I saw the movie United 93 today. It is about the hijacking and the events on airline United 93 during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
It is a pretty straightforward dramatization of the event with very little embellishment. In this regard it is not an absolutely spectacular movie, but it does cover the events in a succinct and dramatic fashion
It puts the audience directly in the midst of the incident. You are actually their listening in and witnessing the events of that day (in general) and flight United 93 (in particular).
The story starts off slowly as we witness the happenings that day mainly from the perspective of the FAA’s main hub and the towers and radar centers at various airports.
A good half of the movie is the buildup to the hijacking of the plane. This part is kind of slow. It did show some real footage of one the planes hitting the tower from an angle I had not seen before and which demonstrated how devastating that passenger airline was when slamming into the second tower.
Once the hijacking begins the movie is pretty intense up to the tragic end.
The story is one not merely of the hijacking, but the extremely brave actions of many of the passengers as most probably already will know from news accounts, but there is nothing like seeing it dramatized.
The passengers, after finding out about the fate of other jets hijacked new that they could either sit back and silently die as the plane they were in was flown into something or fight. They chose to fight. They demonstrated the courage and fortitude of any military person and deserve accolades for their actions.
Their actions prevented severe damage to the Capitol and the possible lose of even more lives.
I went to this movie this weekend because ten percent of the movie’s gross for opening weekend is suppose to go towards a permanent memorial in the field in Pennsylvania where the plane slammed into the ground in honor of the courageous passengers of flight United 93. For this reason alone I think it is worth the price of admission, popcorn and a soda (especially this weekend).
Because the movie is a pretty accurate and compelling dramatization of this tragic event I give it a grade of B.