Film: United 93 - Flight 93

[m885]

much greater tragedies (WWII, Vietnam or even the iraq wars) have been turned into hollywood crap and (with more recent events) shitty video-games and few people ever bothered complaining, since, after all, "it's just a film/game"? so why the fuss about this one? it seems a bit inconsistent.

then again, if you're consistent, i can see your point. i just don't believe most people moaning about this one are.

Some of the specific complaints about the trailer occured in New York, where 9/11 is still a fresh wound. Some of people that were there or caught up in the events have PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) this film hits a nerve. To many Americans, it's still something that is hard to deal with. A lot of what happened that day and after isn't replayed in news footage and certainly won't be shown in the film (bodies falling and hitting the ground, limbs, etc).

In terms of the movie, I don't really know what to say. As someone who was somewhat caught up in all of it (family living/working in NYC, knowing people who didn't make it) it's too soon, but then again it always will be. Seeing Michael Moore use the tragedy in the title of his film, then barely show what happened that day, and contort things to fit his agenda enraged me to no end. As long as the filmmakers stay true to history, I have no problem with it.

 

[ChemicalBeauty]

From Reuters ...

"United 93" provokes deep and disturbing emotions
Thu Apr 20, 2006 8:01 AM ET



By Kirk Honeycutt

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Press notes for motion pictures are usually filled with dispensable, self-congratulatory puffery, but the one for the soul-searing film "United 93" contains this trenchant comment from its English writer-director, Paul Greengrass: Speaking of the 40 individuals aboard United Airlines Flight 93, the fourth hijacked plane on that day of infamy, September 11, 2001, he notes that these were the only passengers and crew members on any of those ill-fated flights who knew about the other planes having been used as weapons and realized what was happening to them. "They were the first people to inhabit the post-9/11 world," Greengrass says. These were the first to react to the worldwide conflict we find ourselves in today. Within the microcosm of that reaction, Greengrass has made an emphatic political document, a movie about defiance against tyranny and terrorism.

How many moviegoers will be willing to endure "United 93?" I suspect many will, but what that adds up to in terms of box office is anybody's guess. Understandably, controversy engulfs this film. Is now the right time for such a film? Why make the film at all? These are legitimate questions. No one possesses a "right" answer. But Greengrass has made not only a thoroughly fact-checked film but a film that uncontrovertibly comes from the heart.

Greengrass wants the 91 minutes United 93 was in the air to speak to our tenuous situation in a scary, riven world. A previous film by him anticipates this work. The invaluable "Bloody Sunday" (2002), shot as if it were made by a camera crew at the time, dramatized a 1972 incident in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, where 13 unarmed civil rights demonstrators were shot and killed by British soldiers. Here again he takes a hard look at a cataclysmic event to provoke dialogue.

To keep things as accurate as possible, Greengrass reportedly interviewed more than 100 family members and friends of those who perished. He hired flight attendants and commercial airline pilots to play those roles; hired several civilian and military controllers on duty on September 11, including the FAA's Ben Sliney, to play themselves; culled facts from the 9/11 Commission Report; and rehearsed and shot his actors in an old Boeing 757 at England's Pinewood Studios.

Even Barry Ackroyd's hand-held cinematography, John Powell's muted, anxious score and the plane set fixed to computer-controlled motion gimbals to simulate the pitch and roll of the aircraft urge the viewer to think of this as a you-are-there experience. Yet no one really knows what happened on United 93. We have evidence from phone calls made from the plane and those interviews, but that's where it ends. And that is where an artist can pick up the story.

This is what it probably was like, and the experience overwhelms. Time passes in weird ways. The four nervous terrorists wait seemingly forever to make their move. The panicked passengers wait seemingly forever to make theirs. Helplessness engulfs us, then determination takes hold.

During these breathless moments, Greengrass cuts away to the desperation and confusion in airport control towers, the FAA's overwhelmed operations command center in Herndon, Va., and the military's unprepared operations center at the Northeast Air Defense Sector in upstate New York. For all their monitors and electronic equipment, there is a horrific, low-tech moment when controllers at Newark Airport get a perfect view across the Hudson of the second plane hitting a World Trade Center tower. No one can even speak.

In years to come, United 93 may enter our mythology in ways unimaginable. But for now, we have a starting point. "United 93" is a sincere attempt to pull together the known facts and guesses at the emotional truths as best anyone can. Then, in the movie's final moments, the impact of the heroism aboard United 93 becomes startlingly clear.

http://today.reuters.com/news/artic...M-UNITED.xml&pageNumber=0&imageid=&cap=&sz=13

 

[psychetool]

I don't think it's going to be very good, reguardless of the subject matter.

 

[silvia saint]

pornography or propaganda? i say both.

 

[mariacallas]

Another movie on 9/11? I've seen enough TV documentaries and such on Discovery, National Geographic and HBO, we don't need another one! (IMHO) Sheesh. What else can they show that hasn't already been shown? Maybe if they did a movie from a bugs point of view that would be different.

I'd much rather read the excellent book Perfect Soldiers : The 9/11 Hijackers: Who They Were, Why They Did It

Now THAT is interesting

 

[Disco Stu]

I think people are getting a little too emotional over this. I have no desire whatsoever to see this, but I respect Hollywood's choice to make it. It's their First Amendment right. Besides, it will most likely glorify the passengers and show the tragedy of the event in a positive light, like "Due to the bravery of those on Flight 93, the White House was spared from destruction" or some crap like that. It memorializes them more than anything.

 

[fruitfly]

This is fucked up ...

11 film actor denied US visa
ITV
Sat Apr 22 2006

An Iraqi actor who plays the lead hijacker in a new film about 9/11 has been refused a visa to attend the premiere in the US.

Lewis Alsamari was told by the US embassy in London that he is unlikely to be allowed to enter the country for the first public screening of United 93 in New York, where it is due to open the Tribeca Film Festival.

The film tells of the events surrounding United Airlines Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, when passengers revolted against four hijackers.

They forced them to abort their mission, which was believed to be a plan to crash into the White House.

Instead the hijackers crashed the jet into the ground in Pennsylvania, killing all on board.

Mr Alsamari, 30, who deserted from the Iraqi army in 1993 and sought asylum in Britain in 1998, has apparently already had difficulties with visas.

He says when he went to New York for filming on location, he was granted a visa only the day before filming was due to start.

He said: "I think this was because I am still an Iraqi citizen and fought in the Iraqi army - but that was because I was forced to.

"It would be so disappointing not to be able to go, because I have still not seen the film. I have only seen footage and it would have been amazing to be in New York for the premiere."

The actor is hoping that the US authorities will come through at the last minute, otherwise he may not see the completed film until the British premiere on September 1.

He has also appeared in Crossroads, At Home With The Braithwaites and Spooks.

Link

 

[mariacallas]

wow that's some fucked up shit. Reminds me of when Sue Lyon (who played the fourteen year old LOLITA directed by Stanley Kubrick) wasn't allowed to go to a screening of the movie because she was underage! lol! 8(

 

[kittyinthedark]

I think it will be an interesting movie. I get the impression it's more from the documentary angle than the hollywood money-making trash angle.

 

[ChemicalBeauty]

Definately an emotional movie. It's amazing how majorly Sept. 11th caught us all off guard. Hopefully measures have been put in place since then that would allow a quicker response should this happen again.

The problem with this movie, is that it begs for a happy ending, yet we all know there is none. I recommend seeing it if for no other reason than to really realize what the passengers of all those planes really went through ...

 

[L2R]

What a terrible film this is.

It's just a series of re-enactments of phone conversations, phone messages, and whatever data was collected by official means while tracking the aircraft, all very loosely strung together with dramatic licenses taken through a bog of disaster film cliches, snappy (and really annoying) camera work, and hero/villain propaganda.

I literally laughed out loud at how many people on the flight have babies. They all seem to.

The director has a hard on for quick zooms, which looks ultra amateur, and is annoying as hell.

Do NOT pay to see this piece of shit. I'm glad as hell I didn't. This isn't even worthy of a free to air telemovie. Seriously, i can't believe that this will be showing in theatres.

This is the worst film i've seen in a very long time.

 

[Vet]

I won't see it

I'd be happier about this movie if all the profits were given to the families of the people who were on that flight.

 

[L2R]

the families are probably being paid.

still, it's a shit movie with no point (other than making money/propaganda).

 

[m885]

hero/villain propaganda.

Of course, there are heroes and villains in the story. The people who prevented this plane from killing thousands on the ground are heroes and the fanatic hijackers are villians.

 

[121]

the families are probably being paid.

they get 10% of opening weekend profits. Personally, I think if they're going to give any decent amount of money to the victims while they're making money off this event, the 10% should at least extend beyond opening weekend.

That said, i've heard this is actually a pretty great, different, film.

 

[Chronik Fatigue]

I heard that this movie follows the plight of air traffic controllers? Does it go into the fact that there were four seperate wargames involving aircraft going on that day and that the ATC's had fake blips inserted on their radaqr screen so they couldn't tell whether there was one or ELEVEN hijacked planes that morning?!? If not its a fucking whitewash, that's all i can say.

 

[Chronik Fatigue]

Definately an emotional movie. It's amazing how majorly Sept. 11th caught us all off guard.

Yeah its not like Vladimir Putin personally warned the whitehouse that planes were to be flown into targetas DAYS before the event!

 

[Chronik Fatigue]

Another movie on 9/11? I've seen enough TV documentaries and such on Discovery, National Geographic and HBO, we don't need another one! (IMHO) Sheesh. What else can they show that hasn't already been shown? Maybe if they did a movie from a bugs point of view that would be different.

I'd much rather read the excellent book Perfect Soldiers : The 9/11 Hijackers: Who They Were, Why They Did It

Now THAT is interesting

Yeah... I'd much prefer to read Crossing the Rubicon

, that details the links intelligence agencies had to Atta et. al. and explores the fact that it is decidedly impossible for one plane, let alone four, to travel for an hour and twenty minutes through some of the most heavily controlled airspaces in the world without being intercepted (especially considering that when the golfer Payne Stewart's jet went off-course without a response to his transponder for TWO MINUTES before there were two F-111's at his side to see what the fuck was going on

 

[L2R]

Of course, there are heroes and villains in the story. The people who prevented this plane from killing thousands on the ground are heroes and the fanatic hijackers are villians.

i don't disagree.

but the exaggeration used in this film to portray the victims as true american patriots (they proudly and calmly vote before their attack!) and the terrorists as bumbling, arguing, ugly fools takes any credibility from the movie.

granted, the phone messages and conversations are spot on in recreating what i've seen in many documentaries, but ultimately, there is absolutely nothing to take away from this film. Nothing to learn. Nothing to gain.

This events in this film are horrific, tragic and interesting, but this films just cheapens them.

 

[L2R]

I heard that this movie follows the plight of air traffic controllers? Does it go into the fact that there were four seperate wargames involving aircraft going on that day and that the ATC's had fake blips inserted on their radaqr screen so they couldn't tell whether there was one or ELEVEN hijacked planes that morning?!? If not its a fucking whitewash, that's all i can say.

nothing about 11 potential hijackings