Just a quick one, to give a brief impression of United 93, the movie I saw this afternoon.
I started crying about three minutes in, when the taxi trip to Newark Airport showed the World Trade Centre, pre-8.36am Sept 11 2001, but this wasn't going to be a Hotel Rwanda, where I was basically weeping non-stop.
After that initial scene I didn't cry, I didn't feel a reaction to the movie for a long time - I was trying to reach inside myself to find an emotion to feel when watching the screen, but I couldn't, it was as if I only had a hole in the centre of me that was deflecting all the fear, the horror, the sadness, the tragedy and all that. And that felt wrong to me, not being able to find an emotion - I felt bad because of it.
The on-the-ground scenes at air traffic control and the rest were riveting. I was mentally shouting to the actors up there to think outside the square - the planes have gone under radar coverage over Manhattan, connect the dots, it's so easy to do. But it wasn't, back five years ago - it was unimaginable to connect those particular dots back then.
And at the military base, trying to get rules of engagement, trying to scramble jets to do whatever it was that might have been Plan B, I could just completely feel the frustration at not being able to shape events, to protect America and the absolute silence when the Pentagon was hit.
But still I was trying to find an emotion, any emotion inside myself to connect myself to the screen, other than a sense of detached appreciation that this was very well done. About the final half hour of the movie is focussed completely on what happened on Flight 93, with the growing sense of hopelessness and desperation among those in the air - masterfully done.
The screen went black, a few words came up, and I came to the realisation that I was trembling, my arms were shaking. I had searched for an emotion to connect to for two thirds of the movie, but in the high adrenaline of the ending, I had found it. Terror, in the purest sense of the word.
A must see movie, to take us back to how we reacted, how we felt that day. To forget all the other crap that has happened in the interim, and to focus on what actually happened.
Simply stunning, absolutely moving.
I started crying about three minutes in, when the taxi trip to Newark Airport showed the World Trade Centre, pre-8.36am Sept 11 2001, but this wasn't going to be a Hotel Rwanda, where I was basically weeping non-stop.
After that initial scene I didn't cry, I didn't feel a reaction to the movie for a long time - I was trying to reach inside myself to find an emotion to feel when watching the screen, but I couldn't, it was as if I only had a hole in the centre of me that was deflecting all the fear, the horror, the sadness, the tragedy and all that. And that felt wrong to me, not being able to find an emotion - I felt bad because of it.
The on-the-ground scenes at air traffic control and the rest were riveting. I was mentally shouting to the actors up there to think outside the square - the planes have gone under radar coverage over Manhattan, connect the dots, it's so easy to do. But it wasn't, back five years ago - it was unimaginable to connect those particular dots back then.
And at the military base, trying to get rules of engagement, trying to scramble jets to do whatever it was that might have been Plan B, I could just completely feel the frustration at not being able to shape events, to protect America and the absolute silence when the Pentagon was hit.
But still I was trying to find an emotion, any emotion inside myself to connect myself to the screen, other than a sense of detached appreciation that this was very well done. About the final half hour of the movie is focussed completely on what happened on Flight 93, with the growing sense of hopelessness and desperation among those in the air - masterfully done.
The screen went black, a few words came up, and I came to the realisation that I was trembling, my arms were shaking. I had searched for an emotion to connect to for two thirds of the movie, but in the high adrenaline of the ending, I had found it. Terror, in the purest sense of the word.
A must see movie, to take us back to how we reacted, how we felt that day. To forget all the other crap that has happened in the interim, and to focus on what actually happened.
Simply stunning, absolutely moving.
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