I saw it last night, and as many reviewers have said, it is harrowing. Writer/director Paul Greengrass set the story as a “fly on the wall” experience for viewers, which created an appropriate tone and sobriety to consider what took place on 9/11. There was no “acting” that was clearly intended to activate emotions. I felt like I was just watching ordinary folks in an extraordinary situation, and that in itself is a tribute to the players and Greengrass.
Most impressive to me was that the most intense scenes (with the exception of the ending) were not those captured on the plane, but instead were those of air traffic controllers and military decisionmakers. Many of these people played themselves in the film. I think it would be very difficult to recreate emotions and reactions from probably the most memorable day of their lives, but maybe I’m wrong. Much has been written about the good performance of Ben Sliney, the National Operations Manager for the FAA (who was on his first day on the job) who played himself in the movie. I was more impressed with the individual air traffic controllers who were trying to figure out which planes were hijacked and which ones weren’t on that day. I truly shared in their frustration as I watched.
It ended exactly as I imagined it would, but the impact was not lessened at all because of that. At last, I was finally able to exhale.
These people were incredible heroes. They saved perhaps hundreds of lives; maybe thousands. Every American should see it, because they need the reminder of what our enemy did to us.
