United 93: "The story behind the event that changed history forever"

Often at times a film based on a tragedy of such a monumental scale would draw the ire of the general public for exploiting people's emotions in the name of financial and artistic gains. United 93 on the other hand, which tackles arguably the biggest coordinated terror attack in human history, manages to stand out as a realistic and heartfelt tribute to all those affected by the attacks of September 11th 2001.

Set in the hostile American airspace on that fateful day, United 93 is the story of how passengers aboard the United Airlines Flight 93 from Boston to San Francisco, risked their lives to prevent the final hijacked aircraft from reaching it's destination and taking the lives of thousands of US citizens. Director Paul Greengrass does not hesitate from throwing his viewers directly in the midst of the action as we are given an almost real time account of the events that shook the world on 11/09/2001.

The film does not boast of any renowned Hollywood names instead choosing to use it's plethora of actors simply as set pieces around it's unmissable and macabre star, the 9/11 disaster itself. Told from two perspectives, from that of the passengers aboard the hijacked flight and from that of several Air Traffic Control Centers and defense outposts all over America, the film not only provides the audience with different pieces of critical information from different sources but also showcases a fascinating contrast to how individuals in various situations found out about the heinous attacks happening on their country's soil. On one hand you have the Air Traffic Controllers, officials and military personnel who have a first hand radar view of the 4 hijacked aircrafts and on the other hand are the passengers and crew aboard United 93 who are cut off from the world below and are embroiled in a horror story of their own.

Though a quick glance at the official IMDb synopsis of United 93 would lead one to believe it to be a film revolving around the hijacking and eventual crash of United Airlines Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the director chooses to adopt a slow and measured pace to ensure the viewers are well and truly drawn in and astounded by his raw take on the events of September 11th before he sets in motion the hijacking of the aforementioned flight.

A film that can be a bit tedious to take in at first due to the predominant use of ATC jargon that forms the majority of it's dialogues, proves to be a worthy tribute to possibly the worst recorded terrorist attack in modern history. Though the exact circumstances that lead to the crash of United 93 are still heavily debated and remain a mystery with the official version being that "the passengers aboard United 93 sacrificed their lives to save countless others upon learning the intentions of the terrorists", there are no arguments to the fact that though relatively un-moving and with literally no characters to become invested in, United 93 as a film is definitely one of the better 9/11 stories out there and needs to be appreciated for it's realistic depiction of the incident without any of the usual Hollywood pageantry.

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