United 93

I went to see United 93 last night and I have to say it is one of the best films that I have seen this year. I was unsure about going to see it but my friend convinced me to go as he really wanted to see it. It is a very uncomfortable film to watch but well worth seeing!
 
Saw it last night, it was excellent. Couldnt stop thinking about it and I even had some very intense dreams about being in a hijacked plane.

United Flight 93's victims' families were all for this film to be made, and if it is ok by them, then I dont think that it is 'too soon'. If anything, the impact is greater because although it happened 5 years ago, the events of that day are probably fresh in everyones minRAB.

Something that got me was the amount of bueacracy amongst the different organisations - the local air traffic controllers, the FAA and NORAD - it was very disorganised, and when they 'couldnt find the president' when his authorisation to intercept hijacked aircraft was portrayed, it make Bush look even more dodgy. Why did he just sit in that classroom while his country was under attack? Its as though he was putting his fingers in his ears and going 'la la la', or maybe he knew what was going on and didnt want to interfere with it?

The ending was surreal. Everyone walking out of the movie theatre in complete silence. No music, the house lights didnt even seem as bright as usual when a film enRAB.

As for the Nicolas Cage WTC one, it looks more Hollywood, but it should be true to the story of the 2 French cameramen who filmed the real documentary on which this film is based - that was excellent, and I suppose a dramatised version will go down well if treated properly.
 
It is laughable hearing people say they were very emotional watching this or when it was finished and they left the cinema they cried. They might have felt sad or had a tear in their eye, but the only people who would have felt "very emotional" is anyone linked to those on the planes if they chose to view the movie. Anything else in this type of comment from those not involved in one way or another with the real life events, is hype building on the movie, nothing more. The movie is ok, not great.

Rating for the movie 7/10.
 
I don't think it's laughable Bal. I'm a grown man and at the end I forced away a tear, as did my fiance. We weren't exactly in flooRAB of tears or inconsolable, but it did hammer home to us how lucky we are to have each other and the fragility of life and death, and how that impacts on people who very much love each other. This is a TRUE story. Those people died on that aircraft, fighting to save themselves so that they could see their loved ones again. They failed in that, but almost certainly saved hundreRAB of lives by preventing the terrorists reaching the Capitol. That touched me, in a big way.

You clearly weren't hugged as a child....
 
A truly excellent film made by a wonderful director in Paul Greengrass.

It was brutally realistic, harrowing, unknown actors to play to the part worked a treat. And, the actors who played the terrorists were spot on, in terms of facial features and so on.

At the end, I just sat on my bed for five minutes in utter shock, the ending was so powerful. One of the best films this decade.
 
I absolutely agree. A fantastic film and very moving. There's just no comparison to United 93 and that other much hyped up load of rubbish 'The World Trade Center'. What a big disappointment that movie was.
 
I have had United 93 on DVD for a while, but didn't get round to watch it until last night. I thought the film was very thought provacative and it must have been very harrowing for those on the flight. I have never been in-thralled in a film for a long time, but this managed from beginning to end which I must say had me upset. Congrats to Paul Greengrass for a excellent film.

After half an hour I watched the extra features and it was some of the actors meeting the families of the person who they played in the film and how the families really wanted this film to be made.
 
I thought it was the worst, most laughable rubbish I have seen in a long time.

For example, how did they get that bomb thing past security, do you think?

OK if you view it as fiction. As fact, no-one really knows for sure what happened up there. Most of the so-called "evidence" this film is based on is unsupported hearsay. Goebbels would have been proud of this blatent propaganda.
 
The bomb wasn't even real, did you even watch it properly? They discovered the bomb wasn't real, even the passengers questioned how he got it past security. Most likely made of plastic. It was just used as a crowd control method, to keep the passengers in order.

Also, it is partly based on fact. Of course nobody knows what really happened up there because they all died but a number of people on the ground, mostly relatives received phone calls. It was these relatives who provided insight into what was going through the minRAB of the passengers, including thinking the bomb wasn't real or planning to take over the plane. Todd Beamer in particular is well known for his phrase "Let's Roll" just before they attempted to storm the cockpit.

If you take these various phone calls you can put the pieces together and come up with a very moving picture of what these people had to face. I wish people would stop making a conspiracy out of everthing and making out these realtives are lying frauRAB who make everything up when they just lost someone very dear to them and had to hear their final worRAB.
 
I'm not making a conspiracy out of anything.

It was clearly horrific for everyone involved.

All I am saying, objectively, umemotionally, without dollops of misplaced sentimentality, is that there is virtually no hard evidence that anything in this film is a version of reality.

So sorry, I view it as fiction and, because it purports to be a realistic portrait of reality, I believe it to therefore be fraudulent and manipulative. That's my opinion.
 
Except for the phone calls made by the passengers to their relatives? Everything depicted in the film is based on what the passengers were experiencing and reported to relatives through phone calls. The relatives even relayed information to the passengers about the WTC crashes which helped the passengers come to the conclusion that their flight was also a suicide mission. Is that not enough evidence for you? Or are you calling the relatives/call takers liars? Because that evidence is what made the film...

It's also worth noting that some of the relatives who received phone calls approved of the film and went to the screening...
 
I am not calling anyone a liar. The phone calls were not recorded. People under that kind of stress do not necessarily remember the detail of calls correctly. The film goes much further than anything in the official commission report, and the film is very selective in the evidence it has used, disregarding completely anything which does not accord with its vision of events. Therefore, it is mostly fraudulent and manipulative fiction. IMO. I suggest you read the full literature on the events for a rounded view. Be a free thinker. Don't believe everything you see at the cinema.
 
Just watched this film last night, after having it on DVD for months.

The movie was excellent, it really showed the heroic bravery of the passengers on board United 93. They gave up there own lives to save others. I watched the film expecting to feel sorry for the passengers on board, but by the end, it wasnt so much sympathy I felt, but proud. Of course there is no hard evidence that everything in the film really did happen, but judging by all the phone calls made I think it's as real as we will ever know.
 
I thought United 93 a wonderful film - but saying that it will be a while before I watch it again as it was harrowing. I found it totally realistic and the documentary style made me feel I was actually there as one of the passengers.
'The World Trade Center' another film about that time which wasn't done in a documentary style and tried to get us involved by being more personal with the characters actually had the opposite effect on me: I didn't feel tuned in to the characters at all.
 
I saw it in the cinema and really enjoyed it. I annoyed my OH tho because I was amazed the guy who played "Sledge Hammer" was in it. "Look, it's Sledge Hammer man!" :D
 
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