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Movie Review with FREE Whiplash

Hold on, this is going to be a long post with a whiplash inducing turn at the end.

We had an interesting day on Sunday.

We were able to ship the boy out with my Mom and Sister, allowing my wife and I to go out to lunch and see a movie.

Lunch was at a local diner and was no more than you would expect except that we were rushed to make it to our 1:10 showing of "United 93". I had reservations about seeing this movie, thinking that it would hit too close to home since we live within 2 or 3 miles of Ground Zero and had a too close view of the events and aftermath of 9/11. But since my wife really wanted to see it I relented and there we found our selves in a theater that was less than 1/3 full early Sunday afternoon. The theater we chose is actually closer to Ground Zero than my home is and if the WTC was still standing would be easily in view of the front doors of the theater oddly enough.

The lights came down and we settled in to relive events that we have read/heard about for the last 4 1/2 years.

From a purely objective movie goers view, the movie was richly filmed and only had a few actors that might be recognized by the general public. It told the story of the flight of United 93 that departed out of Newark International Airport on that dreadful morning. For those of you out there that do not know it, Newark Airport is the closest airport to Manhattan in the area and is just west of where I live. The WTC could easily be seen from the airport and from the airplanes landing and departing that very busy hub.

The movie started out by showing the hijackers in their hotel rooms praying and preparing to leave for their flight as well as the air traffic controllers, FAA control center managers, flight crews and passengers arriving for their shift or the flight.

As the movie progressed the film slowly unfolds the confusion of the day as controllers begin to suspect that something is wrong with an American Airlines flight out of Boston. What tips the controller that something is odd is that he hears a somewhat garbled transmission: "We have planes..." (I'm paraphrasing that). The controller, wisely, lets his manager know that something is wrong but their is doubt in all their minds. No other indication that anything is wrong with that flight is indicated until the controller realizes the flight is not answering calls and turns the radar transponder off. Shortly after the controller notices that the aircraft (which is supposed to be heading west) turns abrubtly south without permission or notification (a big no no). The managers bump the problem up the chain on command to the FAA command center in Virginia.

All this time, United 93 is waiting in line to depart Newark and is delayed (those of you that have flown into and out of Newark know that is a very standard occurrence).

The story really begins to unfold about the time United 93 begins it's take off roll. Much confusion is shown between the air traffic center, FAA and a NORAD air defense control center. I will tell you that based on this movie, the confusion is very understandable, regrettable, but understandable. Until that time there had not been a hijacking in US domestic air space in more than 20 years and the planes were not acting like a "normal" hijacking (make the pilot fly them somewhere and make demands). It confused everybody involved and effectively doomed more than 3,000 peoples lives.

As an editorial comment, I don't believe that once the hijackings were underway that there was anything anybody could have done to stop them given the situation that existed at the time. The movie does not say that but it proved it to me given what I know about air defense and air traffic control from my military career. I would hope that we learned a lesson that horrible day - a terrible, disgusting and expensive (in lives and property lost) lesson.

I won't go into many more details on the movie as most of it you probably have already heard since that day but suffice it to say that without the delay in taking off and the communications the passengers had with the outside world from that plane, there would have been a much bigger tragedy that day. The passengers bravely decided to try and stop these evil men any way they could and perhaps save themselves.

I have seen replayed news coverage of the major events of 9/11 a number of times in the last few years that did not bring any kind of emotional response from me but there were a number of scenes in the movie that brought that day back into my consciousness more so than anything in the last few years.

The first scenes that brought it all back to me were the planes hitting the towers. The movie made it real as they followed those planes and the reactions and confusion of the controllers etc. as it happened on the radar screens and television. It brought back to me how incredibly ridiculous it seemed when I was told that morning that a plane had hit the World Trade Center (surely it was a small plane and that although some lives would be lost everyting would be OK?). Then I heard another plane hit the other tower... Then I heard that one of the towers had fallen... I had to see it myself and went into a conference room at work where the TV was on and saw that, yes, only one tower was now standing (and burning furiously).

The next scene that bothered me was the actual hijacking of United 93. It was violent and all too easy. Watching it, you knew that the fate of everybody on that plane was sealed.

Another scene that brought it back to me was the calls the passengers were making to loved ones near the end. They knew that they did not have much of a chance to survive one way or the other. We've all heard those calls in the news scince 9/11 and they still bring tears to my eyes. Oddly enough, during the movie, they just started to bring out the anger in me.

The last scene to get a reaction out of me was the final confrontation on the doomed plane. After that, the screen went black and some text came on explaining some things.

I walked out of the theater with feelings of anger over the top of sadness I have not felt since the days/months after 9/11. I did not like it and I wish I had not watched the movie at this time - perhaps another year or so and I would be ready for it.

I have had emotional reactions to memories or stories of that day but not like this.

I did not have this kind of feeling when I first saw Ground Zero two years after (I could not bring myself to go there and the first time I was only passing by on my way to somewhere in the city).

I did not have this feeling the first time I passed through Ground Zero on a PATH train last summer. (If you have ever taken a PATH train into/out of the WTC before 9/11, try it now - the first time will grab you right in the chest as you come out of the tunnel).

Why did this movie do that to me? Good movies are supposed to elicit emotions from the viewer but I was just not ready for it. Perhaps the rest of America and the world are ready. I certainly did not need to see this movie yet, I was/am not ready to relive it, yet.

It took a relatively short time to distract my emotions and attention from what we just experienced but walking through a crowded super market did wonders for me.

By the time we got home, I was more or less back to normal. And with the boy away for most of the rest of the afternoon, the wife and I got to play. It was not one of the great fucks we ever had but they can't all be great, can they.

posted by section306g @ 6:53 PM