A Letter to My Sister About the Film United 93

As for the film: I dreaded seeing it, thinking it would be too hard to handle. However, it was OK. Almost the entire movie takes place in real time, from the moment the first plane hits the World Trade Center at 8:45 until Flight 93 goes down at 10:03.

However, thankfully, you aren't left in United all the time. Otherwise it would be unbearably claustrophobic. And you are never given any details about any of the passengers such that you will really identify, or cry, for them. I mean, you will care, but there's no real character development.

Much of the movie cuts back and forth from Flight 93, to various FAA command posts as people get data trickling in and try to understand it. In that sense it is what I would call a Disclosure Film of a Comprehension Film in which there is a kind of mystery that doesn't become clear until the very end (or close to the end). I guess "Citizen Kane" is the kind of film I am thinking about, with "Rosebud." In this case of course it is the mystery of hijackings, why they are happening, what's happening to these planes, who are these people taking over our plane, what do they want, is that bomb real, etc. etc.

And of course this kind of modeling is typical of 19th Century novels, especially mystery novels ("The Moonstone" comes to mind), and many symphonies or tone poems from that era (think Brahms Symphony #1 as a fair example.)

I like disclosure/understanding part of this film very much, because that's the way I remember that morning happening. And, as a document, I think it was a necessary one. After all, for good or ill, we use films to teach history, and this one is very accurate as to how 9/11 unfolded.

There is some violence but it is mercifully brief and not gory. The mutiny or prisoners' revolt by the passengers as well as the charge to the front and breach of the cockpit was, although based on guesses, I think completely accurate and valid. It is cathartic in the sense that, at the very end of the movie, you have people who died that day who are not just passive victims but active agents, and, that, to my mind, mitigates their deaths a great deal. Grandpa would have appreciated the Masonic implications: as would Goethe - "Die Tat is alles, nicht der Ruhm!", or even TR with his famous "Arena" comment. Life is about being, doing. These guys lived to the end.

On the other hand, there is ZERO political exploitation of this. This wasn't about "saving Washington" or the Capitol, it wasn't about "standing up" to terrorism, or being "heroes", it was just about some people on a plane that was hijacked who gradually realized -- along with everyone else in the movie -- what exactly was happening that day, and chose to fight it out because they didn't want to die without trying to live. They gave it their best shot, and, in retrospect, their action was inspiring and the best of life.

There is also little sentimentality. Which helps.

A lot of the disclosure takes place on the ground with various FAA and military people doing their radar trackings and such -- many of these people are played by the actual people they portray -- so all of this has a lot of authority and verisimilitude as well.

I would recommend going to see it on a matinee because then you will have several hours of daylight and real life to distract you to do the kinds of things the 9/11 people would be doing, if they had lived. That was my thought anyway. It definitely helped.

My son didn't consider it a "great" movie, because his aesthetics are heavily influenced by highly stylized film compositions, like Lawrence of Arabia, etc. etc. That's true. It's a docudrama that is very sensitively done. I would see it to bear witness, to relive and understand the day, and because it's a great disclosure/understanding type of movie. But I'd go with your kids, or something. Not alone.