"United 93"

Watching this expertly made film about the events of 9/11 was the most excruciating moviegoing experience of my life.

By Stephanie Zacharek

Read more: Stephanie Zacharek, Movies, Movie Reviews, Arts & Entertainment, Reviews

Top: Passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 prepare their retaliation plan. Middle: David Alan Basche as passenger Todd Beamer tries to reach home. Bottom: Crew and passengers charge to reclaim the plane.

April 26, 2006 | Paul Greengrass' "United 93" is a movie made with tremendous care, and with almost boundless sensitivity to persons living and dead. But just hours after seeing the picture, I'm finding it hard to care about Greengrass' integrity: I've never had a more excruciating moviegoing experience in my life, and as brilliantly crafted -- and as adamantly unexploitive -- as the picture is, it still leaves you wondering why it was made in the first place.

The movie's press notes suggest a number of explanations: In telling the story of the fourth plane to be hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001 -- en route from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco, it crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pa. -- Greengrass wanted to commemorate the lives lost at the hands of Islamic terrorists on that day. He also wanted to map, in a very personal way, the emotional contours of a less-than-two-hour span in which the world changed drastically. But I went into "United 93" with a feeling of dread, and ultimately, I'm not sure Greengrass did much more than pluck at that dread with dogged, if scrupulous, persistence. I walked out of "United 93" feeling bereft and despondent; my stomach muscles had tensed into a seemingly immovable knot. But the picture didn't make me feel anything I hadn't fully expected to feel. Greengrass, a director I deeply respect, hadn't made a great movie (as he did in his portrayal of another real-life event, the superb 2002 film "Bloody Sunday"); he had simply fulfilled a prediction, and that isn't nearly enough.

Greengrass is an extraordinarily gifted filmmaker, and there are moments in "United 93," particularly at the beginning, where his craftsmanship is both subtle and admirable. (The picture has its premiere tonight at the Tribeca Film Festival; it opens nationwide on Friday.) As much as I wish I hadn't had to see "United 93," I'd rather see this material in Greengrass' hands than in those of almost any other filmmaker. For obvious reasons, the story of United Flight 93 demands a certain amount of conjecture. Greengrass (who wrote the script as well as directed) went about his research fastidiously and honorably, using information gleaned from the 9/11 Commission Report but also relying heavily on interviews with civilian and military personnel involved in the day's events. Greengrass also spent a great deal of time interviewing the victims' families, learning what he could from them about the hostages' last moments: Much of that information came from the calls made by the victims, from cellphones and plane phones, in the midst of the hijacking. Greengrass took great pains to reassure the victims' families that he'd get the story right -- he has said that his goal was to reach "a believable truth" -- and for all my misgivings about "United 93," his respect for both the survivors and the victims is evident. (To hear Greengrass and members of the "United 93" cast discuss the film at a roundtable interview in New York, click here.)

Greengrass cast mostly unknown actors in "United 93." One exception is Christian Clemenson as passenger Thomas E. Burnett Jr., who has appeared on "Veronica Mars" as Abel Koontz. And some real-life figures, among them air-traffic controllers and military personnel, appear as themselves. Perhaps most notable is Ben Sliney, the manager of the Federal Aviation Administration's operations command center in Herndon, Va. On Sept. 11, 2001, Sliney had just been appointed to that position; it was his first day on the job, and his performance here suggests a masterly and controlled channeling of the feelings he must have had as he faced this daylight-nightmare challenge: What must it be like when your job is to respond, calmly and efficiently, to the unspeakable?

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