Recent Reviews for United 93
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MCT:October 12, 2008While it may have been too soon at the time, this intense film justifies Paul Greengrass's kinetic handheld style. Also of note is his humanizing of the Terrorists, especially effective is a scene in which a terrorist looks around at americans talking on cell phones.
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MCT:September 29, 2008the dialogs and the acting were rubbish. the reactions of the families were also unreal.. didn't like it.
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MCT:September 10, 2008The events of 9/11 through the eyes of the people of flight United 93 and the tower personnel and military, presented in an almost documentary style. The decision to use no big stars and very few familiar faces and basing the dialoges on the real radio and cell phone transmissions from that day makes for a very realistic feeling. The result is hard to stomach. Can you use the terms exciting and nerve-wrecking for something that really happened and didn't end well? Either way, the movie sticks to the facts and what is most likely to have happened on board, creating an inescapable spiral of tragic events, that is hard to watch without being moved to tears, remembering that day. Probably an important and very well made movie, but one you're only gonna watch once. It somehow feels like watching a coffin close.
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MCT:September 2, 2008the thought before watching this movie, are mixed with hope and a few questions, ike how could it happen. it did though and it maust not be allowed to happen again..
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MCT:August 23, 2008this was so much better than i expected. i loved the rather technical beginning. this is also the first greengrass film where i didn't mind his shaky camera technique.
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MCT:August 20, 2008a good film to tell the story about the events of 9/11. on september 11th 2001, Four planes were hijacked. Three of them reached their target. Paul Greengrass directs the best film to tell the story of 9/11. has to be movie of the year of 2006 and also one of the best movies this decade. much different from Oliver Stone's World Trade Center.
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MCT:August 17, 2008
Truly engaging story based on one of the exterminating missions during 9/11.The best picture on that subject is also the most controversial towards the finale clinging to the patriotic sense of team work and...constitution.Overall a great directorial work but without those "emotional raptures" it would be another modern classic.
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MCT:August 3, 2008
Four planes were hijacked. Three of them reached their target. This is the story of the fourth.
A movie based on the real time events of flight United Flight 93, one of the planes that was hijacked on 9/11 in which the passengers fought back but crashed in Pennsylvania, the hijackers failing to hit their target.
This is not an action movie of any sort. It's an emotional drama of true events.
Although what you see on the plane might not be exactly what happened it's what I'd imagine could have happened.
Greengrass certainly did not sell out. It's in no way like a Hollywood production.
No silly gimmicks. It even seems more like a documentary.
I think it was clever that unknown actors played the passengers. Just everyday ordinary people. It gives a sense of realism and you don't know anything about them until you see them talking to their loved ones on the phone. Still not much is given away so it's as if your also a passenger and not as though you are just watching a movie.
There was a lot of scenes on the ground which was all rather hectic and confusing which I could imagine it would have been.
It makes you think what if they done this and done that, and even has you on the edge of your seat, hoping they'd fought back sooner, but you already know how it ends.
The ending was perfect, and it had me in tears.
Not the best movie but it was cleverly done.
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MCT:July 30, 2008This was another great WTC story, alot of bad events happened on that day and this movie showed the courage some people had to stand up to the terrorists. I enjoyed this one way more then Flight 93, theyre the same story but this was better acted. over id give it an A-
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MCT:July 28, 2008
We all know what happened that Tuesday morning now forever known as 9/11, and this movie tries to depict the events of that morning from the viewpoint of those on the ground working on that day.
When I first saw the commercials for this movie before its release, I suspected that this was going to be speculative on what happened on the plane with what is known from those on the plane who called families as the events were unfolding and the cockpit tapes. However, this movie mainly focuses on military and FAA responses as the hijackings and attacks happen.
The other planes which were taken over by hijackers are just referenced in this movie and a barely touched. We do see the results of the two planes which struck the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City through actual news footage provided by the Cable News Network (better known as CNN). Some people may have to turn away when those news clips are shown when watching this movie, especially when they cut to a clip, filmed on video unlike the rest of the movie which is on film.
A lot of the scenes which takes place on "United 93" were, for the most part, improvised by the actors on set. This pretty much helped out in trying to depict what was going on the flight that was not known. The actors who portrayed the victims on the plane, did a good job in their performances, but I can not say any of them stood out in my opinion.
I also felt that those playing the terrorists were not depicted or portrayed well. Personally, I would have liked to have seen them interact with the rest of the cast they were working with a bit more. Yes, I understand that the focus was on the passengers, but, if you ask me, they stayed too much in the background. The performers who portrayed them were given way too few scenes where they were key figures in the scene if you ask me. I also doubt that they would have stood back as certain victims ran to the back galley to find some weapons to use against them.
There is some unique cinematography in this film during the scenes on board the plane. Instead of the massive movie cameras, they opted for smaller, handheld cameras. This certainly helped in the scenes which needed a lot of tension.
I also liked how certain people who were actually involved in the events depicted themselves in various scenes on the ground. I don't know how they did it, but they did an amazing job in their performances. I don't know how much of their scenes, if at all, were scripted, but they did a fabulous job. I am surprised at how well they did on camera. It was as if they had been acting for some time.
One thing that will be extremely hard for people to watch are the final moments of the movie before it fades to black. I even said something like a long "Geeeezzzzeeee" or something like that when it was on my television screen.
If you ask me, this movie is one of the slowest movies I have ever seen. The first quarter of the movie is extremely slow, and I almost turned the channel. It picked up a bit when they began to depict the start of the attack, but not by much.
I remember a few incidents of hearing some music in this movie, but none of the songs stand out in my mind. Because of what was going on in the movie, I basically ignored the soundtrack. Nothing really stood out from the soundtrack to me.
As a movie, I really can't recommend this one. But, for it's historical significance, I would suggest checking this one out only if nothing else is on television or you can't find what you are looking for the next time you are looking for something to rent. -
MCT:July 28, 2008
Like JFK, it could be accurate, who knows? In respectful memory of those who lost their lives, this movie is more fascinating than had it been a work of fiction. Still, haven't wee had enough of typical terrorist struggles aboard jumbo jets in our attempts to come to terms with the past?
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MCT:July 28, 2008
Just making me t remember about the towers disaster nothing else but its a threatening story and a lot afraid story too
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MCT:July 26, 2008
I could never watch this again, but it was definitely a respectable tribute to the tragedy. Very well done.
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MCT:July 23, 2008
United 93 is a spectacular, spellbinding film, and an extraordinary achievement. The script and direction by Paul Greengrass are top notch and extremelly realistic and loyal to the original facts. The film is quick-paced and leaves no time for recovering your breath, since it is also extremelly emotional and intense. I liked the distribution of the film, dedicating the first hour to the acts of the FAA, the military and the senior air traffic during the whole hijacking process and the second hour to the heroic acts of the United 93 passengers, God bless their lives. A very strong film to see, but a masterpiece indeed.
88/100 -
MCT:July 21, 2008
"We have to do something, they are not going to land this plane."
In the days immediately surrounding the tragedy of September 11, the question was often raised as to how long Hollywood would wait before disgracing the memory of the event with a big-budget action film full of explosions and larger-than-life American heroes battling shifty-eyed Arabs in the skies above New York City. Five years? Ten? Twenty? The American public is understandably wary of any film treatment of that fateful day, as it's all too easy to picture a Michael Bay project starring Harrison Ford and Will Smith, sort of Air Force One meets Independence Day.
When that film does come (and rest assured, in due time it will), hopefully it'll receive the same scrutiny United 93 faced back in 2006, although I suspect very little of it had to do with the actual content of the film and was more a reaction to the fact that this was the first of the 9/11 films. It was interesting to see how the discussion of the film evolved as more and more people realized just what sort of film it actually is. The main question seemed to hinge around an assumption that not enough time had passed since September 11, that the country was not yet ready for this film, regardless of content. But the beautiful thing about this, the digital age, is that the popularity of DVD allows people to view films such as this when they themselves are ready, whereas in days past such flexibility did not exist. This allows for many more options for filmmakers looking for ways to tell the stories that need to be told. Because if art, to a degree, functions as a society's soul, then films such as United 93< are vital to the grieving process of a nation coming to terms with a horrific tragedy. They serve as a means of therapy, allowing people to move beyond it and begin the process of getting on with our lives. But, at the same time as a constant reminder of what has transpired. A celluloid memorial, if you will.
Little of the above has much to do with the quality of the film itself, but is an important factor when considering the climate in which this film exists. It's virtually impossible to watch this objectively apart from real life events, so there's no point in discussing it without mentioning its larger role in society. At the same time, none of that larger context can turn a bad film into a good one, regardless of how "important" it may be. Thankfully, Paul Greengrass' United 93 needs no such justification, as it is a great film in every way imaginable, a stunning and gut-wrenching picture that makes a case for being one of the best American films of the decade and one of the most powerful pieces of cinema since Schindler's List. The comparison is a convenient one both thematically and in terms of quality, the major difference being the amount of time between the event and the film honouring it.
The story of the passengers of United 93 is a unique one in world history when you consider that in the middle of this massive event that has been dissected in every way imaginable by a world-wide media desperate for answers, there exists this small pocket of mystery into which we can only glimpse. Upon learning that their hijacking was part of a larger plot and that the plane was not going to land safely, that they were in fact doomed, they took the opportunity to call their families and tell them they loved them. At the same time they told them of a brewing plan to overtake the terrorists in a last-ditch effort to save not only their lives, but the lives of the intended target.
So, with Todd Beamer's "Let's roll," they bum-rushed the terrorists, falling short of saving their own lives, but succeeding in crashing the plane harmlessly in a field in Pennsylvania, far from the White House. For that deed they are, beyond the shadow of a doubt, some of the greatest heroes in American history. Still, despite all we know about September 11, there's no way to know for sure how things transpired on that plane. We can only speculate, connecting the dots of cell phone calls and what little hard data we have to build a mosaic of what happened, but perhaps that's for the best. There are too few heroes these days.
But for a film version of the flight, that mosaic is precisely what Paul Greengrass had to build, largely from the information at hand and interviews with the family members of the victims, and partly from his imagination. In doing so, he eschews numerous screenwriting techniques of exposition and character development and instead focuses on the mundane conversations that exist every day on flights all over the world. Discussions about work, pending vacations, the weather, and random bits of phone calls all provide the film's ballast, working to ground in reality a decidedly surreal event.
If it initially comes off as boring, it's because conversations at airports are universally boring. None of that changes just because the plane's about to be hijacked. Neither does the normal pre-flight prep work, which Greengrass films in some amount of detail, only because we know how the film will end, it comes with a sense of foreboding you wouldn't normally find. The shot of the plane being fuelled instantly brings to mind that these cross-country flights were selected because they would have more explosive fuel on-board. Greengrass lingers on the cabin door as it's being closed for just a second longer than normal and the result is ominous. It takes your breath away because you realize it's a death sentence, that no one is getting off that flight.
But United 93 really achieves greatness after the hijackings have thrown both the flight and the air traffic control centres into pandemonium. From the FAA trying to get in contact with the military to the military trying to clarify their rules of engagement and find a President who's suddenly nowhere to be found, Greengrass successfully shows us the infrastructure of the most powerful country in the world unprepared without attempting to pin the blame. For the goal of United 93 is not to explain why September 11 happened, but rather to show what happened. Greengrass could have easily followed the cry, "where is the President?" with a shot of him in that Florida classroom reading a children's book, and I suspect a number of American directors would have done just that, but he doesn't go there because there's no need. Besides, most of the audience already has that shot in the back of their heads anyway. Instead, he goes to the faces of perplexed air traffic controllers, to the panicked passengers, even to the terrorist praying in the cockpit, and in doing so he humanizes the tragedy.
Then, in what is the film's most powerful sequence, the passengers of United 93 begin calling the outside world and we watch as terrified faces are attached to these phone recordings we've heard so many times. In the midst of all this chaos the camera focuses on people hunched over, desperate for a quiet pocket where they might be able to better hear, tearfully telling someone they love them. In another part of the plane someone is saying the Lord's Prayer and in the back a plot is being hatched to overtake the cockpit, but the most important thing is being able to say goodbye. It is haunting and powerful and gut-wrenching and numerous other adjectives, but it is also one of the greatest final acts ever put on film. United 93 is not only the most important film made since September 11, it is also the best. -
MCT:July 19, 2008
The terrorists have acted exceptionally well. Too much superflous emphasis on emotion and sentiment though.
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MCT:July 9, 2008A lot better than flight 93, really emotional film that done justice to the people involved that day
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MCT:July 8, 2008
The motion picture version of Flight 93, the fated flight that took off to destruction in September 2001, is a documentary style film based on testamony from the actual event. Although the characters who play the eople are dolled up and a little too pretty, for Hollybwood, the story is actually better paced with intense suspense moments, and back story from flight control. This is a better movie than the TV special from the previous year, (five months before). Best documentary film of 2006.
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MCT:July 5, 2008
Very unnerving and powerful portrayal of the one 9/11 flight where the passengers fought back. I was tense throughout the entire film.
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MCT:June 29, 2008I still, I just can't watch anything dealing with 9/11. I suffered through World Trade Center, and regretted it, solely because my throat and head hurt from choking back sobs.
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MCT:June 25, 2008
Raw and immediate, this is an interesting film. But credibility is stretched when we are supposed to accept this as what really happened when nobody can really know.
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MCT:June 24, 2008
Maybe the most gripping movie I've ever seen. There is no possible way to know what exactly happened on United 93 on Sept. 11, but I believe this is close. It's impossible for any human being to truly understand or imagine the horror the passengers on this or the other 9-11 flights endured, but this movie gives the viewer a taste of what it's like. A stirring tribute to all who died that day and an immortal testament to the United 93 passengers' heroism, courage and bravery. Bring a box of Kleenex when watching this.
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MCT:June 23, 2008
untied 93 i think is the best movie to tell the story about the events of the 9/11 attacks and also what we all think what happened on the plane when the terrorist hajjacked it and flew it towards their target( the white house or the captail building) there couldn`t of been a better director to direct this film than the no other Paul Greengrass ( bloody sunday) there was really good acting in this film , it was very sad when it shows you the second hijacked plane hitting its target which was the south tower of the world trade center and it was also sad when terrorist stabbed passengers on the plane and taking over the plane but most of all the most sad and moving part of the film was when the 40 passengers on the flight 93 fought back and tryed to take over the cokcpit and failed and then the plane crashed into the field and that is where the film ended. untied 93 is a powerful and moving drama about the 9/11 attacks and we will never forget the passengers who fought back aganist the terrorists on flight 93 and also all the people who died on september 11th 2001.
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MCT:June 21, 2008
Such a powerful film. Director Paul Greengrass recreates the events that happened in the tragic day of 9/11 and he got it spot on. It is so accurate sometimes I'm having a feeling that I'm watching a documentary. Everything in it looked so real, from the air tower controllers to the shaky cam approach, all these techniques were used by Paul Greengrass to his advantage.
The actors did quite well also. I heard somewhere that before production started, Paul Greengrass separated the protagonists from the antagonists, from the hotel rooms to the acting workshops, he isolated one from another to get that strange feeling from the actors. To be honest, it worked quite well. The result is outstanding.
The ending will leave you speechless. The struggle that happened is just too hard to take as a whole. You need to take it one at a time but the director shoved it right down our throats, we didn't even have time to talk nor breathe. It just happened and then fade to black. No questions asked. The film's ending will go down as one of my favorite and this film will go down as one of 2006's best film. A must-see.
5/5 -
MCT:June 17, 2008
Almost documentary-like in it's retelling of the events of September 11th. Feels even more authentic because the cast is made up of mostly unknown actors.
