United 93

Finally made it to a movie (it has been quite a long time since I've been to see anything) today and saw "United 93." Even though I knew what was going to happen, I still found it riveting. While there weren't many others in the theater (not surprising since it was 1:30 on a weekday), they were unusually quiet. Not much talking or eating, which sadly is the norm in theaters these days. I was struck by several thoughts while watching the events unfold:

1) I was glad that there weren't "stars" in the film - I think it would have been distracting and taken away some of the "reality" of what was being depicted on screen.

2) The style of the film (I'm not sure if it was filmed using a hand-held camera, but that was how it appeared) fit perfectly with the events, not only on the plane, but at the various FAA / airport / military locations. I have a feeling that the whole scene that day was just shock, disbelieve and then chaos - which was captured very effectively with the technique used.

3) I believe that the director / producers researched what happened on the plane itself as best they could and what I came away with was that strangely, the people on the plane seemed more "with it" and competent than the military, the FAA , the government in general. Since many of the FFA personnel portrayed themselves, I would assume the film got it right from their point of view. And they looked like chickens with their heads cut off, running around trying to figure out what was going on. Same with the military. Granted, in those first hours, no one really knew what was happening, but the coordination, or lack thereof, between the FAA and the military was lacking, even after they figured out the scope of what was occurring. In contrast, the passengers, with help from information from family members who were watching news broadcasts, seemed to know more than ang of the other major players. They knew what was going to happen and what they needed to do...and they did it.

I certainly could see how emotional it would be for friends and family members of any of the flights, not just this one, to sit through the movie. But they need to . We need to. We cannot forget. We should not be given the chance to.