It begins in a hotel room where prayers are being recited, and preparations are being made, while America is awakening after the weekend ( I, in fact, was still asleep after arriving home by plane late the previous evening, from a glorious 4 day trip to Chicago, and awoke to turn on the news to learn of the 1st tower, then witness the 2nd ).
It progresses in its purpose to detail everything from the mundane, and boring, the humorous, and the touching, to the confusing, bloody, violent, and ultimately heroic.
A few people die, a plane goes SPLAT into the ground, and then EVERYBODY DIES... THE END.
Except that it's NOT... THAT... SIMPLE.
If, in reading the above you get pissed off at me for revealing the ending of a film you have not seen all I have to say to you is this:
Climb out of that hole in the ground that you have been hiding in since that horrible, fateful day, remember what you saw on TV that day, and then PULL YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR SORRY ASS... and TAKE A GOOD LOOK AROUND!
WE, AND BY THAT I MEAN WESTERN CIVILIZATION, ARE AT WAR!
It's a war that has been waged against us for nearly 30 years or so ( Remember the Iran Hostages? )by cultural, political, and religious, extremists of the scariest, and most violent sort.
It ain't gonnna end with a group hug, and everyone smoking a peace pipe at the U.N.
We were right to go in to Afghanistan, and Iraq, and we are right to be seriously concerned, yet again, about Iran.
To all the Neville Chamberlain wannabes out there, who think we have nothing to fear from Iran, and should let them go on their merry way... WAKE UP!
I agree with George Will: It is the Civic Duty of every American, British, and European citizen, to see this film.
I am still shaken by the experience 4 hours after seeing it.
I came to the theatre expecting to be emotionally affected by what I was about to see, even though I knew that the film had no traditional happy ending, but still was not prepared for the experience.
There was no soaring musical score, with moments keyed to certain "rousing'', or "tense" moments.
There were no recognizable "Hollywood Stars" to root for, or hiss at.
No zillion dollar special effects to marvel at.
The film was full of scenes, boring, tense, enotional, and violent, that were as uncomplicated as they were uncompromising in their depictions.
Reality intruded on fiction in 2 startling ways: The use of archival footage of the aftermath of the 1st tower crash, and the actual crash into the 2nd tower, and by use of numerous actual participants in the control room scenes to play themselves ( A fact that hits home in the closing credits, if you were not already aware of it. ).
More than anything it is the casting, and the performances, by all involved, including the marvelous actors couragously ( From a career standpoint ) playing the terrorists, that makes the film work.
The fact that you KNOW the general idea of what happened that day does you no good as a way to distance yourself from the story being told.
As George Will recently wrote:
In most movies made to convey dread, the tension flows from uncertainty about what will happen. In "United 93," terror comes from knowing exactly what will happen. People who associate cinematic menace with maniacs wielding chain saws will find that there can be an almost unbearable menace in the quotidian -- in the small talk of passengers waiting in the boarding area with those who will murder them, in the routine shutting of the plane's door prior to departure from Newark Airport on Sept. 11, 2001.
I watched those opening scenes, interspersed with the various ordinary goings on at control towers, with mounting tension, absorbed in the most ordinary details, and afterward marveling at how magnificently the fictional was interwoven with fact, to such an extent that it took hold of the viewers imagination, and emotions, so completely as the film progressed.
You cared for these people, and it hurt that you knew what was going to happen, and could only sit there, and bear silent witness to their heroic sacrifice.
George Will continues:
Going to see "United 93" is a civic duty because Samuel Johnson was right:
People more often need to be reminded than informed.
After an astonishing 56 months without a second terrorist attack, this nation perhaps has become dangerously immune to astonishment. The movie may quicken our appreciation of the measures and successes -- many of which must remain secret -- that have kept would-be killers at bay.
Slowly, step, by step, the plot moves inexorbaly forward toward its characters appointment with destiny.
We see the complicated, confusing, and desperate reactions of the controllers, and the military as hijackings, and crashes pile up.
We learn more here, based on the research of the director and his team, than most of us may ever have been aware of at the time, and in the months afterward.
The most important, yet least known, and understood, events depicted in the film, of course, were what was happening in the cockpit, and cabin, of United 93 from the time of take-off to the crash.
The film takes what little is known and does a wonderful, sobering, and startling, job of presenting a version of events that, based on speculation, depicts a collection of pasengers, and crew ( no names are ever mentioned beyond that of the Captain, I think, though when certain lines are spoken the knowledgeable can connect the dots up to just before the passengers "Roll" ) who faced a no-win situation, and certain death.
Because of this there is one thing we, as viewers, must accept:
We will never know who all participated in the rush to the cabin, or if anyone tried to talk their fellows out of it, or what ACTUALLY HAPPENED up there when someone said "Let's Roll!"
For all we know the rush to the cabin was abruptly halted by the killing of a leader, or beaten back at the last moment at the cabin door, or the terrorist pilot, realizing that all would soon be lost, and realizing the plane would not reach its intended target, plunged it into the ground voluntarily.
Do such details matter?
No.
What matters is that those people who "Rolled", whoever they were, ARE HEROES, and the 1st fighting men, and maybe even women, to die as the enemies of the West, and Civilization, finally brought their war against us to the shores of America itself.
As those fateful last minutes unfurled in all their fury, confusion, and violence, my eyes started to tear up, but as the screen went abruptly dark, and the credits then began to scroll, I only felt anger.
Why?
Because I knew damn well that this film will NOT be nominated for, or win, the Oscars it so richly deserves for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.
Because I know that after seeing this film, or just as likely choosing not to see it, there will be people by the hundreds of thousands, worldwide, who will continue to say America got what it deserved, America has no business in Iraq and, as a new threat looms, America should leave Iran alone.
IDIOTS, all of them!
America is wisely following steps similar to its dealings with Sadaam in the days leading up to the Liberation of Iraq, in its dealing with the threat from Iran, and its rising Hitler Wannabe.
As George Will concludes his piece:
The message of the movie is: We are all potential soldiers. And we all may be, at any moment, at the war's front, because in this war the front can be anywhere.
The hinge on which the movie turns are 13 words that a passenger speaks, without histrionics, as he and others prepare to rush the cockpit, shortly before the plane plunges into a Pennsylvania field. The words are:
"No one is going to help us. We've got to do it ourselves."
Those words not only summarize this nation's situation in today's war but also express a citizen's general responsibilities in a free society.
Damn right!
America, its citizens, and its leaders, must remain bold, and vigilant, unafraid to confront the dangers all around us, from Anti-Western, Anti-Democracy, and Anti-American attitudes loose in the world, to the threat of more terrorists attacks, to Illegal Immigration, and the Drug Trade, to the threat of Iran going Nuclear, and attacking Israel, or us.
America can't rely on the United Nations, and can't even always count on its tradional European Allies, except the Brits.
America must look out for America.
No-one else will do it for us.
As you sit there in the theatre watching the names of the passengers on United 93 scroll across the screen, it's as if they are staring back at you with a steady, unwavering, gaze, and asking you:
Okay, you saw what happened that day, and you know what the stakes are for peace in the world, and the safety of your nation, and your loved ones....
What are you gonna do about it?
How will you, and your leaders in the Capitol, and the White House, respond?
There is only one answer.
Make it the right one.
*** UPDATE - 5/15***
2 other Blogger opinions of note on the film:
A fellow Bearflagger, Craig DeLuz, has a brief take on how the film affected him.
Here is an essay by NYCinephile that makes some very good observations about the film.
***END UPDATE***
A Tip of the Hat to Instapundit for the heads-up about the George Will Column.
Well, I guess I'll rent "93" when it comes
out on DVD.
:)
Posted by: jaspar | 05/10/2006 at 07:07 AM
Thanks for the link to Will's column...I found it thought-provoking.
Posted by: NYCinephile | 05/10/2006 at 03:52 PM
As I was sorting my home office files yesterday I came across TIME's 9/11 special issue I tucked away. It is gut wrenching to thumb through from only five years distance when so much of the horror of that day has receded.
A photo of a thin middle-aged woman sitting on a curb being assisted by EMT's covered in blood, the flesh peeling from her burned hands. What was her sin against Islam?
One can't help but think; that could have been ME or my husband could have been on United 93.
It could be any of us in a heartbeat and you're a fool if you think your politics will protect you.
Posted by: BJ | 05/11/2006 at 07:10 PM