The flight that fought back

It's no simple task to evaluate tragedy from a critical perspective. It's even harder for me to admit that two of my favorite films of 2006 both deal with the events of September 11th, 2001. One of them (Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center") comes straight from the heart, while the other goes straight for the gut. Just as Stone's film strives for uplift amidst inconceivable circumstances, Paul Greengrass' United 93 achieves a documentary-like realism combined with an unflinching look at the madness of suicidal extremism.\nGreengrass and his cinematographer Barry Ackroyd chose to film "United 93" in an erratic, handheld style to heighten the sense of realism, and it's an extremely effective device. The decision was also made not to focus on any one or two particular characters as heroes, thus saving the film from any tired Hollywood action cliches. What we get is a dizzyingly candid look into the demise of Flight 93 and the utter confusion of the FAA and military on the ground. Once Flight 93 is in the air, the film unfolds in real time, and the drama is delivered simply by knowing that everyone on that plane has less than an hour left to live.\nAs the final moments approach, Greengrass delivers some of the best scenes on film this year. Once the passengers and flight attendants realize that New York City has been hit, they know what has to be done. Their attack on the hijackers is presented not as a glamorized takeover attempt but as a chaotic jumble of guttural screams, broken limbs, and spraying blood. It's almost too much to watch, yet the passengers' resolve to save their own lives is inspiration enough to render it worth watching.\nHonoring Flight 93's victims and their loved ones is the primary focus of the extras on this single disc, and the many interviews with family members add another level of emotion to the film itself. There is also an incredible amount of biography text on every one of the passengers and crew. Finally, Greengrass' full-length commentary track highlights the difficulty in bringing this story to the screen amidst constant criticism of it being "too soon" after 9/11 to do so.\nIt wasn't "too soon," however, as both United 93 and World Trade Center have proven. With all the books, television specials, and various other forms of media produced about 9/11 in the last five years, it's curious to me why only feature films based on the event seem to face such backlash against their production. 9/11 changed the world for the worse in so very many ways, and the vital impact of Greengrass' film is that it strips away all politics, patriotism, and pretense in order to present these events as they happened, in the context of a far more innocent world.