United 93

It’s the end of a fine hot day in Dublin. I went to see “United 93”, the Paul Greengrass movie about 9/11. It was very hard to watch, although it was extremely well done. I kept looking at the people sitting around me. There we were, a coincidental group gathered together by chance and by the fact that we all decided independently to go see this movie on a hot June evening. I’ve always been intrigued by pictures of people thrown together by chance. They are in the background of all our holiday snaps. Other people, there in that spot that you travelled to. Your companions for a moment in real time. Your eternal companions in the photo frame. It’s only when disparate groups are caught in some disaster that we look closely at them and see them merge in one big Munch like terror scream. As it was for the group who travelled on flight 93 that fine September morning in 2001. I was interested to see how the director would show Mark Bingham, a gay man who was one of people who tried to regain control of the plane that morning. His sexuality wasn’t mentioned, but I have read that the director did film a scene where he kissed his boyfriend goodbye in the airport before getting on the plane. Apparently, they dropped all the airport scenes because the weather in Newark airport was very bad the day they filmed there, in contrast to the reality of that fine September morning. Anyway, it’s a very strong and terrifying piece of work.