The movie about Flight 93 will premier at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 25th. It will open nationwide April 28th.
Joining the filmmakers and Festival founders at the premiere will be family members who lost loved ones aboard the United Airlines Flight 93, as well as other 9/11 groups and family organizations and first responders whose lives were forever altered on that day. . . . .“The events of 9/11 had a massive effect on me, like everyone, and I wanted to use my position as a filmmaker to contribute something so they are not casually forgotten,” stated [director Paul] Greengrass. “United 93 tells one story of that morning and I hope that by showing the film at Tribeca, whose roots and inspiration grew in response to the devastation of 9/11, we will be reminded of the courage of all those on board and also the thousands of men and women who confronted similarly unimaginable scenarios in New York and Washington. By honoring the families who lost those they loved, I hope we can ensure that their sacrifice is remembered and hopefully seek wisdom in the future.”
There's an interactive site with a trailer and a message board. (All manner of conspiracy trolls are already swarming the message board; it's a cesspool in there.) The site is beautifully done: There is a graphic with x's marking the flight route. If you click on them you get photos with legends describing what was going on at that spot at that time. Then those x's migrate to the right side of the screen and become a clickable timeline.
All the families whose relatives were killed on that flight gave consent for the filming. The director's statement is a refreshing change from Munich-style equivocation. He points out that because Flight 93 was delayed for 45 minutes, the passengers and crew got to hear about the attack on the World Trade Center during their own hijacking.
As a result, the forty passengers and crew on board Flight 93 were the first to inhabit our new and terrifying post 9-11 world. The terrible dilemma those passengers faced is the same we have been struggling with ever since. Do we sit passively and hope this all turns out okay? Or do we fight back and strike at them before they strike at us? And what will be the consequences if we do?
I saw the trailer this weekend. It had quite an emotional impact on the entire movie audience, including me. I told my wife later that I am not sure I can watch it, but I am sure that I can’t not watch it.
If the movie portrays the mix or terror and courage that those passengers felt, it will worthwhile. I’ve heard several comments to the tune of it’s too soon after the event for a movie. It is never too soon to be reminded that there are courageous people who love some things more than a few additional minutes on this earth. It’s never too soon to be reminded to not boast, because there are people of this day and age that have done far greater things than I’ve ever been called on to do. It’s never too soon too remember.
Yehudit,
I went from Drudge's link about the negative audience reactions to the trailer, to the trailer itself.
Before watching the trailer my thinking was, this is something that did happen and why should accurately dramatizing it be a problem?
After watching it, however, I have some second thoughts. And only because it seems the movie will a superb rendering of what happened to these people on this day.
I'm still surprised I have second thoughts and it'll take some time for a final opinion. The movie will be powerful and emotional, hopefully, by the time it's released, I'll find myself ready to view.
Mike
Although images of sep.11 bring tears to my eyes every time I see them, I will go and watch this great movie for sure.
I also found the trailer very powerful and looked away several times. I'm sure during the movie I will be shutting my eyes frequently. (I'm kind of a wuss about screen horror and violence.) I even found the stills in the interactive timeline hard to look at.
I have a feeling this movie will quietly "separate the men from the boys," as it were. It will make the moonbats more moonbatty, and it will strengthen the resolve of those inclined that way. It will draw a line in the sand. It will do medium boxoffice and medium DVD sales but become kind of a "cult classic" in that it will be a cultural identifier for the group of people who want to win this war and feel surrounded by those who are hostile or indifferent. So it will be a quiet steady propaganda/morale booster for our side.
That's my prediction - we'll see if it comes true.
Rilke believed that in encountering a great work of art you simply know that you must change your life.
The analogy here is not to the film itself (though it might be yet, who knows?), but to the genius of the passengers of Flight 93 themselves.
It's never "too soon" to contemplate a noble action. When you change and refresh your life accordingly, you know it came just in time.
I have put the full text of the director's statement here.
I think I have seen a different trailer because I dont recognize the most common description of it given on several web sites today.
The one that I saw was just text and sound. Recreations of some of the phone calls from the plane and some snippets of what I think was dialogue of the passengers discussing among themselves what to do.
I wasnt expecting it. I had no idea this was in the works. I saw the title United 93 and my first thought was uh oh and I'm not prepared for this at all. I thought uh oh because my first thought was of Hollywood botching this on a high order. I saw a vision of Air Force One via 9/11 and my stomach did a flip flop. I wasnt prepared to see this story trashed any more than I was ready to see any form of it dramatized.
The rest of the trailer was devastating and it won me over. I got tears in my eyes but if I hadnt fought it with everything I had I would have just lost it like I always do in private when I am reminded of what happened that day.
From what I can tell, I think that the movie will center on the real phone calls and on the discussion and planning of the assault on the cockpit. It has a reverent and respectful feel.
I dont want to see it. I know I'll go through a box of tissues. I dont want to go back there willingly. I usually hate recreations of the real suffering and fear of real people who have died in terrible disasters like this. I cant stand seeing people "acting" in these roles. It seems somehow disrespectful to me in a way that pretending the emotions of fictional characters doesnt. I can just too easily imagine the real terror these people went through and I wont be able to block thoughts of what real people were thinking and feeling in the Towers and the Pentagon where they had no options and no warning whatever.
But I am going to have to see this movie. I dont see how I cant. If reviews are good. If my hunch that this movie will do this the right way, then I will go to honor the memories of these brave heroes.
Money should not be made off other people's pain, even with their "consent". Period.
"...Money should not be made off other people's pain, even with their "consent". Period..."
I guess you don't believe that doctors are moral? And you should see my dentist! He's got my consent, but I'm with you -- he should never be allowed to do what he does.