United 93 -- see it!

I'm just home from the 'plex, where I spent a claustrophobic hour and
a half living through the last flight of "United 93." By this time, it
will come as no surprise that this is one of the most astonishing
pieces of movie-making of all time. (FAA operations manager Ben
Sliney, who plays himself as the man who shut down American airspace
after the third plane/missile struck the Pentagon, should win the
Oscar as the best supporting actor of 2006.) It should be seen by
everyone over the age of 15, and on the big screen.

Oddly, it was the first half-hour that impressed me the most.
(Well--impressed! It was more like being hit beside the head with a
brick.) The sense of doom over that slender gray metal tube was so
overpowering that I found it hard to breathe. I returned to earth
during the actual hijack, perhaps because at that point it was at its
most fictional: who knows what happened? Then there is the final
half-hour, in which the passengers rebel and the plane goes out of
control, and again the reality overwhelmed me.

See this movie. There will never be another like it--I hope.

-- all the best, Dan Ford

email: usenet AT danford DOT net

Warbird's Forum: www.warbirdforum.com
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Cub Driver usenet AT danford DOT net writes:
See this movie. There will never be another like it--I hope.

Man, basically everybody loves this movie, but ... I'm thinking it may
be better to wait until _after_ summer vacation (involving lots of
flying) is over ... :-/

-Miles
--
=====
(^o^;
(()))
*This is the cute octopus virus, please copy it into your sig so it can spread.

Why??? One thing that is for sure is that airline passengers will NEVER
let some ragheads take over a plane ever again.... September 11 was
their first any only time to try that tactic... They will think of
another way to kill us that is for sure and then you can be afraid just
like they want you to be.

Jon Kraus
'79 Mooney 201
4443H @ TYQ

Miles Bader wrote:
Cub Driver usenet AT danford DOT net writes:

See this movie. There will never be another like it--I hope.


Man, basically everybody loves this movie, but ... I'm thinking it may
be better to wait until _after_ summer vacation (involving lots of
flying) is over ... :-/

-Miles

Why??? One thing that is for sure is that airline passengers will NEVER
let some ragheads take over a plane ever again.... September 11 was
their first any only time to try that tactic... They will think of
another way to kill us that is for sure and then you can be afraid just
like they want you to be.

Yeah, I wouldn't want to be the idiot that tries to take over an
airliner again. He'd be ripped from stem to stern.

The movie is simply very, very good. I highly recommend it, although
it's very sobering.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:
Why??? One thing that is for sure is that airline passengers will NEVER
let some ragheads take over a plane ever again.... September 11 was
their first any only time to try that tactic... They will think of
another way to kill us that is for sure and then you can be afraid just
like they want you to be.

Yeah, I wouldn't want to be the idiot that tries to take over an
airliner again. He'd be ripped from stem to stern.

The movie is simply very, very good. I highly recommend it, although
it's very sobering.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"


I saw the movie on opening day and the theater was half empty. Most of
the people there were old people and adults.

While I would say the movie was good, it is far from great and its
$11.6 mil opening means it is a movie failure; either that, or people
just don;t want to relive 9/11.

You will notice a couple of things in the movie that for me made it
unrealistic:

1) absence of any children and young adults except for one girl who is
given a cell phone by a fellow passenger to call home

2) while people were praying, the screaming and "Oh God, I don't want
to die" pleas were omitted largely

3) the group of men that planned the counter-attack to retake the plane
seemed larger than life and NOT real people- as if when disaster struck
it was "HEY, LET'S TAKE THE PLANE BACK ASSAULT PLANS" supported by a
bunch of other adults. I know it's a hero film meant to make the nation
feel better knowing that Americans fought back... just like Pearl
Harbor but the movie comes off as too weak in some areas and too
self-assuredly strong in others.

The most shocking parts in the movie to me was the point where the air
traffic controllers lost the second aircraft's position below radar and
then watch as it slams into the second tower and the scenes in the
cockpit as the passagers struggled to gain control as the ground rushes
up at them- and then black screen.

I know that for the sake of the audience and the victims' families the
panic and fear were toned down and as I said before I don't recall
seeing any children or young people. I'm sure the flight had them...

The more disturbing film, "The World Trade Center" opens Aug 9th and is
told from the ground from the Port Authority POV based on two real men.
Judging by "Flight 93" I'm not sure if people will want to see that one
either as preliminary reviews all say there WILL be crying in the
theater and not for the weak hearted.

After seeing "Flight 93" I'm not sure I'm going to the second film. A
third Pentagon strike film is in the works as well based on another
true story...

Rob

On 5 May 2006 09:39:51 -0700, "Rob Arndt" wrote:

I saw the movie on opening day and the theater was half empty. Most of
the people there were old people and adults.

Consider time of day, location of theater, day of week, etc. Consider
that your singular observation is anecdotal and not statistically
significant.

While I would say the movie was good, it is far from great and its
$11.6 mil opening means it is a movie failure; either that, or people
just don;t want to relive 9/11.

You will notice a couple of things in the movie that for me made it
unrealistic:

1) absence of any children and young adults except for one girl who is
given a cell phone by a fellow passenger to call home

Note that the passenger list has been published, the passenger load on
the flight was light, the departure time of day was very early and it
was a Tuesday during school year. Visit your local airport and observe
who travels at 7-9 AM.

2) while people were praying, the screaming and "Oh God, I don't want
to die" pleas were omitted largely

The "Oh God...." stuff is largely from grade-B fictional movies. Very
few folks actually accept their impending demise, remaining in strong
denial until it's over. The "Oh God..." pleading usually is when
someone is already seriously injured and in pain.

3) the group of men that planned the counter-attack to retake the plane
seemed larger than life and NOT real people- as if when disaster struck
it was "HEY, LET'S TAKE THE PLANE BACK ASSAULT PLANS" supported by a
bunch of other adults. I know it's a hero film meant to make the nation
feel better knowing that Americans fought back... just like Pearl
Harbor but the movie comes off as too weak in some areas and too
self-assuredly strong in others.

Well, DUH! Yes, that 's exactly the point. This group of non-descript
common people suddenly became larger-than-life when the enormity of
their situation struck home.

The movie is a relatively seemless merging of documented facts on the
ground and constructed approximations of what might have been going on
aboard the aircraft built on various conversations and scraps of
dialog. That means it will be weak in some areas and strong in others.

The most shocking parts in the movie to me was the point where the air
traffic controllers lost the second aircraft's position below radar and
then watch as it slams into the second tower and the scenes in the
cockpit as the passagers struggled to gain control as the ground rushes
up at them- and then black screen.

I know that for the sake of the audience and the victims' families the
panic and fear were toned down and as I said before I don't recall
seeing any children or young people. I'm sure the flight had them...

What leads to your surety? Simple opinion or basis in fact?

The more disturbing film, "The World Trade Center" opens Aug 9th and is
told from the ground from the Port Authority POV based on two real men.
Judging by "Flight 93" I'm not sure if people will want to see that one
either as preliminary reviews all say there WILL be crying in the
theater and not for the weak hearted.

After seeing "Flight 93" I'm not sure I'm going to the second film. A
third Pentagon strike film is in the works as well based on another
true story...

If you saw "Flight 93" you saw a different movie than is being
discussed here. The recent film release in theaters is "United
93"--the movie "Flight 93" was released several months ago, is now out
on DVD and was aired on A&E last weekend. Different movie.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
www.thunderchief.org
www.thundertales.blogspot.com

The "Flight 93"/"United 93" confusion is understandable...I've heard
both, and I didn't even know that the "Flight 93" film had been
released or aired. And I haven't seen either, *and* I'm really not sure
that I want to, or even can. I know people will say it's important or
"you HAVE to go see it" (my father's dropped that one on me for a few
movies), but I kind of feel like if you need to go see a movie to fire
your emotions and/or memories about an event, maybe you weren't really
that connected in the first place. Just hearing the transcripts of the
Flt. 93 voice recorders chilled me to the core.

Sorry, in my last post the film is titled "United 93". I mistakenly
called it "Flight 93" in my last two paragraghs.

My apologies (IIRC, Premiere magazine first reported the movie as
"Flight 93" before filming started). Anyway, sorry for the trivial
mistake...

I'd like to add that I think adults will fare better with this film
than young adults and children. I saw the first show, first day and
there was a conspicuous absence of these groups which ironically
make-up the bulk of the movie viewers in America.

I think maybe some families just skipped the film or didn't allow their
kids to see it. The news reported that many Americans, including the
young, didn't even recognize the title- what "United 93" meant. We will
find out if the box office jumps this week or not as word spreads. But
if a major motion picture opens under $15 mil the first wk, then it
will soon drop to the $5mil level and then disappear.

With "MI:3, Poseidon, The DaVinci Code, and X-Men3:Last Stand" opening
over the next four weeks, I don't think "United 93" will sell. This
movie is more for the rental or purchase market since then parents can
explain the film to their kids at home or turn it off if it gets too
intense or emotional.

I personally am not going to buy it because it's just too depressing a
film and not one I would want to play over and over. My brother didn't
take his boys to the film because they thought it would be "great" and
my brother had to explain to them that real people died and it isn't
"great" no matter what action was taken. My brother also did not want
to sympathize with the Arabs saying their prayers and watch them live
out their holy war on what they perceive as "infidel America". I don't
blame him. I would not have taken my nephews either.

Does anyone else feel this way, honestly? Or will people start labeling
people that didn't like the film or fully support it "un-patriotic"? I
saw this film with two adults my age and one had served in the military
while another had a family member in NY that almost died on 9/11. All
of us thought the movie was just OK... but depressing and we left the
theater feeling miserable.

Rob

This movie had the cooperation of the families and I believe that every
effort was made to make it as realistic as possible. There is a lot of
information that could be reconstructed.

1) ATC communicatons and flight track
2) Bits of info in the many phone calls from the aircraft - ie one
hijcaker had a bomb, pilots on floor outside cockpit, stabbing, etc
3) People aboard, their seat assignments, what they looked like,
perhaps their typical demeanor when travelling by air - ie Usually
slept, talked to other passengers, used laptop, looked out window, etc.
4) Phone records showed who might have loaned a phone to whom to make a
call.
5) Flight recorder speed, altitude and attitude.

I feel that up until the point where the phone calls from the aircraft
ended, the movie is probably extremely realistic. After that there has
to be some conjecture, but I believe the story is probably still very
reliable.

These people were in a very unique position in history. No other
passengers have ever been aboard a hijacked aircraft with the knowledge
that the plan was to fly the airplane into a building.
--
Gene Seibel
Gene & Sue's Flying Machine - http://pad39a.com/gene/
Because we fly, we envy no one.

It's for those that want to see it, not entertainment for kids or
anyone else. It's depressing, but it happened. Ignoring what happened
won't change it.
--
Gene Seibel
Gene & Sue's Aeroplanes - http://pad39a.com/gene/planes.html
Because we fly, we envy no one.