Flight 93 (2006) (TV)

Director:

Peter Markle

Writer (WGA):

Nevin Schreiner (written by)

Release Date:

30 January 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History

Tagline:

Four terrorists wanted to turn flight 93 into a weapon. Forty brave passengers and crew stopped it from reaching its target.

Plot:

Flight 93 is the story of the heroic passengers that took back their plane in an effort to stop a 9-11 terrorist attack.

Plot Keywords:

Terrorist | Passenger | Airplane | United Airlines Flight 93 | Terminal

Awards:

Won Primetime Emmy. Another 2 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Jeffrey Nordling	...	Tom Burnett
Brennan Elliott	...	Todd Beamer
Kendall Cross	...	Deena Burnett
Ty Olsson	...	Mark Bingham
Monnae Michaell	...	Lisa Jefferson (Verizon Supervisor)
Colin Glazer	...	Jeremy Glick
April Telek	...	Lyz Glick (as April Amber Telek)
Laura Mennell	...	Elizabeth Wainio
Dominic Rains	...	Ziad Jarrah (as Amin Nazemzadeh)
Gwynyth Walsh	...	Esther Heyman
Jacqueline Ann Steuart	...	Lauren Grandcolas
Karen Holness
Marilyn Norry	...	Alice Hogland (Mark Bingham's mother)
Kirsten Williamson	...	Melodie Homer
Biski Gugushe	...	LeRoy Homer Jr.

Also Known As:

Le vol 93 (Canada: French title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some violence and emotional depiction of the hijack situation.

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

Arabic | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

USA:TV-PG | USA:PG-13 | UK:12 | Germany:12 | Finland:K-11 | Singapore:M18 | Netherlands:12 | Portugal:M/12

Filming Locations:

Delta, British Columbia, Canada

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: In the scene where the fighter pilots are advised that the plane went down, the jet in the background takes off and the camera stays on the other jet. In the cockpit, you can see that fighter pilot waving at the camera.

Movie Connections:

Version of United 93 (2006)

A Dreadfully Melodramatic Spin on a Real Tragedy

Saw it on A&E last night and the only thing that drew me in was the curiosity of how much worse it might get. All the shots of innocent children playing were gratuitous and emotionally manipulative. The opening scenes of the baggage inspectors being so thorough was a bit contrived (apparently they were doing a better job back then than they do now). I got the sense that one of the goals of this film was to exculpate the federal government for its complacency, which after all is almost as much to blame for 9/11 as the hijackers. The hijackers were one-dimensional characters, almost like video game characters. There is no effort to show what their motives might have been, or to show that actual people did these things. I might be accused of sympathizing with the terrorists, but the fact is that they had a rationale (twisted as it was) for doing what they did, and if we are to end terrorism, we need to know and understand why it happens. I also couldn't identify with any of the passengers. Perhaps if the film makers spent less effort portraying the idyllic lives they lost (beautiful homes, beautiful children--did they really all live in tree-lined mansions in the countryside with angelic children) and spent more time on character development, it would have brought the pathos home. The Lord's Prayer sequence was particularly crass. If this wasn't based on a real event, it would simply have been an utterly forgettable B disaster movie not worth commenting on. As it is, this movie is a poor tribute to those who died that day, and a ghoulish attempt to satisfy our curiosity for what it might have been like to be on the plane that day rather than help us understand what happened and why.