So I Saw United 93
It's harrowing, and extremely well-made.
See it.
posted by Scott the Reader @ 5:35 PM
Sunday, April 30, 2006
See it.
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- Name: Scott the Reader
- Location: North Hollywood, California, United States
Reading too much, writing too little, trying to find the vampires moving west down Ventura Boulevard.
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7 Comments:
All I can say is "ditto".
It is a remarkable film, and an intense, emotional experience.
I'm going to see it soon, hopefully this week. Had to take the kiddies to see The Wild, which was as tired & lame as you'd expect.
The most visceral experience I've had in a theater since...ever. Truly gut-wrenching and life-affirming at the same time. It demonstrates how unbelievably precious every minute was that morning when those directly involved were trying to deal with what was happening. Trying to do their best based on the protocols they had.
And, meanwhile, our President -- the Commander in Chief -- let seven minutes pass while he sat doing nothing.
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline
(don't worry if the URL extends beyond the righthand border. Just triple-click on it to highlight the entire string then copy it to clipboard and paste into your browser address box)
Folks, the link above is a mind-blowing piece of research. It's a complete timeline leading up to and including 9-11. And I do mean complete -- it is enormously detailed. I spent four or five hours reading non-stop when I came upon it many months ago. I have not seen the film, but this factual blow-by-blow account had me riveted to my chair, eyes glued to to my monitor, page after page.
It tracks events for each plane, and I remember being horrified to read the particular events of United 93. I was left with a sense that the passengers got *very* close to saving the plane (getting into the cockpit). Who knows if they could have landed it. Their struggle to survive, as told in that written account, is humbling and heart-wrenching.
You will probably want to skip ahead to that fateful day. How about 6am, September 11:
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&startpos=1000
I just can't bring myself to go and see it. Not yet. It's still too soon for me, and I still weep when I remember, so I do my best not to.
See it? Why? So that I can start having nightmares everytime I smell burnt metal again? No thanks.
Gripping and gut-wrenching is all I can say. Politics has nothing to do with this cinematic achievement. Greengrass is a very talented director.
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