****Update****
Just got back from watching the film. It was everything I hoped and expected it to be. Lots of tears and lots of anger. It was very well done in communicating the surprise, confusion, shock, and ultimate realiztion that we were at war that day.

No doubt you will be asking yourself what would I have done. The front line responders in the military (with the exception of one guy) and the FAA flight controllers come off very well in this movie as they should.
It was definitely not a political movie. If you feel compelled to change your political views one way or the other then I would credit it to just how real this movie feels. It may just remind you that we are at war with deadly serious people.

There are several moments that will bring back September 11th 2001 like it was yesterday.
At the end of the film the theatre was dead silent. No one was moving. I am sure most were trying to collect themselves as I was before attempting to get up and return to the post 9/11 world. Someone started clapping, then a few more folks joined in, then they all seemed to realize at the same time it wasn’t appropriate and stopped. Be sure to see United 93 film as soon as you can.

Hot Air has a round up of reviews

I particularly liked the reviews from Brainster:

Positives: The first half the film is unemotional. This part of the film mostly takes place in various air traffic control centers, and while the controllers are upset and angry we are able to keep some distance. This is important because the emotions once the plane is hijacked are overpowering. You feel as though you are there, on the jet as the terrorists herd the passengers to the back.

and Right Wing Nut House:

Having committed themselves to their heroic effort to take back the cockpit, the passengers are in position in the back of the plane, the larger, stronger men occupying the first three rows closest to the terrorists. Then, it hits you. The look on their faces as they steel themselves to make the attempt mirrors exactly the looks on the faces of the hijackers just prior to their attack as the terrorists also had to summon up the courage to carry out their dastardly deed.

Whether intended or not, Greengrass reveals the faces of men at war. And even though there are no grand, overarching truths about humanity, or good and evil, or the superiority of one set of beliefs over another in U-93 (there is a short scene toward the end of the film that shows both passengers and terrorists praying), the singular fact that “they” attacked us and “we” fought back cannot be denied, cannot be hidden despite the desperate attempt by some over the last 5 years to do so. We are at war.

Now I am off to catch another flight.
*********

Just checking the blogosphere before heading out again and came across a post by Chris Bowers at MyDD titled United Flight 93. Chris asks this question:

This is why I have a question for the marketers for United Flight 93. Why are you only marketing this film to conservatives?

and the second comment on the post by Rowena answers his question:

My guess would be that the basic story line of the movie is more popular with Republicans and Bush supporters because its the “American hero” story that can’t be exposed as a lie, unlike Jessica Lynch’s Rambo exploits and the first version of Pat Tillman’s death. Everybody who could contradict it is dead.

The truth is, this movie is speculation and fiction. The official record contains very little to base a story of “American heroes saved Washington, DC” on and thats just a fact, whether acknowledging that fact hurts Democrats in the 2006 elections or not. Read the transcript of the Flight Recorder: it does not help the heroes story and 9/11 Commission was only willing to speculate what “must have” happened to posit a “heroes” story. Heroes and glory and war, war, war.

We’ve already paid a very heavy price for Democrats going along with dishonesty because they didn’t want to look churlish and apparently, thats not going to stop any time soon.

The truth is Chris many on the left don’t believe the passengers ever fought back. Many on the left are clammoring that the movie was ever made.

As Antidoto says further down in the comments:

As a New Yorker, I’m not sure I want to see more advertising for the film. Frankly, I wish it had never been made. I went to see a different movie a few weeks ago and they played the trailer, which as you may know includes footage of the planes striking the World Trade Center. The entire theater was aghast. I don’t know if people who didn’t live here at the time understand how viscerally disgusting the idea of using that footage in an advertisement is to New Yorkers. Obviously the people at Universal just don’t get it.

Of course Antidoto is wrong and he/she is the one who doesn’t get it. These people were heroes and their sacrifice, courage, and achievement deserves to be recognized and glorified as one of the great moments in American history set against the most horrific attack this country has ever endured.

Chris updated the post later and reports that Universal has now decided to advertise on lefty blogs. I think that’s great. I hope everyone who reads those blogs goes and sees the movie particularly Antidoto and Rowena.

Confederate Yankee puts it this way:

The marketers of this film simply spent their cash where they though they could find an emotional hook, an accord that would work the best for them. Greys attract Greys, and anyone who reads blogs know that most of the Greys have pitched their tents to the right of center, even if in a temporary state. Good marketers market where the bulk of their target demographic lies.

It really is an simple as that.

Hyscience highly recomends the movie:

This movie is amazing and I highly recommend it to everyone.

I expected the movie to be slanted, as most Hollywood movies are. But I was wrong. It was amazing. It was factual. There was not a sound in the theater and at the end people just sat there for a few seconds (although it seemed much longer) in silence.

Taylor Marsh tells us:

There is an old saying. Arlington National Cemetary doesn’t have headstones engraved with Democratic or Republican. On 9/11, it wasn’t members of the Republican or Democratic parties who died in those planes and in the buildings. It was Americans and people of many other countries, as well as the patriots on United Flight 93 who fought back against the terrorists and chose to die rather than let those bastards win.
I agree completely Taylor. I hope Chris’s commenters read it and agree.

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