Blu-Ray Review: ‘United 93’ Remains One of the Decade’s Best Films

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CHICAGO – When Paul Greengrass’s “United 93” opened in American cinemas on April 28, 2006, the vast majority of buzz surrounding the film centered on the controversial question of whether it was in fact “too soon” for a film based on the 9/11 terrorist attacks to hit the big screen. It apparently wasn’t too soon for the small screen, since Peter Markle’s TV dramatization “Flight 93” played to little fanfare in January of that year.

Watching Greengrass’s “United 93” a mere five years after the historic tragedy was one of the great out-of-body experiences I’ve ever had in a theater. Though various films have attempted to function as memorials, this one actually succeeds in honoring the lives that were lost while resisting every opportunity to exploit the material for cheap theatrics. The film takes an intimate god’s eye view of the people on the ground and in the air, while placing the audience in the body of an observer who can see everything but is powerless to change the outcome.

HollywoodChicago.com Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0
Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0

Instead of stuffing the script with conventional character introductions and pat subplots, Greengrass allows events to naturally unfold in real time as they did on the morning of September 11, 2001. We see the terrorists as they quietly infiltrate the crowd of unassuming passengers and squirm in the seats as United Airlines Flight 93 stalls for an additional forty minutes prior to lift-off. We hear the frightened chatter in air traffic control centers as workers attempt to wrap their heads around the chaos gradually engulfing them. There’s one sequence in particular that may remind some viewers of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” as cinematographer Barry Ackroyd (“The Hurt Locker”) and editors Clare Douglas, Richard Pearson and Christopher Rouse manage to build an excruciating amount of suspense out of reaction shots and a couple blinking dots on a screen. We also feel the jarring shock and confusion felt by so many that day as news gradually starts to spread that two planes hit the World Trade Center. A haunting montage late in the film cuts between the passengers and the terrorists as they pray to their respective gods. In the midst of the escalating madness onboard the plane, snippets of phone conversations are heard which would later offer hints to the people below that the passengers had no intention of going down without a fight.

Paul Greengrass’s United 93.
Paul Greengrass’s United 93.
Photo credit: Universal Studios Home Entertainment

The final sequence of “United 93” is as visceral and shattering as anything I’ve ever experienced on film. It provides a textbook example of why 3D gimmickry will never succeed at fully transporting an audience into a wholly different reality. It’s the power of Greengrass’s storytelling that makes his work so uncommonly absorbing. None of the actors he cast are instantly recognizable, though on closer inspection, some moviegoers may briefly spot Olivia Thirlby perched on the edge of her “Juno” stardom. Instead of developing his characters as if they were fictional beings, Greengrass allows their personalities to emerge organically in a series miniature vignettes infused with documentary-level realism. A single unconvincing performance could’ve dramatically decreased the production’s overwhelming impact, but the cast is uniformly excellent, mixing veteran character actors (such as “CSI: Miami”’s superb Christian Clemenson) with real people playing themselves.

It must’ve been irresistible (and more than a little unsettling) for Ben Sliney to reenact his first day on the job as National Operation Manager of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. It was Sliney who ultimately ordered the national grounding of all air traffic, and his performance in the film is as mesmerizing as those from his more experienced co-stars. Some of the most chilling moments take place at the North American Aerospace Defense Command center, as workers make frenzied phone calls to government officials in a desperate attempt to acquire the president’s permission to take action. Another key to the film’s genius is John Powell’s score, which has the foreboding immediacy of a nightmare occurring on one’s own doorstep. “United 93” takes us as close as we’ll ever get to understanding the suffering and sacrifice of that fateful day in our history. It’s an underrated masterpiece and one of the best films of the decade.

United 93 was released on Blu-Ray on Sept. 6, 2011.
United 93 was released on Blu-Ray on Sept. 6, 2011.
Photo credit: Universal Studios Home Entertainment

“United 93” is presented in 1080p High Definition (with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio), and includes a pocket BLU app and a few new extras in addition to the excellent special features on its 2007 DVD release. The 48-minute documentary “Chasing Planes” offers enlightening interviews with the people who witnessed 9/11 at such key locations as Newark Tower, NORAD and the Boston Control Air Route Traffic Control Center. There’s also a promo for the Oscar-winning documentary short, “Twin Towers,” about two brothers (one a policeman, the other a fireman) who ran into the line of fire in the aftermath of the attacks. An extended montage of blueprints illustrates the designs for the Flight 93 memorial currently undergoing construction at the crash site near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
 
Paul Greengrass’s powerful audio commentary digs deep into his own personal thoughts regarding the tragedy and the cautionary and philosophical motifs he meant to include throughout the film. He initially planned to open the picture with a conversation (detailed in the 9/11 Commission Report) between Bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed “amidst the poverty of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan,” a setting that would’ve sharply contrasted with the modernity of urban American skylines. He also made a conscious decision to avoid following passengers into the airport since any pre-selection would’ve felt contrived. For several of the film’s most claustrophobic sequences, a low-angle camera was suspended on a pulley that ran up and down the cabin of the plane. Greengrass states that his overarching goal was to “create a believable truth of what happened,” and says that the film’s devastating finale is representative of where we’re headed “if we can’t find solutions” to the conflicts between clashing ideologies.

Perhaps the most riveting extra by far is “The Families and the Film,” which provides an hour of interviews with the loved ones of passengers killed in the crash. We see the emotional encounters between the grieving families and the actors assigned to play their deceased fathers, mothers and children. Laughter and tears are shared at a luncheon held by the mother of Deora Bodley (played in the film by Trieste Kelly Dunn), who becomes awestruck while listening to a beautiful and remarkably prophetic poem written by her daughter. Many of the family members seem more angry at the ineffectual government than they are at the terrorists. When the husband of Lauren Grandcolas (played by Kate Jennings Grant) is asked whether he wants Bin Laden dead, the man replies, “I don’t hate anyone I don’t know.” The most unforgettable images from this documentary are the faces of the family members after viewing a pre-screening of the film. The peace and catharsis in their eyes are undeniable, thus proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that “United 93” wasn’t made “too soon” after the attacks, and may not have been made soon enough.

‘United 93’ is released by Universal Studios Home Entertainment and stars Christian Clemenson, Ben Sliney, Trish Gates, David Rasche, Corey Johnson, Peter Hermann, Trieste Kelly Dunn, Thomas Roberts and Olivia Thirlby. It was written and directed by Paul Greengrass. It was released on Sept. 6, 2011. It is rated R.

HollywoodChicago.com staff writer Matt Fagerholm

By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
matt@hollywoodchicago.com

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