United 93

Greengrass applies the successful recipe from Bloody Sunday here as well (especially his trademark immersion technique, making you one of the passengers) - and again it works out exceedingly well. Almost everything here follows the same pattern and yet it’s so very different. The first 75 minutes are dedicated to reconstructing the chaos surrounding the first plane crashes, and then during the final quarter hour absolutely drains you emotionally onboard United 93. Again, where possible, he uses real characters "as themselves". Once again he revels in unobtrusive yet impressive music, in maximum detail using hand held cameras, and totally apolitically. Impressive, although as a movie it is difficult to evaluate, but the experience is truly powerful. ♫ OST score: 4/5 (25/08/2006)

Today it’s five years since “it" happened, but right now I feel like I just experienced it again. Just like being there. I don’t think I ever saw a more real-life movie. Greengrass captured the events of 9/11 brilliantly, at the same time erecting a movie memorial to all victims of those attacks. Powell’s music just goes to augment the whole situation and instills a storm of emotions inside you which you might not find pleasant at all. (12/09/2006)

When I looked at the ratings and comments of my favorite users, they reminded me of the impressions of the attendees of the 18th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, who paid tribute to Stalin. United 93 has a reputation as an outstanding film, and I often come across comments where it is considered as a kind of benchmark against which the (im)perfection of other films is measured. At the very least, you can encounter the claim that it is the absolute peak of Greengrass's work so far, which other pieces from his workshop can only look at from a great distance. I'm afraid that historical events are receiving a five-star treatment here, not their artistic reflection. When footage of the burning Twin Towers appeared on television, it shocked the world and there was talk of the Third World War. The events completely deviated from the known world. The idea that someone would hijack a plane full of passengers and intentionally crash it into a skyscraper seemed insane to everyone. And the situation and feelings of the passengers of the last plane, who already knew their fate, were insane as well. Real life brought a more dramatic situation than the wildest action movie screenwriters could have come up with. Greengrass chose the method of documentary reconstruction, but the traditional characteristics of his work, especially the handheld camera and chaotic editing, reached their limits here. In crucial moments, it descends into a completely incomprehensible mix of bodies, jerky movements, and screams, you learn very little about the individual characters, and the film actually just rides the wave of the well-known events, without being able to properly utilize the immense dramatic potential that is readily available. The underrated Green Zone stands significantly higher in my eyes from a cinematic perspective. The shots from the navigation stations are justified, but not to the extent and with the content that Greengrass delivers to us. It's more like three and a half stars, and this time, contrary to my usual habits, I will lean toward a higher rating only out of reverence for the victims of the tragedy. Overall impression: 70%. (01/11/2013)

Absolute experience that destroys viewers' senses. Greengrass's directing style brought to the highest level of tolerance through maximum authenticity and squeezing emotions in hectoliters. The second viewing, moreover, does not diminish the impression, on the contrary, it elevates it to the highest spheres. Those who haven't seen it have no chance of understanding the flood of praise. (30/08/2006)

To put it in concentrated form: Paul Greengrass and the only logical reaction to a hitherto taboo topic – to keep your distance, not to judge, not to evaluate and, if possible, to present verified facts. If the filmmaker is strong and has well-mastered weapons such as a hand-held camera and a civilian-acting ensemble without stars, then the result cannot be anything other than absolutely suggestive, chilling, captivating. This is exactly what United 93 is like. The film does not spare the viewer in any way with reductions, drawing him into the center of events using all possible technical means, and it presents events with chilling authenticity and narrative distance. But the performance itself is literally devouring and fascination with the story, an unquenchable feeling of the unconstructed, and the absence of classic plot schemes - all this creates a space for a strong to horrible spectator experience. There is no moralizing at the end, an unshakable assurance that good can be delineated from evil, that the border is fixed and that crossing it will be punished. At the end we find out that victims and murderers are still and only human. The most chilling moment of the whole film for me was the prayer just before the inevitable catastrophe. At that moment, all the bizarreness and absurdity of today's world materialized aboard Greengrass's United 93. The value of such a film exceeds the prefabricated messages about real heroes a million times over, because it offers the viewer an intense experience without whispering. It's up to you how you evaluate it. (28/08/2006)