Saturday, April 29, 2006

United 93 is excellent. While we have a better idea of what might have happened in the last 30 minutes of that doomed flight from the release of the cockpit voice recorder transcripts and the movie doesn’t exactly match that, Paul Greengrass’ version is close enough.

Everyone should see this movie. Everyone. For no matter how painful the memories of 9/11/01 may be for you, they are much more painful for the families who lost loved ones on that terrible day. And the families of the passengers of United flight 93 believe in this movie and believe that everyone should see it. It is a tribute to the true heroism that 40 civilian Americans displayed when they grasped the fuller picture of what they were enduring on that airplane and what the consequences might be if they didn’t Do Something.

As a person who lived in the DC area on that day and knew that another plane was headed to this area, I am forever grateful for the brave and terrifying actions of the heroes of Flight 93. As an American citizen, I am forever grateful for the fortitude they showed by fighting back - for they almost certainly guaranteed the safety of our national leaders. Whether that plane was targeting the White House or the Capitol, it was definitely headed for our Nation’s Capital - the seat of our federal government - and pretty much any building that the plane might have hit would have been utterly devastating in terms of loss of life and property. After the catastrophe of the collapse of the World Trade Center towers and the immense damage to the Pentagon, I don’t think we as a country could have handled more.

And so instead a gaping hole was pounded into a quiet Pennsylvania field by a commercial airliner that became a missile in the hands of terrorists set upon the death and destruction of America. In that moment the first casualties of our response to the Global War on Terrorism were lost. Forty ordinary American citizens, who looked into the faces of the enemy and decided to Do Something to stop more death and destruction, even if it meant their own deaths.

The most fascinating thing about the movie, and something that I’ve been curious about since that awful day, was getting a behind the scenes glimspe of what the air traffic controllers were seeing and doing. Many of the ATC crews in the movie are the actual ATC from that day, led by Ben Sliney (both in the movie and in real life) - I cannot imagine the strength it took to relive the events of that day for a movie. But these non-actors were brilliant and genuine and amazing and I am so glad that their story has been told. These men and women were heroes on that day as well.

Go see this movie. It’s important - as a reminder of what we’re battling still; as a reminder of the heroes from that day; as a reminder that we cannot relent in the face of terrorism.

United 93 gets 5 stars out of 5 from me.