United 93 Gives Gritty Portrayal of 9-11 Events

I watched "United 93" over the weekend. I had long debated over watching this movie. One of my problems is that it is essentially lionizes what happened on 9-11, when there are still a lot of open questions.

Although "United 93," portrays the passengers making a brave stand against the terrorists, some reports say the plane crashed because the terrorists lost control.

(It should be noted that the movie is fictional and noone can confirm what actually happened on board the plane.)

It's a pretty disturbing movie, but that is not necessarily a bad thing, sometimes people need to shaken out of their complacency.

Paul Greengrass sticks to a documentary style of photography in this film. Many of the people featured in the movie are real aviation officials who were involved in 9-11. The movie features many largely unknown actors to bring more authenticity to the real-life people they portray.

"United 93" also focuses heavily on the chaos that ensured during the crisis with aviation officials and military brass trying to figure out who has authority. At one point even when fighter jets are scrambled we learn that they are unarmed. The film later states that although the military was given the authority to shoot planes down, the order was not passed on because there was a fear that it would end up with the wrong plane being shot down.

Muslims are not going to like this movie, because it portrays the hijackers as devout Muslims, praying before they launch the attack and praying all the way until the plane slams into the ground. This reinforces the stereotype that all Muslims are terrorists.

At first I didn't want to watch the movie because A & E produced a TV movie, which told exactly the same story. However "United 93" goes into a lot more graphic detail especially when the terrorists carve up the passengers with box cutters.

This is something that deeply bothers me. When I watched the original movie on TV, I kept asking myself how can people commit these terrible acts in the name of religion? I can't wrap my mind around suicide bombings and Islamic terrorism.

Some experts have said that terrorists often come from poor backgrounds and have nothing to lose. But the recent acts of terrorism in the UK, have disproved that. Most of the British-born terrorists were well educated and came from middle class families.

If what is portrayed in "United 93" is accurate, America really does not know what it is dealing with the War on Terror. We are dealing with people who are motivated by faith, and who do not fear death. All the smart bombs in the world won't stop that.

Ironically just before the plane crashed both the hijackers and the passengers are both seen praying.

Some of the more touching scenes are with the passengers when they make their final calls to their loved ones. By then they have realized they are not going to make it out alive. In the DVD extras, their is a documentary where the filmmakers interview the families of the characters portrayed in the movie. Interestingly many of the widows and widows are now married to their late spouses best friends! I know tragedy often brings people together, but I would feel a little creeped out about marrying my dead best friend's wife.