**** out of four stars

&#8220United 93C is probably the most emotionally challenging and thought-provoking film I/ve seen since &#8220Schindler/s List.C

The film is as powerful as filmmaking gets. Of course, what is driving the tension of the film is the underlying fact that the horror in the air and chaos for authorities on the ground really happened. Despite how much it felt like a screenwriter/s fever dream, 9/11 was no Hollywood movie.

Cut to 2006 with our first Hollywood movie about 9/11. Thing is, nothing about the film screams &#8220Hollywood.C There/s no John Wayne type calling out &#8220Let/s roll!C

The real power of the film is that Director Paul Greengrass did his best to make sure there was no sense of escapism with this film. In fact, as an viewer of the film, you get the complete opposite of escapism. The film makes you confront reality.

Greengrass/s skill as a director is his complete avoidance of theatricality in presenting the film. He fills his scenes with people who look and act like the random people you meet at the airport. There are no heart-throbs, no babes and no character actors playing the &#8220heavy.C It/s this dynamic that gives the film a harrowing sense of immediacy, authenticity and almost unbearable tension.

The film chillingly opens in a hotel room where Al-Qaeda operatives Saeed al-Ghamdi, Ahmed al-Haznawi, Ahmed al-Nami, and Ziad Jarrah are seen praying and preparing for their suicide mission to attack the nation/s capitol by flying an airliner into it.

We cut to a scene at the Newark airport which is shot with so much idiosyncratic detail and without any theatrical convention, I felt as if I myself was holding onto a ticket and carry-on baggage.

The tension with which Greengrass brings to his editing and camera work in the scenes involving the hijackers and passengers is extremely palpable. All the actors in these scenes do an outstanding job of capturing the reality of those ordinary people caught in the extraordinary circumstances and succeed in not only honoring their memory but their bravery.

When the four hijackers finally take over the plane, it/s as heart-wrenching as you can imagine.

Initially passengers believe if they cooperate, they may be able to get out of the situation alive, but when they discover the reality of the situation through their families on cell phone calls, it is riveting to see them make the now famous decision to attack the hijackers and attempt to take control.

Thankfully and tastefully, Greengrass/s camera shots don/t linger too long on the action. Just like Capote/s efficiency with words, the beauty of Greengrass/s camera is he only captures and communicates the essence of what you need to know without the gratuity of explicitly showing you the grisly business of homicide.

The fact that these passengers and air traffic controllers correspond to actual people, or were portrayed by themselves embeds the film with gravity and authority.

I appreciated the effort on the part of the non-actors who played themselves during the movie. It is absolutely haunting to see the fear, confusion and anger on Ben Sliney/s face, not because as an actor he had asked some real official about how he reacted when a plane slammed into the World Trade Center for research, but rather because of how he, as the actual FAA flight operations manager on 9/11, himself reacted on that day.

A number of the civilian and military air traffic controllers who were directly affected by the hijackings took part in the film and do a fine job, not of acting, but of putting themselves in their shoes on that horrific day.

When we see the CNN footage in the film of the fireball exploding from the South Tower of the World Trade Center, we feel the immediacy of that past event as fresh as the morning we woke up to the day the world changed. Not only are we transported to how we felt on that day, we are educated, in captivating fly-on-the-wall fashion, of how the authorities reacted and responded.

In perhaps the most moving scene of the film, we sit along with passengers making their final phone calls to say &#8220I love youC to loved ones. These moments in the film are extremely moving and remind the audience of the humanity that is at the heart of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

Some film-goers have cried that &#8220It/s too soon,C for a film like this. In an increasingly dangerous world where many get their world-view from pundits and information gatekeepers, a thoroughly researched, honest and nonjudgmental cinematic depiction of the world-changing events of Sept. 11, 2001, is an important thing.

Also, given enough time, the rule with adapting world-changing historical events to the cinema is that filmmakers always have to pop in the love triangle to the plot and the pop love ballad to the end credits while sacrificing the historical accuracy of the event (see &#8220TitanicC and the dreadful &#8220Pearl HarborC).

Neil Nisperos can be reached at 737-1059 or nnisperos@lompoc record.com.

May 3, 2005