Paul Greengrass has spent the larger part of his career crafting socially aware, humane films about some of the thorniest issues of our modern day—the flashpoint at which politics turn to violence, beliefs slip into zealotry—in addition to helming an international blockbuster thriller, 2004’s The Bourne Supremacy.
He is perhaps best remembered for his critically acclaimed, cinéma vérité exploration of the 1972 incident in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, when 13 unarmed civil rights demonstrators were shot by British soldiers—2002’s visceral drama, Bloody Sunday. In his review of the film, Los Angeles Times’ critic Kenneth Turan called it, “A compelling, gut-clutching piece of advocacy cinema that carries you along in a torrent of emotion as it explores the awful complications of one terrifying day. Bloody Sunday shows the power of real events dramatically conveyed. Made by writer-director Paul Greengrass out of a sense of communal outrage that has not gone away, this film never wavers, never loses its focus or its conviction. Bloody Sunday does the spirit of that awful day full and unforgettable justice.”
Greengrass is, therefore, uniquely qualified to tackle a film that concerns the events that occurred on September 11, 2001, possessing both sensitivity to the subject matter (and its larger themes) and the cinematic talent to handle such a project (with its multiple story threads and constantly shifting viewpoint). Since that autumn day nearly five years ago, the filmmaker has been intent upon telling a story of the epochal events of 9/11, with the question being, “At what point is it okay to put such a painful time on the screen?”
According to Greengrass—informed with interviews from more than 100 family members and friends of the 40 fallen passengers and crew—the right time is when the families say, “Yes.”
Greengrass says, “There are all sorts of films made. We make films to divert us, to entertain us and to make us laugh—to take us to fantasy worlds and to make us understand love. But also, there’s a place for films that explore the way the world is. And Hollywood has a long and honorable track record of making those types of films as well.”
What Greengrass believes is that in examining the story of United 93, we see, in shocking microcosm and within the span of a mere half-hour, the challenges that now face our world as a whole. He continues, “Forty ordinary people had 30 minutes to confront the reality of the way that we’re living now, decide on the best course of action and act. They were the first people to inhabit the post 9/11 world—at a time when the rest of us were watching television dumbstruck, unable to understand what was going on. At that moment, those people onboard that airplane knew very well—they could see exactly what they were dealing with—and were faced with a dreadful choice. Do we sit here and do nothing and hope for the best, hope it turns out all right? Or do we do something about it? And if so, what can we do?
Movie Database
In Theaters
