The theatre was silent in shock
by kgentes (movies profile) Apr 29, 2006
81 of 91 people found this review helpful
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Going to this movie was one of the single most impacting moments in my life. This film was not art for art's sake. It was realism with unbelievable pacing, clarity and humanity. Faltering on this movie would have done a painstaking injustice to those represented. Director Paul Greengrass and his production crew articulate with painful precision the events of United 93 and the people it's memory now eulogize. The day unravels, as it was on September 11th. A day, we thought, was like any other. The turn from typical into terrible does not happen in an instant. It happens in unfathomable realizations of minute horror, as each nuance of possible trouble turns tragically into the evil of mass murder.
You are gripped, as the movie characters are gripped, by the facts becoming more horrible by the moment. No one scene numbs you into total fear, yet by the end, you are completely immersed in the experience fear we all went through on 9/11.
It would be trite to speak of acting and directing if this was a documentary. In this portrayal for United 93, the realism, the emotion, the people are so vividly human, you are not looking at the scene through a screen, you are part of it. You are at once jettisoned into the day of terror we have tried so hard to forget. The actors and actresses are so convincing not because of their renditions of other people, but because they are so transparently caught up in the horror and emotion as they live the heroic actions and die the deaths as the passengers of United 93.
As the film closed, the entire theatre sat not only mesmerized but in a subtle moment of silence for the truth of what they had just seen. Many grieved as they walked to the exits. They had not seen art, they had scene reality and it was far more frightening than any movie could be.
This is not a film for any child with a sense of fear, or inability to process deep emotion. No child should see this film without a parent, period. Adults will be gripped and should take time to process this film afterwards.
You never, never forget your experience in watching this film.
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