United 93 feels like a sacred film; like something that should be shown on TV every September 11th, like It's A Wonderful Life at Christmas-time. Not only is it the best film I have seen this year, but it is without any doubt the most important film released this year, and probably this decade. I can hear the Fahrenheit 911 crowd jumping to attack that statement, but I'd ask them to take a moment to think through this.
People need to remember what happened that day, stripped of all the political name-calling, second-guessing and hidden agendas. Can anyone really doubt this need?
What happened on 9/11 was a sneak attack that easily surpassed Pearl Harbor because it was an act of war on civilians by extremists and not governments. Thousands of innocent Americans died. If you have forgotten how you felt that day, then go see this film. You will remember. You should remember. We all should.
Take a moment and give your country a break. Don't try to minimize the film by talking about Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo or the war in Iraq. These were things that were set in motion by the events of September 11. That day was so tragic and awful that it deserves, for at least a few hours, to be understood in its own context and not what it spawned. In the same way that United 93 works because there is no back-story to the characters on the plane (we only know what they know and know them only by what we see them say and do on the plane), the film should be watched without trying to contextualize it with the events that grew from it. We do that every single day already from what I can read in the papers. We argue and accuse and second-guess and, from where I sit, we have forgotten the dark power of 9/11.
I've seen a lot of ink spilled in the past few weeks wondering if it was "too soon" for this film. Not for me. If anything, I wish it had come sooner.
For an actual review of the film, check the Movie Smackdown! blog in a few hours.
