I’ve been typing and deleting my thoughts on United 93 for too long now. I just don’t have the ability to do this film justice. Forgive the following rambling words. My thoughts about the film are coming up like the vomit that my queasy stomach wants to produce.

Let me just say this. Every now and then there are films that make you think, “This is why the medium of film was created. So we could see this. So we could participate in this experience.” Schindler’s List is one such experience. The Passion of the Christ is another. United 93 joins a small collection of films that are sacred because of the sheer magnificence of the stories they have to tell and the skill with which they tell it.

United 93 is a spiritual film. For a moment it separates us from the World and connects us to Humanity. And through that momentary connection with humanity a glimpse of our potential relationship with God. The hijackers praise Allah. The passengers pray to their Christian god. Yet I sense that the passengers, the flight administrators on the ground and the military show a deeper connection to God than their opponents, even if it is unexpressed, because of their connection to each other. For a moment in time they are united in purpose and are united by love.

United 93 had me stunned and shaking with its subtle, understated power. It has no need of sentimental filmmaking conventions because of the command of the story itself. It is unique in its events, yet not at all unique in its characters. Each of them are each of us. We are all on this flight together.

United 93 reminds me of the potential power of well told stories as it reminds me of the potential power of human hearts. I think we have great stories to tell as Mormons. Even though they may lack the drama inherent in such major events as these, it’s not the drama that makes films such as United 93 succeed. It’s the quiet nobility of the storytelling process. It’s the unspoken but clearly evident fact that these filmmakers believe that what they’re putting on the screen is transcendental. These films aren’t just what filmmaking is all about; these stories are what humanity is all about.

But these stories aren’t limited to great tragedies. I think they can be found all over in our history, in our scriptures and in our hearts. I believe that stories such as United 93 are all around us. What we need is the passion and faith in our stories to let them speak for themselves. I think we can.

There’s a certain paradox in films like United 93. It’s the story itself that makes you want to give up sitting in your cushioned flight seat, reading and watching stories that are supposed to inspire you. Though I want to read and write stories that inspire like United 93, I also want to get up and charge the cabin. Can we do both? I don’t know, but I’m thinking I just might try.

 

Note: United 93 is not the same as the sentimental made-for-TV movie Flight 93, which focuses primarily on the phone calls made between passengers and their families and involves lots of crying.