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United 93

Rex Grossman

By Rex Grossman,
in Film, TV & Radio

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AirMax

AirMax

Posted
Posted

The only reason i watched this film was a deep sense of morbid curisosity. The same reason id like to go see gladiators fight in the coloseum.

*spoiler*

Il be honest, i was dissapointed we didnt get to see more of them actually breaking into the cockpit and going ape shit on the terroristas. I can only imagine myself in that position, and just from watching the film i get a massive adrenaline rush. Imagine you know your already dead anyway, you have nothing to lose, i can easily imagine me ripping one of their faces off with my hand, and other unspeakables. It might not actually be a bad way to die....

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masterhand

masterhand

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I just can't see the need for the film to be made, that's all. There's no way any westerners (in regions where I'm assuming this will almost exclusively be shown) will not have some idea of the events of that day. It just seems as though there's an alterior motive somewhere down the line.

It needed to be made now, over time the perceptions of the event will change. It's a sort of record of it's time. For example if Titanic movie was made the same time after its sinking do you reall think it would have had a doomed romance as its central plot? That's the danger, take a look at WW2 films made at the time and now. The same events can be covered with a different perspectve over time.

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barkbat

barkbat

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That film cut me up. Multiple frogs in throat. Gut wrenching watching them call up loved ones. Amazed a film this unHollywood has been made about 911. True testament to power of cinema.

But... and I feel bad critquing something so clearly excellent.... the beginning is slow - too much man talking to radar. Got boring. Last half an hour - just brutal brilliance film-making.

Acting is flawless throughout.

Hurrah - a non hammy singing the national anthem pax americana type 911 movie is in the world.

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makkuwata

makkuwata

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This is the reason I prefer to watch most of my films at home these days

I went into it having read numerous reviews saying it's incredibly depressing and hard to get through. What!? It was intense, action packed and exciting! The human tragedy has been drilled into us virtually everyday for the past five years, i've already taken in and processed all that. The movie did nothing to take me back to how I felt on the day and the days that followed.

The only time it felt powerful was when the text came up at the end.

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Old Dear's Menu

Old Dear's Menu

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I actually preferred the TV movie Flight 93, because it put more emphasis on the passengers rather than the guys pushing tin.

Sure, it lacks that Hollyoowd polish, and it felt very manipulative as every person on the plane was celebrating a wedding anniversary or newborn child or job promotion, but it succeeded for me by making the passengers very human.

Grim subject matter, but it was inevitable.

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Locky

Locky

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I actually preferred the TV movie Flight 93, because it put more emphasis on the passengers rather than the guys pushing tin.

Sure, it lacks that Hollyoowd polish, and it felt very manipulative as every person on the plane was celebrating a wedding anniversary or newborn child or job promotion, but it succeeded for me by making the passengers very human.

Grim subject matter, but it was inevitable.

I've been saying that to people too - I preferred the TV documentary. You found out who the passengers were and met their families.

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Guest

Guest

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The only time it felt powerful was when the text came up at the end.

Yes. Well, that, and the twenty minutes preceding it for me. However, might only be a small thing, but when plane hits and the screen went black, it should have been silent. Not some music trailing off. Like, INTENSE STRUGGLE to silence would have been so much more powerul than INTENSE STRUGGLE to music ending.

The silence at the end, when the aforementioned text came up did make it that much more powerful though.

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Hambury

Hambury

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I went into it having read numerous reviews saying it's incredibly depressing and hard to get through. What!? It was intense, action packed and exciting! The human tragedy has been drilled into us virtually everyday for the past five years, i've already taken in and processed all that. The movie did nothing to take me back to how I felt on the day and the days that followed.

The only time it felt powerful was when the text came up at the end.

I do agree with this to some extent. I thought it was a very good film, but I remember the events of 9/11 quite clearly (like most people), and I know a fair bit about it, so this didn't really shock me or depress me too much, as the real thing did that five years ago (crazy that it's been that long already).

It was a bit strange seeing the events of that day being shown in a film. I knew it would happen, but not this soon. I almost feel old, saying I was alive when that happened.

But a good film, and far better than I thought it would be.

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Fry Crayola

Fry Crayola

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My friend complained that, at the end, he sympathised with the terrorists, which I found a little strange. As I though back, with glee, to one of the terrorists getting his face deservedly smashed in with a fire hydrant, I couldn't help but call him an extreme left wing poof.

I can't see how anyone could sympathise with the terrorists in the film.

What I did find excellent was that they were portrayed as humans, not the supreme embodiment of evil. Each of the four were extremely nervous, and constantly frightened that anything could happen. Once they had control of the plane and they realised there really was no way back, it was a period of seemingly interminable waiting for the inevitable.

Very well done, that. You could never sympathise with them on the back of the film, but you could see them as real people.

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Old Dear's Menu

Old Dear's Menu

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What I did find excellent was that they were portrayed as humans, not the supreme embodiment of evil. Each of the four were extremely nervous, and constantly frightened that anything could happen. Once they had control of the plane and they realised there really was no way back, it was a period of seemingly interminable waiting for the inevitable.

Yeah. There's this cool part in the TV version...

... where one of the pilots momentarily forgets how to fly the plane, and it cuts back to him in his apartment as he goes over the controls on a cardboard mock up of the cockpit.

I thought it was a really -- I don't know how to phrase this better -- cool character beat. :(

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Andross

Andross

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Jesus, the first hour or so was pretty tedious, but after watching the whole movie, I can tell why they were building up to a shocker of an ending. I've never really watched anything in the cinema which has shocked me, but this did it. The packed movie theatre was completely silent at the end when the text came and when the credits rolled and people filed silently out, it reminded me quite fittingly of a funeral procession.

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:mediadavid:

:mediadavid:

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I don't get the 'boring' bit - I mean, things were going wrong in the first fifteen minutes of the film, watching the whole day unfold was devestating however long it took.

I must admit, i did shed a tear or two at the end. However, thinking over the film, I do feel slightly manipulated. While the 9/11 commission gave the suggestion that the passengers may have used a trolley as a battering ram, they certainly never broke into the cockpit and I don't even think that's theoretically possible. Apart from almost certain dramatisation like that, it was excellent, in a horrible way.

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Stifler

Stifler

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I saw this tonight, and honestly didn't think it was that great.

Certainly not a bad film, but if it wasn't the first big 9/11 film I don't think it'd be getting hyped the way it seems to be.

The first hour was quite boring, as people have said. Some of the acting was awful (particularly the ATC officers), and Greengrasses direction was crap (although that wasn't too much of a surprise, so didn't really bother me much).

The worst part though, was that it didn't succeed in making me feel a thing for any of the passengers. Now I'm a guy that crys at the stupidest of films (I cried at the end of Elf FFS) so I'm easily sucked in, but all I though when they were rushing the cockpit was that they were fucking it up, and not even following their own plan.

Maybe I'm just a bit dissapointed that this was my second choice of film after they listed the times for Election wrong...

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Hawkeye

Hawkeye

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I don't get the 'boring' bit - I mean, things were going wrong in the first fifteen minutes of the film, watching the whole day unfold was devestating however long it took.

I can understand how people could find it slow/boring, but to me that would be to miss the point. The most striking thing to me was how ordinary the day was. When the events of that day are told it's always the disaster, the building falling and explosions. Watching the film brought out how typical that day would have been up to that point. People standing bored in the queue for the check-in, cabin crew nattering about trival stuff, people making business plans and calls. Watching that first hour was a like looking at a hundred or so flights I've been on.

A great film that really brings out some sense of reality to that days events, even if the reality was it started off just like any other day for the victims of that days events. This film hits the mark because there isn't any 'cool' bits.

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Crisp_Rapper

Crisp_Rapper

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It's nowhere near as good as 'Soul Plane'.

thusly i can never watch this film...

"This is your soul plane chauffeur Captain Antoine Mack speaking. Welcome aboard NWA flight 069 from the 310 to the 212. It's time to bust this coney y'all. In a hot second, I'll be hittin' them switches and gettin' this bitch pumpin' and jumpin'. So screw your sh*t on tight and enjoy the flight." :unsure:

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Guest

Guest

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Some of the acting was awful (particularly the ATC officers)

Perhaps that had something to do with the majority of those in ATC not being actors.

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Caprylate

Caprylate

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I watched it earlier today. I thought it was very well done, if a little too slow for the first 40 minutes, the last 20 minutes was definitely the strongest part of the movie. Watching the WTC collapse still gives me goose-pimples.

The version I watched, for about the last minute or so there was no sound but the movie was still going before the black screen with the text happened. Was this the same in the cinema?

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