UNITED 93 is the best film of the year so far and by far...- Page 3

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 2:43pm

Do you think the figures for its opening will increase once Sunday sale profits are entered.

I think UNITED 93 will stick around in the coming weeks amongst the kiddy and comedic fair for its raw look at a day we shall not forget. I have yet to see the film, but I am going to. I'll cry & it will be tough. But I feel this film shows as Alice Hoagland- Mark Bingham's mother said on Larry King "The first true victory of America over terrorists"

[RobbO]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 2:46pm

the estimates for the weekend include a projection of sunday's numbers. it's usually fairly accurate but can fluctuate either way by a million dollars or so.

final figures will be released on monday afternoon.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 2:49pm

Thats good to know.

[Burlesquebabe]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 4:06pm

I thought the acting was a bit off but overall it was alright.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 4:13pm

I was watching SHOWBIZ TONIGHT (my favorite entertainment show.) and one of the guys who reviewed it said there was no character development- and that it was because all the families didnt want one passanger to be more noticed than another.

[SweetQintheLights]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 4:50pm

Wow!

I just got back and it hasn't all quite sunk in yet so this is barely a review.

I'd call this a moving movie but I hate to say that as it seems to have a positive connotation. Let's just say- it was well done. It wasn't a movie- it was reality.

I was surprised to see how much of the movie focused on the control rooms and not flight 93 itself but it worked out well. Every single person in that movie was perfect. My knuckles are still white...I could not let go of my coat. I brought tissues but oddly enough, didn't shed a tear. There were some points I got teary eyed (like people on the plane calling home) but I never did use a tissue. However, the tissue did get wet from the numerous amount of sweat on my hands. There were some points my heart was pounding and I thought I was going to pass out- I wanted to walk out of the theater but I'm glad I didn't. The theater had to be 90% full. However, towards the middle, some people walked out. At the end, I'd say, 10% had left.

It was odd because at the beginning, I knew who most of the terrorists were and thats the only thing I'm not sure I liked. Of course they acted like the others but they were focused on it such a way- you knew it was going to be them.

The way everybody on the plane worked together was amazing. Everything was so real. Even the terrorists. You could tell they were nervous. Sweating. Deciding when was the 'right time.' I think they really had their character choices in tact. Honestly, I could definitley imagine how it was to be on that plane. I am now wondering how the people are feeling that were in the movie.

The most awkward part was the end. After it crashed into the grass, everything was silent for 20 seconds (which felt much longer). It has to be the most awkward 20 seconds...People were sniffling/crying but I and my friend were just staring at the blank screen.

After the paragraphs were shown, people sat there for a few seconds before getting up. The theater was huge and my friend and I were one of the last ones out; As everyone was piling out of the theater, there wasn't a word.
It was strange- but I guess thats what I expected.

Before the movie my friend and I decided we were going to get something to eat afterwards. That never happened. We both felt sick.

I highly recommend that people see this movie. If anyone has any doubts of it being embellished on anything of the like- I assure you, it's not. It's real. Pure. True.
Of course, if for personal reasons you cannot see the movie, I understand but for those who were hesitant to give 'pocket money'- it really isn't pocket money. This movie deserves as much as it can get.

Updated On: 4/30/06 at 04:50 PM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 5:02pm

Wow. I'm going next weekend. I just hope I dont cry alot. Even though I will.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 6:58pm

The most awkward part was the end. After it crashed into the grass, everything was silent for 20 seconds (which felt much longer). It has to be the most awkward 20 seconds...People were sniffling/crying but I and my friend were just staring at the blank screen.

I disagree strongly. I didn't think it was awkward at all. In fact, as I said in a previous post, I thought it was the most moving moment of the entire film. I didn't find it awkward one bit. I thought it was necesarry so that the audience could gather their thoughts and I also thought it was respectful, giving the audience a few seconds of silence to reflect on not only the film but September 11th itself.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 7:00pm

Sorry DBilly; um I guess what I meant was that it hit every emotional note right and it told the story in the most flawless way possible. It was well written, well cast, well directed, well-shot, well-edited; I guess that's what I meant by saying it got everything right.

[Burlesquebabe]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 7:07pm

I personally didn't find it all that moving, some parts got to me but just some of the acting didn't help convey the true feelings of those who were invovled. I don't see all the hype, and on a side note those who don't want to shell out any dough can watch the movie on A&E.

[DBillyP]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 7:17pm

Thank you for the clarification! My worry was that in saying, "This movie gets everything right" you meant factually.

It is one of the reasons that I am not interested in seeing this film. I think may people will accept the speculative storytelling as fact, rather than an a well-researched assumption.

It is interesting that you mentioned THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST. I had, and have, the same concern about that film. Mel Gibson attempted to make a historically accurate film, which is admirable. However, I think many people now accept it as fact despite that historians suggests that his depiction is flawed. (For example, modern research indicates that Jesus was actually nailed through the wrist and not the palm. Also, it is quite likely that the cross on which he was crucified was actually a tau cross and not the traditional one that many of us wear around our necks.)

More importantly for me, I do not want to see this film because I do not need the reminder. I remember the day well. I don't need to see a cinematic depiction in order to know the horror. Coincidentally, this is also one of the reasons I did not see THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST. I accept, by faith, that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate. Seeing it graphically dramatized would not change my belief.

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 7:47pm

I may not have to see this since I watched Flight 93 in its entirety today on A&E. I was mesmerized by the film. Not for one second was I aware that these were actors. Wisely there were no big names, but the cast was excellent. Each character was played so well, that I thought I was watching a documentary with the actual people involved. My heart was beating overtime during most of this film-it had me 100% from beginnning to end. If you have A&E, please watch it if they air it again.

[SweetQintheLights]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 8:38pm

Is this the show you are talking about Jane? "Portrait of Courage: The Untold Story of Flight 93"

I thought I saw a tv program a couple of years ago on PBS just called "Flight 93" but the show I mentioned about happens to be on tv on May 7th at 8:00- on WPXM. However, it said the first airing was April 27th, 2006 so it couldn't have been the tv program I watched a couple years ago.

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 8:45pm

I'm not sure. My tv has a guide on the screen and all it said was Flight 93. Do you know the rest of the schedule for airings?

[opiv]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 8:52pm

I also watched Flight 93 on A&E today, which was very similar to something I saw on A&E on Sept 11.

[Dre2387]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 9:39pm

i saw the film today. I liked it. I didn't start crying till the passengers were calling love ones but before, I was sniffing and some tears came. There was this couple behind me that chuckled a few times and it pissed me off. I thought they were a young couple, but afterwards, when I saw them leave, they were a middle age couple. that really pissed me off. I thought it was good that they didn't concentrate on single passengers or as one person as the hero. It didn't follow any rules at all (ie, hero, love story, proper ending). Also, I got into the theatre two minutes late, thinking I had plenty of time cause of trailers and commercials. But, actually, there was nothing. Straight to the film. very interesting.

what I thought was incredible was that a lot of the people in the air control centers in the film were the real people in the centers during 9/11. I don't know how they could have gone through it again.

It also helped a lot that I didn't recgnize anyone, except Cheyenne Jackson and maybe one of the old guys but no big name stars. That was nice.

I'm interested in seeing how the film with Nicholas Cage is.

Updated On: 4/30/06 at 09:39 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 10:32pm

WickedRocks wrote, "This movie gets everything right and tells the story in such a fragile and sensitive way but it also tells it like it was."

The ever-insightful SweetQ wrote, "Let's just say- it was well done. It wasn't a movie- it was reality.... I highly recommend that people see this movie. If anyone has any doubts of it being embellished on anything of the like- I assure you, it's not. It's real. Pure. True."

Now, let's take a deep breath, okay? What UNITED 93 is, is a MOVIE. And it's a movie that will be used to tell part of the story of that day for generations. I mean, the fiction of it is already being touted right here by one of our very own young'uns as not being embellished and by somebody else as "telling it like it was."

The Village Voice review reminds us that, [oh, uh SPOILER, of a sort, I guess] "Perhaps mindful of his target audience, Greengrass makes sure to dangle some red-state red meat. In the blurry rebellion that is United 93's raison d'être—a spoiler follows—the passengers appear to kill two of the terrorists. It's the most problematic of the movie's unverifiable events, and one might say its biggest concession to popular taste. In dramatic terms, it's the only instant of catharsis. This act of self-defense may have happened, and the filmmakers are entitled to wish it did."

I point this out to help prevent the further erosion of the discussion of this movie from being about what it is, a DOCUDRAMA, to what some might need to believe it is: a documentary.

I probably would not have seen this movie tonight if my friend hadn't wanted to go. I tend to pick out the movies we see but he didn't want to see Akeelah and The Bee no matter how much I pointed out that Ebert and Roeper practically begged people to go see it on their show a couple weeks ago. I wouldn't have made an effort to see UNITED 93 at all. Ever.

For one thing, UNITED 93 seemed like it was just going to be so much emotional work to sit through, and it was. For another, I was leery of the end title that Auggie mentioned in the beginning of this thread, and am happy to verify that there is no title that says "And the US war on terrorism had begun!" Thank god.

Much of the experience was surreal. Even asking for the tickets seemed odd. Sitting in a theater with people eating popcorn and drinking their giant beverages was odd. I kept thinking how profoundly post-modern and American this was. To be there getting ready to watch a one-time unimagineable story unfold fewer than five years after it took place. With popcorn and all that. How odd, odd, odd.

For about the first half hour I was aware of myself and many people in the theater doing little things that acted as distancing mechanisms, whether it was talking to people they were with, or snacking compulsively. Anything to take ourselves out of the narrative.

And it was a narrative I was very resistant to for that first half hour. About 2/3 of the air traffic control people and military people played themselves, and I found myself focusing on them and thinking, "oh, yeah, well, his clunkiness on camera helps remind me I'm watching a movie." Which is also post-modern, if you think about it. The actual people being not quite "natural" enough.

I was aware of how frought with meaning each frame was supposed to be and felt critical of how the passengers are portrayed from the boarding to flight preparations sequences. There wasn't a single grumpy passenger, every single person was so incredibly grateful for each offer of a beverage and with a big smile for anybody who spoke to them.

Of course, again, this is something that was obviously a deliberate film making choice because while I do not believe that the real people on the flight were like this continuously, I am aware that they were real people and nobody wanted to portray a person who died as "that ****in first class." At some point, though, I thought, "Well, where's Linda Blair as a transplant patient?"

I was also aware of WHY I was thinking of those things, to relieve the anxiety and dread that pervades the movie because we know what happens. As the Voice review pointed out, it's "the opposite of suspense."

Of course because movies are just tricks of shadow and light on a screen, everything about the cinematic experience is a study in manipulation (like the percussive pulsebeats on the soundtrack that inherently alter the viewer's experience). Basically, I try not to discount movies simply because of that. I was, however, acutely aware of how we are no longer provided subtitles when the highjackers speak to each other after the rebellion had begun.

There was no audible "bawling" in the theater I saw it in. There was stunned silence at the end. And I have to say, I felt two things, that are oddly contradictory. I felt some small sense of PTSD, just a little bit of that godawful sense of depression. Actually, it was more than a small sense of that. It was fairly encompassing.

And, here's the part I didn't expect, I was so glad I saw it in a theater with other people, people I didn't know as well as the most important person in my life, who was sitting next to me. I love the ritualistic enactment of a sort of sacred rite when I see live theater, and I rarely feel that sense of audience connection at movies. But I think there is profound value in sitting in a roomful of people, strangers, in the US, five years later, experiencing this dramatization. Whether or not I even saw the same movie as the folks two rows in front of me, I have no way of knowing.

And yeah, although I agree with the problematic catharsis the Voice pointed out, I am really glad it was there.

Plus, it's definitely worth going to the theater and seeing anything Luscious has taken a stand against sight unseen!

BTW, Chip Zien plays one of the passengers too, I stuck around for the credits to make sure it was he, whom I thought I recognized. Didn't want Cheyenne to get all the attention!

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 10:44pm

This post was an example of your writing talent Namo. Very good. I wish I weren't so aware of one error:
"There was no audible "bawling" in the theater I saw it in."

[DG]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 10:47pm

Thanks, Namo. Reading that was a better use of board time than I've had in quite awhile.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 10:50pm

Here is the line I had a problem with..."as well as the most important person in my life, who was sitting next to me."

I'm jealous!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 10:54pm

Go see Akeelah with me Chita and I'll give you a nice Popcorn Surprise.

[Chloe]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 10:55pm

"Bawling" is correct when someone means loud crying.

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 10:55pm

Namo, thanks for your thoughts. I am now considering seeing this movie!

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 10:57pm

I still have no interest in the movie, but thank you Namo.
The potential to read a post of that quality is why I continue to read these threads.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/30/06 at 10:59pm

I figured when I wrote my impressions and my surprise at the value I felt of seeing it in the theater, it might speak to people who felt like I did at first. I can't guarantee others will feel the way I did, but I found it worth it for me.