UNITED 93

US/UK, 2006, 110 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Paul Greengrass.

It is almost five years since the hijacking of the American commercial planes on September 11th 2001, the crashes into the twin towers in New York and into the Pentagon in Washington DC. The fourth plane was United 93, from Newark to San Francisco. The passengers overcame the hijackers but were not able to save the plane which crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside. 2006 is the year for American films re-creating these events. We have United 93 and in September the release of Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center.

All events are media events and most of us remember where we were when we first heard the news of the crashes. The national critics were at a screening of the British comedy Greenfingers. Without any preparation, the projectionist interrupted the final credits with Sky television news. Put off-balance, we wondered whether this was something to do with a disaster movie. Then we saw that this was real time and these were actual events.

With all the radio and television reportage, analyses and interviews, the world was well aware of what happened. Now it is the time for the movies.

It is a good thing that the first film has been entrusted to British film-maker, Paul Greengrass. For almost twenty years, he has been a careful documentary film-maker. He is careful in his research and in his quest for accuracy and truth even when he is interpreting events. He is best known for Bloody Sunday (2002) which brought the Northern Ireland events vividly alive – and won Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival as well as the Ecumenical award. Since then he has ventured into big-budget film-making and directed the successful and exciting Ludlum adaptation, The Bourne Identity.

These are the qualities he brings to his screenplay of United 93. He has, first and foremost, the support of relatives of those who died in that plane. He has spent hours interviewing them as well as traffic control personnel both civil and military (quite a number of whom play themselves in the film). He has listened to the phone messages from the passengers, one of the features of this terrible experience: that many were able to phone from the plane, discovering what had happened in New York, realising what was going to happen to them and sending last loving messages. This aspect is emotionally powerful in the film.

The duration of the film coincides with the duration of the ordeal.

However, the film is broad in scope insofar as it covers the morning of September 11th. While attention is given to the everyday details of boarding a plane and activity at Newark airport (with which audiences who fly will immediately identify), we are taken to the world of the air traffic controllers and how they handled the increasingly puzzling situation until they saw the World Trade Center crashes on television. We are also taken into the military command in Washington, facing the mystery of what was happening, checking authority and rules of engagement, especially for bringing down the hijacked planes. But, everything happened very fast.

Glimpses are given of the hijackers themselves, young men, praying, committed to their cause, but also more than a touch nervous even when they are acting brutally. That they are suicide bombers is taken as a given – there are no attempts at any explanation of their motivation. (At this point, the recent film Paradise Now can be recommended as one of the best films taking us into the minds and motives of suicide bombers.)

The editing and pace of the film is quite extraordinary, a mosaic of often very short pieces building up into a tense film that recreates the events as well as showing us how ordinary men and women make decisions to cope with crises they never dreamed they would be involved in.

1. The impact of the film? For American audiences? Worldwide audiences?

2. The film made four years after the events? The consciousness at the time, subsequently? The response at the time, bewilderment and shock? Fear? The president’s hesitation? The grounding of all flights? The move to the war against terrorism? The collapse of the Twin Towers, the impact of the terrorism, the deaths? The crash into the Pentagon? United 93 crashing into the Pennsylvania countryside?

3. Media information, instant? The effect on world audiences? Analyses? Subsequent television programs?

4. This film made with the consent of the relatives, based on interviews with them, the tapes of those killed in the plane and their calls?

5. The work of Paul Greengrass, his documentary background? His concern with terrorism, especially in Ireland? His move into action features with The Bourne Identity? His ability to combine elements of both for this film?

6. The cast, the choice of unknown actors, their seeming authentic? The persuasive performances? Naturalistic? Audiences identifying with them and their reactions? Sharing their fears, apprehensions, action?

7. The structure of the film: the opening with the terrorists, the move to New York Airport, ordinariness of September 11th, the control tower, the ordinary day? The plane, the staff, the check-in, boarding, security, the showing of other control centres at other airports? The information about the lost American Airlines plane, the contact with the military and their surveillance? The lost planes, the crash into the World Trade Centre? The control staff watching CNN? The military and the need for rules of engagement? The crash into the Pentagon? The focus on United 93, the detail and the build-up to the climax?

8. The skills in editing and keeping the pace, interest? A mosaic of what happened? The action happening in real time?

9. The opening, the terrorists, their age, background, praying? Their getting ready, shaving, getting the explosive? Going to the airport, the film not giving any background or explaining their motivation, audiences assuming this? Their age, nerves? Going through controls? The man in command? On the plane, waiting, praying, the timing, the impatience of the younger men?

10. The crew, familiar faces and characters, their chatting? The flight attendants and their work? The passengers, the detail, waiting, boarding, a cross-section of people, the meals? Settling in? The wait, the take-off? The fine day in September? The flight, talk?

11. The air traffic control, the arrival of the superior, the other members of the staff, the flight controllers at their screens and working, the film’s detailed attention to the work of the traffic controllers, their advice – possible collisions, finding planes, giving advice? The American Airlines being lost? The puzzle? Its reappearance, the crash into the World Trade Centre? The handling of the situation, connection with other control officers? The crisis? The pressures, especially as it was shown in real time? The limits of possibilities for handling the situation? The checking with other centres? With the military?

12. The other control centres, the information coming in, contacts, communication?

13. The military, information, communication, the rules of engagement, the military decisions, the military personnel and their style? The liaison at Newark, seemingly ineffectual? The possibility of fighter planes going up? Those ready – unarmed?

14. The crash into the World Trade Centre, CNN covering it, bewilderment and shock? Authorities unsure, how many planes involved, who was responsible, Al Qaeda, what was the motivation? Immediate speculation? The decision to ground all flights in the United States? International flights coming in?

15. The flight, the decision for the taking over, the slashing of the passenger’s throat, the killing of the pilots, the taking controls of the plane? Impatience? Herding the passengers to the back of the plane?

16. The people’s reactions, ordinary – rather than those in disaster movies?

17. The use of the phones, receiving messages, giving out information, finding out about the World Trade Centre, people lending their phones to others to make final calls? Calls to family, to loved ones – all that was left when facing death?

18. The passengers, the leadership, the German with his hesitation? The decision to overpower the terrorists, the timing, the action, the attack, the flight attendant’s help, getting into the cockpit? It being too late, going down, the pilot having no option? The crash?

19. The information given at the end? The audience left with the sobering experience and having shared it? A greater understanding of terrorism?