August 21, 2006

'United 93' - emotional & powerful

I managed to watch 'United 93' over the weekend. It was supposed to have been shown in our local cinemas but I think it was banned. I'm glad I managed to get this on DVD.

We all know what happened on September 11 2001. 4 commercial planes were hijacked. 2 of them hit World trade Center. The 3rd hit Pentagon. The 4th plane was apparently heading towards the White House but it missed its target and crashed into a field. This is the story of what happened on the 4th plane.

The good thing about this movie is that in no way it exploits, sensationalizes or points fingers about what happened that day. It's made like a documentary, a factual account of what happened, from the beginning where we see the passengers checking in, to the final moments. There's no Hollywood glitz about the movie, it was all about real people and real event. I read that the movie was shot entirely with hand-held cameras to perfectly capture the realism of the events that happened that day. The actors who are mainly unknowns gave very convincing portrayals as both the terrorists and the passengers. I

All in, it's hard to deny that 'United 93' is a very emotional and powerful film.

On the downside, some scenes were not convincing enough, for example when the passengers use their mobile phones to call their family from the plane.....I didn't realise that you would get a signal from way up in the sky.

All in, it's hard to deny that 'United 93' is a very emotional and powerful film. This is a must-see for everybody. I wonder if Oliver Stone would do as well in his movie 'World Trade Center'. Anyway, I admit that I started to get a phobia of flying after watching this movie.

Footnote: Conspiracy theorists say that pieces of Flight 93 were found far from the crash site and suggest that this may be evidence of a shoot-down by jet fighters. The eyewitness accounts are consistent with a missile strike and not with a plane being flown into the ground.

1 comment:

Gallivanter said...

I think United 93 was shot down by fighter planes. The end was modified to keep up with the American drama. Also, if you do some research, the "plane" that hit pentagon, may not have been a plane. Good luck. Cheers!