Susan Nielsen: ‘United 93’ important
A generation from now, teenagers will learn about Sept. 11 in history class. It will be something that happened before they were born, a million years ago, lumped together with World War II and Vietnam.
They’ll ask us what the day was like, maybe as part of their homework. We’ll fumble to explain.
Or we can encourage them to watch “United 93.” Seeing this Hollywood movie about terrorist hijackings is not necessary now, less than five years after the attacks. We know how the day felt. We know how the movie ends.
But people forget. “United 93” will be one way to remember. It’s a profoundly moving tribute to the passengers, crew and their families. It’s also a meditation on American culture, a mirror held up to reflect the traits we take for granted.
The Americans depicted in this film are propelled by work, eager to stay on schedule. They travel great distances as naturally as breathing. They are almost unable to comprehend an unhappy ending.
This is who we were, on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Maybe we’re still like that and will remain so for generations to come. Or maybe we’re becoming more jaded, ready to assume the worst.
Either way, this movie should be part of the cultural record. And it could be the basis for a thousand classroom discussions about bravery, fear, leadership and love.
You already know the plot. Four Muslim terrorists hijack a Boeing 757 with the intent to crash it into the White House or Capitol (the movie assumes it was the latter). It’s part of an orchestrated plan to attack the economic, military and political centers of the United States.
One part fails. Passengers on Flight 93 hear, through telephone conversations with people on the ground, about the other hijackings. They realize they’re stuck on a suicide mission, and they plot a revolt that ends with the airplane crashing in a Pennsylvania field instead of into the Capitol.
This is one of the great stories of American history. But already, it’s all too easy to think of the people involved as cardboard cutouts: the noble passengers, the evil terrorists, the anonymous air traffic controllers and military leaders.
“United 93” delivers a jolt of reality. It doesn’t place the victims at a safe distance by lionizing their heroism and enshrining their suffering. It’s no memorial. It’s just a movie, with re-created dialogue and artful editing. But somehow, it brings the people back to life.
A generation from now, teenagers will watch this movie and see the ordinary-looking passengers with their dated clothing and timeless chitchat. They’ll see the terrorists, too, looking more like nervous foreign exchange students than evildoers.
They’ll watch how these four young men are able to bully several dozen able-bodied people into submission. Though the terrorists have knives, their most effective weapon is fear.
Those teenagers in history class will see the air traffic controllers, played in some cases by their real-life counterparts, with mouths agape as they try to make sense of an airplane-shaped hole in the side of a burning skyscraper. They’ll watch military leaders struggle to respond to an act of war without direction from the president.
They’ll see how strange it was, in a country that never stops moving, to ground every airplane and cancel every flight.
Mostly, they’ll see the passengers on the plane, coming to grips with death and calling their spouses and parents and children. Their longing to connect, one more time, was as clear and sharp as wings against sky.
This is how it felt, we can tell them. This is exactly how it felt.