United 93
I sat in the theater knowing exactly what was going to happen but for some reason I could barely breathe. I knew the stories, everyone did, but to see it up close tightened my stomach, put a lump in my throat, and tears in my eyes. The experience reaffirmed some of my beliefs and also taught me a few things.
First, the movie reaffirmed my belief that religion, all religion, is fucked. Plain and simple. Nothing says this more than seeing a man praise god while he slits the throat of an innocent woman. Second, it reaffirmed my belief that the government is straight up incompetent. It was so hard to watch the situation unfold right in front of their faces while they did nothing but fumble around and fuck it up. Third, it reaffirmed my belief that George W. Bush should have gotten off his dead ass when he learned that America was under attack instead of sitting there with that stupid look on his face for 7 minutes because every single moment counted. In fact we learned that Bush authorized the shooting down of civilian aircraft at 10:18am—thirteen minutes after the last flight (flight 93) had crashed.
Government had no idea what they were doing, the military had no idea what they were doing, in fact the only official who had any idea what to do was the man who grounded all the aircraft in the country. Beyond that, the passengers of flight 93, under conditions that are unimaginable, did more for the United States that day than any government official or military branch. They were the ones who made the first counter attack against al Qaeda, they were the ones who saved countless lives in Washington, and they were the ones who foiled the hijackers’ plans. Those people truly are heroes, I don’t know what else to say.
I saw this movie because I was curious and I needed a sense of closure, although I’m not sure I have it. But now that I’ve seen it, I don’t think I ever want to see it again. It was extremely difficult to watch.
