United 93 | DVD Review

United 93 is the new Paul Greengrass film about the United Airlines flight that failed to hit its target on September 11, 2001. It also has the notoriety of being the first feature film to deal with the events of 9/11. I must admit that when I heard this film was being released last spring, I was more than a little skeptical. Afterall, I figured it would not only commercialized and capitalized on the deaths of all those on the flight, but it would be a chance for Hollywood to let the drums roll and the orchestra thunder. I was sure it would be nothing more than a glorified after school special. To my surprise it wasn’t, and the crotchety critics agreed. Even more surprising was that the film’s producers donated 10% of the opening weekend box office revenue to 9/11 charities.

So for those of you skeptics out there, listen closely. This is neither an excuse for American patriotism nor a sentimental fluff piece. Greengrass spent months researching the story, speaking with the victims’ families, interviewing everyone from air traffic controllers to the army personnel, and writing a general treatment. He then utilized his documentary filmmaking skills – honed from years working on the doc series World in Action – to film in a realistic film about that fateful day. Even more interesting is the cast, Greengrass stocked his air traffic control sets with actual air traffic controllers, the cockpit with actual pilots, and the plane with authentic flight attendants. He seems to have gone to every step to make this production both as authentic and exciting as possible. So for those of you wondering… no, the terrorists don’t speak to each other in English.

It should be noted that the title United 93 is actually a bit misleading. Unlike the made for TV Flight 93, this film goes beyond this individual flight and focuses on the greater events of September 11. In fact, the flight doesn’t even take off until about 45 minutes into the film. And as the story progresses it become clear that what Greengrass is most interested in is the lives of all those involved: from the terrorists, to the passengers and crew, to the air traffic controllers, to those on the ground. More than anything else, this film manages to accentuate the confusion and terror that we all felt on that day… The resounding ‘is this really happening’ permeates the whole film. And I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t biting my nails through most of the second half of the film.


The supplementary features on this disc are quite good. It’s not often that you get an insightful director’s commentary, coupled with interesting featurettes and United 93 has both. The intense documentary entitled United 93: The Families and the Film follows the families of the victims as they speak about the process of living life after the tragedy. As I watched with a solemn interest, I was amazed to see how each person dealt with the tragedy in a different way. And it became clear in that united 93 was an important coping mechanism for the families. I have to hand it to Greengrass for the meticulousness of his preparation, and the extent to which he made sure that all affected parties were at peace with the film process.

Greengrass’s commentary on the feature is one of those rare walk-throughs that enlightens on many aspects of the film process. He touches on casting (working with actors and non-actors), writing, filming, and special effects. It definitely tickled my film nerd fancy. There are a lot of commentaries that just aren’t worth the time, but this isn’t one of them. So definitely check it out.

Movie rating – 3.5

Disc Rating – 4