Paul Greengrass, the British-born director of such movies as BLOODY SUNDAY and THE BOURNE SUPREMACY, undertook this project only after he felt he could get the support from the surviving family members of the doomed flight, and get to find out more about their loved ones. That most important aspect was central to UNITED 93 being much more than an exploitation of what will almost certainly be the greatest day of horror any of us will have ever known. Utilizing not only relatively unknown actors as the passengers and the hijackers of the flight, but also the very same actual FAA and military air traffic control personnel who were on scene that day, Greengrass creates an extremely compelling docudrama feeling to the proceedings. He accurately captures the chaos present when American Airlines Flight 11 and United Flight 175 nail the Twin Towers, and American 77 slams into the Pentagon without embellishing it; the mere horror of the real situation is enough. And he also shows us what might easily have taken place on United 93 when the passengers realized, having heard of the horror in New York and Washington, that they too were part of a fourth suicide mission and had to do something before the hijackers could carry out their plan, even if it meant certain death, as it in fact actually did.
The obvious question that was asked when UNITED 93 was released to theatres in late April of last year was whether or not this was too soon. But it also begs the question of when the right time would be for a film like this. The traumas of Pearl Harbor, Vietnam, Watergate, and JFK's assassination have been translated onto film, and it was inevitable that 9/11 would be as well. But instead of trying to make this into a political polemic (something that far too many of our politicians have done with 9/11 ever since that day), Greengrass chose to show the psychological and emotional impact of this particular part of the 9/11 puzzle, and did so in a way that did not sensationalize anything, nor did it judge any particular group or faction.
Though it is unquestionably an extremely intense and disturbing movie, UNITED 93 is still a masterful movie all the same for its ability to help us come to grips with that day, and to show that true heroism doesn't need to be manufactured within the Beltway or on talk radio or Fox News. This is a story not only of American heroism, but of human heroism in the face of an inhuman evil.