United93 How Faith triumphed Over tragedy

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United 93: How Faith Triumphed Over Tragedy By Lee Grady Paul Greengrass' new film is not easy to watch. But we all could use a dose of its sobering realism.

America’s mood shifted dramatically for a few weeks after Sept.11. Flags were unfurled and people flocked to churches to pray. The Oscars were postponed, Broadway shows were canceled, and hundreds of songs were pulled off the radio because disc jockeys deemed them inappropriate.

We became more humble and respectful. We honored our leaders. We gave $1.4 billion to Sept. 11 charities. We stood together.

Things have changed in 4-1/2 years. Maybe a film about that dark day could help us reclaim our lost humility.

“United 93 is a chilling reminder
that the war on terror is not over.”

The new movie United 93 is not what I would call entertainment. It is a 111-minute funeral service. Shot in a realistic style using hand-held cameras, it is an artful tribute to the passengers and crew who stopped a group of Islamic terrorists from crashing their airliner into the U.S. Capitol. It avoids politics, conspiracy theories and sappy drama, yet it slaps you in the face with the reality of the war on terrorism that began that day.

Don’t worry, United 93 is not your typical Hollywood disaster flick filled with big-name actors and over-the-top special effects. And unlike filmmakers Oliver Stone and Michael Moore, screenwriter-director Paul Greengrass doesn’t inject his own political biases or revisionist history into the movie. He keeps everything subtle, from the minimalist score to the chatty dialogue between two pilots who didn’t know when they took off from Newark, N.J., that the north tower of the World Trade Center had already been hit by a hijacked plane.

Greengrass used unknown actors to portray the passengers bound for San Francisco as well as the staffers at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) control center, who seemed as baffled as the rest of us when they learned that four airplanes had been hijacked that morning. To add even more realism, FAA director Ben Sliney plays himself. Through his eyes we see how unprepared our country was for the diabolical plot that killed almost 3,000 people, including everyone aboard Flight 93.

Christians will be disappointed if they expect United 93 to glamorize Todd Beamer, the Wheaton College graduate who prayed with a GTE Airfone operator before he uttered his famous “Let’s roll” challenge to fellow passengers. The movie does not single out Beamer, but it does theorize that he and other passengers used a flight attendant’s service cart to break down the cockpit door in an effort to stop the four terrorists aboard from reaching their target in Washington.

In the film’s only overtly religious moment, Beamer can be heard reciting part of the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Even though I knew Beamer had prayed those words from the air, I never realized until I saw United 93 how powerful it was that a Christian asked God to forgive the terrorists as they aimed their plane at our nation’s most enduring symbol.

Greengrass doesn’t go out of his way to demonize the terrorists in the film, but their anger is clearly satanic. The young men constantly quote the Quran to hide fears that the passengers will find out what has happened in New York and Washington. The film does not explore the terrorists’ backgrounds, nor does it ever mention Osama bin Laden. It puts you on the plane at 8 a.m., keeps you sitting on the runway until 8:42 and lets you experience the unimaginable panic that those people felt when the hijackers killed the pilots with box cutters.

When the plane crashes in rural Pennsylvania at 10:03 a.m., the screen goes dark and the movie is over. The director knew better than to try to add commentary. He gives you a moment to remember where you were when you heard the news.

Of the 2,819 people who died in the Sept. 11 attacks, 1,717 of them left their families no remains. Their bodies were burned or vaporized. United 93 is an admirable attempt to honor those victims. It is also a chilling reminder that the war on terror is not over.

Note: United 93 is rated R for language and scenes of intense violence. I took my high school-age children because I want them to know that Christian faith endured, even in one of our nation’s darkest moments.

Lee Grady is editor of Charisma and an award-winning journalist.