8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.8 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
A real time account of the events on United Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked on 9/11, that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania when passengers foiled the terrorist plot.
Starring: Patrick St. Esprit, Polly Adams, Christian Clemenson, Denny Dillon, Kate Jennings GrantHistory | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Video codec: VC-1
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: DTS 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: DTS 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Japanese: DTS 5.1
French (Canada): DTS 5.1
German: DTS 5.1
Italian: DTS 5.1
Spanish: DTS 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Korean, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Swedish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
BD-Live
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Where were you on the morning of September 11, 2001? If you’re old enough to remember that day, chances are you’re old enough to know exactly what you were doing when you first heard that the United States had suffered its worst terrorist attack in history. For me, that day is emblazoned in my mind not just for the horrifying events that affected everyone as the scope of the tragedy played out in front of the world’s unbelieving eyes, but for a number of more personal reasons as well. First of all, my wife had left for a business trip to Seattle on the afternoon of September 10, leaving me to deal with our then two very young sons by myself, one of the first times I had ever attempted that feat (overnight in any case). September 11 was also the first day my eldest son was going to ride the bus to school, a big event in any kid’s (or parent’s for that matter) life. Most importantly, though, just through the vagaries of fate and/or chance, my own eldest sister had flown out from her North Carolina home on September 9 because we had chosen (months previously) September 11 as the day to finally wade through our late father’s military memorabilia. My Dad was a well known Army General who in true military fashion left huge amounts of historical documents behind (“in triplicate,” as my sister joked), and we needed to decide which of these we wanted to keep ourselves and which we wanted to donate to the large military museum at Utah’s Fort Douglas he had founded (and which is housed in a building bearing his name). Also just by chance, I had decided to defragment my computer late on the evening of September 10, and I awoke very early on the morning of September 11 to see if it had finished. I logged on to AOL (hey, that was state of the art in 2001) and saw the breaking news that a plane had hit the first tower, then believed to be an accident, so early in the unfolding was I joining the story. Within mere seconds I heard a frantic pounding at my front door, and it was my sister and her husband urging me to turn on the television—the second plane had just hit the second tower and we knew we were under attack. Such are the perhaps trivial memories imprinted on each of us from that morning, memories that will never be erased simply due to their confluence with world events erupting in such a tragic manner. How awful it must be for those with loved ones who perished that day to have to live not only with their own imprinted memories of “before” and “during” but also with the horrible knowledge that someone close to them died in the attack. Perhaps there’s some small measure of solace for those whose loved ones died in Flight 93, for as we all know now, the flight was unique in that the passengers found out what had happened outside the confines of their jet and took it upon themselves to fight back, thus making themselves national heroes (quite different than “national martyrs,” something the terrorists evidently saw themselves as being).
United 93 is presented on Blu-ray with an VC-1 encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Greengrass goes for a verité look here and so many scenes are filmed in what appears to be natural lighting, and grain is considerably increased at times due to the low light. The overall image is reasonably sharp here, sometimes astoundingly so as the early autumn light suffuses certain scenes. (In fact that gorgeous fall light which was so glorious that day is very ably recreated throughout the film). Some of the darkest scenes, including in the somewhat shadowy corners of the air traffic controllers' tower, tend to suffer from some minor crush, but otherwise there are few if any issues to report with this transfer. Both the golden hues penetrating the windows of the plane and the blue-green light of the air traffic controllers' screens pop quite nicely throughout this presentation. Colors are very natural and lifelike, fine detail is more than abundant, especially in the many close-ups, and the image boasts considerable depth of field and clarity.
United 93 features an extremely involving and immersive lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that is incredibly well realized. The film starts quietly enough, though with some nice surround elements, as various people get to the Newark airport, but once we're out on the tarmack and jet engines are revving, the audio picks up substantially, with some brilliantly robust LFE and great panning effects. Dialogue is very well placed around the soundfield, especially when one considers that the bulk of this film takes place in confined spaces like the aircraft or the air traffic controllers' tower. Fidelity is top notch, with incredibly full sounds across all frequency ranges. The mix tends to get rather cluttered as things devolve into chaos toward the end of the film, but even then there's a remarkable clarity and separation to all of the elements being utilized.
The tenth anniversary of 9/11 is of course an opportunity to reflect, to think back, to remember and perhaps even to pray if you're so inclined. I started this review with my own personal recollections, and this film brought back that day in all its chilling intensity. Chances are as the media inundates us with anniversary specials and the like, you'll have your own memories to sift through and digest. There is no way to get through United 93 without reliving the tragedy of that horrible morning, and for those who can't bear to face those kinds of memories, it's probably better to stay away from this film entirely, at least until more time has passed. But there is no denying the film's immediacy, its well constructed and even keeled approach to depicting a tragedy from which we know going in there will be no escape, and for its clear headed technique which refuses to sensationalize anything. United 93 is a very hard film to watch, but this Blu-ray offers the film in a brilliant presentation, and if you can bear to watch it, it is most definitely Highly recommended.
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