United 93: Realistic & inspiring

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to watch a film that I believe is going to stay with me for a long time to come.

It's a film called United 93 that was released in the US in April. You may have heard of it because its one of the first Hollywood films to directly address what happened on September 11, 2001.

For a long time Americans - and as a result, Hollywood - didn't want to talk about that event.

Thousands lost their loved ones, their families, their friends that day, and Hollywood decided that America wasn't ready to watch that tragedy unfold before its eyes again.

So for the most part, the American film industry decided to be sensitive to its people.

Several films themed around terrorism and hijacking which were already in production were abruptly cancelled.

In fact, a Jackie Chan film called Nosebleed, about a plot to blow up the World Trade Center was completely scrapped.

In the Ben Stiller comedy Zoolander, the twin towers were digitally removed from scenes showing the New York skyline. Even the comic-book superhero film Spiderman wasn't spared.

The World Trade Center featured prominently in the original marketing campaign for the first Spiderman film.

In the film's original trailer which was released in 2001, a group of bankrobbers were shown escaping in a helicopter, but were stopped by Spiderman who snared the villains in a giant web spun between the two towers.

Also the film's original poster showed the reflection of the two towers in Spiderman's eyes.

Both the trailer and the poster were immediately pulled off when September 11 happened and eventually when the poster appeared, the towers' reflection was removed, and that first trailer was never re-released.

Now the reason I'm going into such detail is because I'm trying to explain what extent Hollywood went to, in order to respect people's sentiments.

Of course since then there have been several documentaries on September 11 - about the people who lost their lives, about their families, about the firefighters and the NYPD who helped rescue as many people as they could.

But these were all documentaries with real people and real footage of the events. The film I'm talking about, United 93 is a full-length feature with actors.

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It's a drama that recreates the events on board United Airlines 93, the fourth hijacked plane on September 11, 2001, which didn't meet its target but crashed into an empty field in Pennsylvania.

It's the story of the passengers, the crew, their families on ground and the flight controllers who witnessed in horror the worst terrorist attack on America.

The thing about this film is that although it's a feature that re-enacts real events, it's done in the most realistic style you could imagine.

In fact, the entire film unfolds in real time - from take-off to hijacking to the realization by the passengers and crew that their plane was part of a co-ordinated and planned attack on America.

Never once while watching this film will you reach for your popcorn or your cola. It's just not that kind of film. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's exactly why they didn't cast a single known actor in the film.

Every single face in this movie will seem real to you -- every single passenger in that plane, the staff in those flight control rooms, even the terrorists. In some ways, this film is also an inspirational picture with a courageous ending.

But don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean they sugarcoat anything. I use the word "courageous" because of what happened on that flight that day. Because the forty ordinary people who sat down on that flight as strangers, eventually stood up as one.

And once again, what's remarkable about United 93 is that it's determined to be as accurate as possible.

There's no false bravura, no individual heroes. It's about a group of desperate people who decide they must take action if they want to save their lives.

And even if they aren't able to save their lives in the end, they're courageous because they managed to overpower the terrorists who couldn't make their target in the end.

I think United 93 is the first of a slew of films now that address what happened that day. In fact, just a few weeks ago the Oliver Stone film World Trade Center released in the US, and like the film's title very clearly suggests, it's a film that pointedly deals with the terrorist attacks on the twin towers.

Now I haven't seen that film although I have read some interesting reviews, but I'm guessing it's very different from United 93 in many ways.

For one, Oliver Stone's film is the true story of two police officers who rushed into the World Trade Center that day to rescue people but became trapped themselves when the towers collapsed.

And more importantly, it's a film about heroes and it stars big Hollywood actors like Nicolas Cage, Michael Pena, Maggie Gylenhaal and Stephen Dorff.

I'm not saying one film is better than the other - I can't say that because I haven't seen Oliver Stone's film. But I have seen United 93 and I want to say that few films disturb you the way that this one does.

Few films stay with you the way this one does. It's a film every single one of us should watch.

You know, aside from the fact that it so honestly recaptures those tragic moments, it's also a great cinematic achievement.