United 93: Even-Handed; Two Thumbs Up.

I saw United 93 last night.

It begins with the sound of hushed prayers in a language I assume to be Arabic. The opening scene is one of three or four men in their hotel rooms praying and shaving in the pre-dawn hours. Each is nervous and scared for obvious reasons. But as they make their way to the airport, they seem like any other group of travelers. Sure, they're not locals, not WASPS, but they come across as likable as any group of immigrant-students you might take classes with in a college somewhere. The one who ends up piloting the plane is someone I could see myself making conversation with while waiting to board. Nothing about these men seems evil or malicious. If anything, as the film begins they seem devout, earnest, and good. I had read the film treatment was even-handed in this way and watching it, I kept thinking:

Why not make the bad guys bad? Why not make the heroes heroic? Why be so even-handed?

I know all the best reasons, of course: an even tone is much more appealing to those who are less partisan, less patriotic, less-jingoistic than I. Remember all those journalists who were afraid to wear flag pins after 9/11 for fear their impartiality and credibility would be impugned? (What impartiality? What credibility?) People like that want an even tone, a movie that makes no judgments, that does not "tell you what to think," that just lets the facts speak for themselves. But Hollywood was not obsessed with moral relativism during World War II. Those movies never made Hitler or the Japanese look like America's moral equivalents. Few Cold War films made Soviets look like our equals. So I thought hard on this throughout the short, well-made film.

I enjoyed it very much and recommend it highly. Certainly a must-see. And you know what? It's a must-see for the moral relativist crowd. The even-handed tone works because what the terrorists did was so unspeakably evil it speaks for itself.

And later at home I kissed my sleeping wife and kids, thankful I had not had to make the sort of call made by those on board Flight 93. Then I kept looking around, listening, pacing. Checking the locks and wondering what that noise was I just heard. Turns out the even-handed tone left me as spooked as I have been in a long time. Spooked to know that could have been me, spooked that I would have trusted those guys, spooked that I could look pure evil in the face and not know it until it was too late.

Great movie.

P.S. Opening weekend found United 93 no. 2 at the box office.