United 93

I found myself at the movie theatre on a Friday night yesterday, and amidst the throngs of cheyenne teenagers that have nowhere else to go on a friday night besides the mall, i ended up securing a good seat to witness one of the more controversial films of the year in United 93.

If i had one word to describe this film, it would be thus: stomachachey.


This was not something easy to watch. Much like many people i have spoken to described their experience watching the Passion of the Christ, this film carried through it's entirety a ridiculous amount of foreboding dread. Worse than other disaster films, and even worse that Mel Gibson's epic -- because not only did this actually happen, it happened a near five years ago. And the whole thing was sickeningly familiar.

The filmakers did a wonderful job to not really discredit any faith of any kind, but really presented the film (which, technically, was a work of fiction) almost as a documentary. You learn no names, there are no plot arcs, and there really is no prescribed dialouge. The actors in the film did an amazing job protraying what we all felt on that day, though on a much higher, more intense level. It was all i could do to sit and simply watch this film as it went along without constantly questioning myself on what i would do if i found myself in that situation.

One of my favorite parts, though, was small section near the end of the film before the passengers of the plane began to rush the hijackers. The camera went from passenger to passenger, with intermitten shots of the hijackers themselves, praying to their God. Saying the Lords prayer, or facing the sun with palms up, it was incredibly striking to me how these human beings were invoking their God as they knew something awful was certainly ahead for them. To be honest, i can't seem to shake the image.

And my last comment is about how bravely and honestly this film protrayed what occured that day, probably most honestly in how unprepared we were as a nation to handle such a situation. And how awfully the military (ok, the air force) was prepared to defend our shores in the air. The way the movie was filmed was a pretty good metaphor for the climate of the whole country's response: jumpy, unfocused, shaky and hard to follow. To be honest, it made me recognise why so much of the sentiment for passing the patriot act and begining the Noble Eagle flight patterns happened -- because we obviously needed to do something. In that vein, i was also quite taken by the fact that so many people from the air control centers agreed to play themselves in the film, miscues and all. quite remarkable.

In the end, this is one of those films that is very hard to watch, but on the whole very well and respectfully made. No words really left me about it until this morning, when i felt enough time had passed before i wouldn't be disrepecting the memory of those who bravely died that day. Events such as these simply confound and exasperate me, and simply makes my prayers for the Lord to come back sooner than later stronger than they were the day before.