the doomed flight.

With a cast of unknown and non-actors, the film is both unassuming and compelling. Many of the men and women staffing the control towers and army bases play themselves while colleagues of the pilots and stewardesses who died take on the roles of the flight crew.

Of the four planes hijacked that day this flight alone failed to meet its target crashing instead into a field in Pennsylvania. The theory is that this plane was headed for the White House however those on board the flight were told they would not be harmed if they cooperated with the terrorists. Through mobile phone calls to family and friends the passengers and crew learned of the attack on the World Trade Center and decided that cooperation would not ensure their safety. They decided to storm the cockpit and take control of the plane. Their hope was to land the plane safely.

Given the sensitivity surrounding 9/11 and any discussion of it, there has been considerable anxiety and suspicion towards the translating of those events into film. However as Paul Greengrass has commented there are many different types of movies – some that divert us, entertain us and make us laugh. No less significant are the films that explore our world and pay tribute to individuals within it. It is to this category that United 93 belongs.

An understated but potent commemoration of those who lost their lives.

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