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Director:
Paul Greengrass
Cast:
Opal Alladin, Erich Redman, Ben Sliney, Susan Blommaert, Peter
Hermann |
MPAA Rating:
R for some intense sequences of
terror and violence. |
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Review:
 People
are saying that this is too early to relive the events of Sept.
11, 2001. After all, the wound is still very deep and the war that
was started by the attacks is still going on, but on the other
hand, we've already had lots and lots of takes on the attacks,
including at least two TV movies and dozens of books and
documentary films, including one that made over a hundred million
dollars at the box office. So there's really nothing to complain
about, at least on that account.
So what are we to make of the “Tora! Tora! Tora!” of World War
III?
Well, this is docudrama at it's best. Done in real time, we see
the hijackers(Louis Alsamari, Jamie Harding, Omar Berdouni and
Khalid Abdalla) praying in their hotel rooms while everybody else
goes on about their business. Except for SNL vet Denny Dillon and
David Rasche, as passengers on the ill-fated flight, there's no
one who can actually claim to be anything close to being a movie
star, and in fact auteur Paul Greengrass actually got FAA
operations manager Ben Sliney and a number of other people to play
themselves. Not that it helped any, but it didn't detract either.
There are so many parts here, that except for the hijacker who
actually is flying the plane(Abdalla), everyone is just a face in
the crowd, and considering the events of that day, that's the way
it should have been…
The best thing about the film is the tension. Like, say,
“Titanic,” we know how the thing is going to end before we get in,
the plane crashes in Pennsylvania, but since the film just doesn't
take place on the plane, but in he control towers in New York and
New Jersey, the FAA headquarters in Virginia and the Military air
lanes monitoring station in upstate New York, we get the full
blown confusion and horror as the crisis gets bigger and more
horrific.
This is an exceptionally fine film, and is going to be as close as
we're ever going to get when it comes to recreating the events of
9/11. There's no politics here, just memory. It's going to be seen
eventually, and when the public is ready, it'll be considered a
classic.
Eric Lurio
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