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United 93
Universal Pictures


7.5

based on 39 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 242 votes
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FILM:

TV:

MPAA RATING: R for language, and some intense sequences of terror and violence

Starring JJ Johnson, Polly Adams, Cheyenne Jackson, Opal Alladin, Starla Benford, Trish Gates, Nancy McDoniel, and David Alan Basche

Acclaimed filmmaker Paul Greengrass writes and directs an unflinching drama that tells the story of the passengers and crew, their families on the ground and the flight controllers who watched in dawning horror as United Flight 93 became the fourth hijacked plane on the day of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil: September 11, 2001. (Universal Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Paul Greengrass
DIRECTED BY:	Paul Greengrass
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: September 5, 2006 Theatrical: April 28, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	90 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	UK / USA

Named 2006's best film by the New York Film Critics Circle.

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Greengrass has made not only a thoroughly fact-checked film but a film that uncontrovertibly comes from the heart.

100

The New Yorker David Denby

Greengrass’s movie is tightly wrapped, minutely drawn, and, no matter how frightening, superbly precise.

100

ReelViews James Berardinelli

United 93 is powerful not only in the way it provides hope through the actions of a few unlikely heroes, but in its ability to take us back through time to a day many of us would prefer not to remember, but will never forget.

100

USA Today Claudia Puig

An unflinching, powerfully visceral and haunting portrait of the tragic events aboard one of the terrorist-commandeered flights on the fateful morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

100

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

May be the most wrenching, profound and perfectly made movie nobody wants to see.

100

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

It is the highest compliment I can pay Greengrass to say that he is a master of the mundane, the routine and the everyday.

100

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Far from being exploitive, the effect is inspiring: This is the best of us.

100

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Brilliant, tightly focused, and momentous.

100

Time Richard Corliss

The controversial film that is unbearable--and unmissable.

100

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

What United 93 demonstrates, as if we needed proof, is that it is too soon - it may always be too soon - to sort out the feelings from that day.

100

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Quite remarkably, though, its clear-eyed view of an unprecedented American tragedy leaves us with emotions that audiences of those earlier days would readily recognize -- love of country, bottomless grief, an appreciation of life's preciousness and fragility. A film that can do this and also teach is to be cherished. And seen. It's time.

100

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

You’re unlikely to come across a more powerful film this year.

100

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The superb United 93, from the British writer-director Paul Greengrass, does not waste time defining the undefinable. Nor does it strain for poetry when, with this story, prose is enough.

100

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

It's Greengrass' way of asking a question that looms large in these post-9/11 days: Are we all praying to the same God, or is one man's God better than another, and one man's God vastly more terrifying?

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This is a masterful and heartbreaking film, and it does honor to the memory of the victims.

100

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

There's no cheap uplift to their victory, no pop catharsis. What's great about United 93 is that you never feel it's just a movie - even though, as a movie, it's terrific.

100

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

I am here to tell you that Greengrass has fashioned one of the most powerful films I have ever seen, and that watching it makes you value your loved ones and your privileges more, perhaps, than you ever have. He has made a film that makes you feel, makes you think and makes you want to connect. And that, finally, might be the greatest thing that art can do.

100

TV Guide Ken Fox

One of the most harrowing, viscerally upsetting films ever made.

100

Empire Dan Jolin

Impossible to recommend as a great Friday night out, yet agonisingly vital as thought-urging cinema.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

A respectful, accomplished, non-exploitative piece of historical filmmaking and -- for audiences -- a gripping white-knuckle ride all the way.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Pulling the bandage of sentiment cleanly away from oozing concepts like ''heroism'' and ''our nation's war on terror'' in the aftermath of recent wounds, here's a drama about the most politically charged crisis of our time that grants the dignity of autonomy to every soul involved.

Variety Brian Lowry

The result is a tense, documentary-style drama that methodically builds a sense of dread despite the preordained outcome.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

United 93 unfolds with the terrible inevitability of a modern-day "Battle of Algiers," with Greengrass exerting superb control of tone, structure and pace...United 93 may be the best movie I ever hated.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Instead of using actors, Greengrass employed many of the actual air traffic controllers and military commanders who were on the ground that day. Also aiding his film's universality is Greengrass' use of little known actors in the central roles, preventing stardom from affecting our ideas about heroism and patriotism.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

It's a long, brutal and honest look at a shattering event some Americans would apparently prefer not to see depicted - but also a respectful, inspiring one that's in no way exploitative or emotionally manipulative.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

I wouldn't recommend the movie to anyone, but if the families of the victims take something positive from it, as their cooperation with Greengrass suggests they do, that's justification enough.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The movie is hard going, not least in the sense of powerlessness it leaves in an audience that knows exactly what will happen. And yet you come out feeling that the filmmakers have done the right thing by these people, and by this day.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

There's nothing about United 93 that qualifies as entertainment in the traditional sense: It is an unpleasant, wrenching experience, which is just as it should be.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

It's an expertly made picture that I wish I could stamp out of my mind. What's the value of artistry that sucks the life out of you?

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Intellectually, we know we should applaud the marvels United 93 has accomplished, and we do. But it is a film envisioned as a monument, a memorial tribute, and in our hearts we want something more. United 93 should have been made now, when memories and passions are still fresh, but it may play better in the future. If we have one.

Village Voice Dennis Lim

Best understood as a memorial…Like most memorials, it is respectful, premised on competing obligations to the dead and the living, and eager to stress that the deaths were not in vain. It not only tells us we should never forget but also illustrates how we should remember.

Newsweek David Ansen

This is first-rate, visceral filmmaking, no question: taut, watchful, free of false histrionics, as observant of the fear in the young terrorists' eyes as the hysteria in the passenger cabin, and smart enough to know this material doesn't need to be sensationalized or sentimentalized.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Greengrass takes pains to keep events believable and relatively unrhetorical, rejecting entertainment for the sake of sober reflection, though one has to ask how edifying this is apart from its reduction of the standard myths.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

We all lived through this not so long ago; it's an odd thing to make a film whose most striking effect is its ability to bring the feelings of Sept. 11 flooding back, then close on a profoundly disturbing note. A crasser film would have been easier to digest and dismiss. It's hard to do either with United 93, and that's either its genius or its folly.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

There's just nothing artful about it, and it's Greengrass who deserves the credit. These nonactors don't act the way most people do when playing themselves. They act the way people do when they're being themselves.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Greengrass's reluctance to unduly demonize the villains or overly sentimentalize the victims is commendable on the surface, but it tends to blur the two sides and to mask the gulf that separates them.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

To see the flight captain and co-pilot checking the plane before takeoff, to watch the varied passengers settling into their seats, is more agonizing than watching passengers board the ship in all those "Titanic" films. With United 93 we see these people unknowingly stepping into a history that is still in terrible process. But as a work in (let's call it) the Akhmatova mode, it does not and could not succeed.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Its focus is purposely narrow. But that narrow focus, along with the lack of fully realized characters, and the absence of any historical or political context, raises the question of why, notwithstanding the usual (if shaky) commercial imperative, this particular movie was made.

Slate Dana Stevens

United 93, as grueling as it was to sit through, left me feeling curiously unmoved and even slightly resentful.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 242 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ian B. gave it a5:
Absolutely Boring the first 60 minutes of the film. The last 30 minutes make up for most of the film.

Nick A. gave it a10:
Paul Greengrass, acclaimed director of 'Bloody Sunday' and 'The Bourne Supremacy,' provides this film with intensity beyond climax; tautly and intoxicating retelling the events of the ill-fated journey of United Airlines flight 93, which would cease its travel in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Breaching my personal list of the "100 Greatest Movies Ever Made," Greengrass' '93' is easily the most emotionally strenuous film in a decade, leaving its viewers shocked and still and utterly silenced in horror by its conclusion, which, despite being a film of unparalleled quality, couldn’t come too soon. This film could go down as one of the greatest un-enjoyable movies ever made, alongside disturbing epics such as 'Schindler’s List' and Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ.' From the film's opening sequences to its HEART-POUNDING finale, I was on the plane, alongside the heroes, straight as a statue as I saw the dismay unravel. My knuckles were clearer than ice as a result of clinching my fists with such vigor. The tension was so disheartening I couldn't blink, leaving my eyes cracked as soil outliving a drought. My body was frozen; it was minutes before I could even move, and my shirt had doubled in size because my heart was beating through my chest with such force. 'United 93' is downright essential cinema. Unfortunately, due to its relentless psychological strain, I can't recommend it to anyone not prepared to witness one of the most brutally disquieting motion pictures of our time. The editing, the sound; sound editing, cinematography, acting, direction, screenplay, historical accuracy; it's all flawless. This movie is aberrantly sound; perfectly synchronized in every way and will go down as one of cinema's most monumental achievements when it's all said and done.

Jason J. gave it a10:
This movie has been playing non-stop on HBO lately and I cannot turn the channel once it's on. The old saying, "the truth has a certain ring to it" is fully applicable to this movie. It is so real, that you can't take your eyes off of it. The only viewers who would not be moved by this movie are those who really don't get, care, or are too scared about what happened on 9/11. For the rest of us, this movie is nothing short of a real-life, real-time evesdrop upon one of the most heart-wrenching things to ever happen to a group of human beings. I'm not the type of person who watches a movie more than once, but I've sat through this movie at least 4 times start to finish within the past month or two. This movie belongs in the national history archive and in any "top" list of movies. Truth is stranger than fiction and this movie certainly beats anything that's made-up. Watch it and remember.

Mike G. gave it a10:
Probably the most terrifying film ever made and certainly the best film of 2006. The pacing here is nothing short of demonic, but what elevates this film to the level of "masterpiece" is that it contains a stunning veracity that is as lyrical as it is painstakingly real. By not sensationalizing, by refusing to exploit, it stands in direct opposition to the glorified manipulations of the post-9/11 experience. This is a truly great film.

Luis R. gave it a10:
The most important and, quite possibly, the very best film of the year.

R G gave it a9:
Paul Greengrass is one of the best directors in the world right now. It should come as no surprise that he made a movie like this; if anyone saw his previous fictionally documetary film Bloody Sunday. Both movies are very similar in style and content. Both events have a significant place in history. we all knw how big 9/11 was and its place in history, even though its relatively fresh. That reason alone rejects ppls notion that its too early to tackle this. there is no exploitation, cheap thrills or any other Hollywood marketing scheme. Greengrass just commemorates. His portrayal of every character is hauntingly normal, and their vulnerability hints at that any of them could have been any of us who are still alive. it is in the end a choice for ppl who watch, to relive this vulnerability and face their feelings about this event.

Martin B. gave it a10:
When I went to the cinema to see this movie, I did not know who directed it. But whithin the first five minutes I realized the documentary, intense style an directly compared it with "Bloody Sunday", a former movie directed by Paul Greengrass. I thought: If this movie is any way like "Bloody Sunday" with this topic, it will be very amazing... And it took my breath away.

United 93 Universal Pictures

United 93
Universal Pictures