By Rob Owen
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"United 93" brings it all back: The disbelief, the horror and the sickening feeling that descended on us on Sept. 11, 2001. More importantly, the film draws out such reactions without sensation, sentimentality or jingoism, painting as honest a portrait of the hijacking of Flight 93 as we're ever likely to see.

David Alan Basche as passenger Todd Beamer tries to reach home in "United 93." At top of page, crew and passengers charge to reclaim the plane from the hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001. "United 93" Rating: R for language and violence Starring: David Rasche, David Alan Basche, Denny Dillon. Director: Paul Greengrass. Trailer: Movie trailer for "United 93" "United 93" website MORE COVERAGE Flight 93 film frays families' fragile emotions Director says families back vivid retelling of 93's saga. Family Film Guide report.

Written and directed by British filmmaker Paul Greengrass ("The Bourne Supremacy," "Bloody Sunday"), the 110-minute movie opens with details of a routine, mundane day that ring true. Whether it's the passengers at the airport waiting for their flight or the air traffic controllers (some of whom play themselves) and flight attendants arriving for a day of work, "United 93" depicts normalcy in the starkest terms.

Almost 30 minutes elapse between the start of the movie and the time United Airlines Flight 93 is airborne, and it's another 30 minutes before terrorists commandeer the plane. In between, the movie traces chaotic reactions to the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, first among air traffic controllers and later among military commanders. "United 93" is pulse-pounding, harrowing and threatens to exhaust some moviegoers long before the film becomes even more personal (and immeasurably sad) when Flight 93 is hijacked.

When that happens, the film's focus, rightly, shifts to a dramatic re-creation of what might have gone on inside the cabin of the Boeing 757. Once it takes off, the plane's exterior is not shown again and the audience never sees family members of the passengers and crew on the other end of goodbye phone calls. The passengers and crew are stuck in the plane, and Greengrass puts the audience there with them, another stylistic choice that ratchets up tension.

In casting the passengers, Greengrass employs actors who are largely unknown and are called on to react more than they are to act (much of the filming on the plane was improvised). There are a few exceptions -- including TV actors David Rasche ("Sledge Hammer!"), David Alan Basche ("Three Sisters") and Denny Dillon ("Women in Prison") -- but even they blend into the cabin and don't call attention to themselves.

Greengrass' even smarter move was not identifying individual passengers. A few stand out, not because Greengrass makes great efforts to name them, but because audiences already know so much about them (Mark Bingham was the rugby player; Todd Beamer was the one who said, "Let's roll!"). We'll never know who did what in the uprising on Flight 93, and it's silly to play oneupsmanship regarding who the biggest hero might have been. It makes sense that Greengrass doesn't personalize the passengers, instead evoking a "one for all, all for one" ethos as they seek to wrest control of the plane.

When the terrorists kill passengers and crew members on Flight 93, Greengrass films it as sensitively as possible without glossing over that it's murder. Those scenes are not overly graphic, making them more chilling than gruesome. And in the final moments of flight, Greengrass doesn't try to depict in much specificity the struggle between passengers and terrorists inside the cockpit; instead, the camera's gaze drifts to the cockpit window and the approaching ground below, ending with a black screen (no sound effects), as Flight 93 crashes in Somerset County.

"United 93" offers little in the way of commentary on the events of the day, though it does present vivid details of the military's ineffectiveness as the situation unfolded. The film also lays out the passengers' plan to retake the plane and install a passenger as pilot (one who had experience flying small planes). That will to survive is often lost to 9/11 mythology that portrays passengers and crew strictly as heroes who selflessly stopped the hijackers from destroying the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

"United 93" is not the first dramatic re-creation of that day, but it's easily the best. Cable network A&E's January movie, "Flight 93," was the worst of the lot (it repeats tomorrow at 9 p.m. on A&E), while Discovery Channel's September 2005 premiere, "The Flight That Fought Back," was an empathetic film that got many details right in its mix of re-created drama and documentary-style interviews with family members of the victims.

By virtue of a larger budget and an even greater attention to detail, "United 93" escapes cynical scrutiny that might suggest it's a quick grab for cash at the expense of the dead. To the contrary, it's an artful film that will help ensure the events of that terrible day are not forgotten.