Director: Paul Greengrass
Year Released: 2006
Rating: 3.0
Odd how sometimes your viewing habits - if you try to see a movie a day - sometimes make wonderful double-features: the day before I saw this pseudo-documentary (several of the people involved in the events play themselves) about the attempted uprising of United Flight 93 during the terrorist attacks in 2001, I saw Peter Watkins' pseudo-documentary about the Battle of Culloden, which uses amateurs to play the parts of the soldiers. What makes Culloden more 'acceptable' is that the battle took place a long time ago; 9/11 happened a mere five years ago, which raises issues as to whether or not this should have been made at all (which others are correct in pointing out - it creates unease in the viewer, making him/her feel very much like a 'quiet vampire'). Facts are still shaky - no one can ever know exactly what happened on board - but Greengrass' direction is strong and I do believe he was trying to make the least-sensational film he could: the message is that we need to stick together, regardless of who we are or where we come from, and that is a message worth believing in.
