(disclaimer: I had no idea Sgt Mom was also planning to attend this and write about it today)

I went to the 150pm show today (earliest showing at my local theater). I wanted to go to a weekday showing, so the theater wouldn’t be crowded. There might have been 2 dozen of us in the room – certainly no more than 3 dozen. I sat by myself in the very back row, directly under the projectionist’s window.

I’m just now getting home from all my other Friday stuff, but I sat in a parking lot about 430 and wrote my thoughts down, so I wouldn’t lose them. My thoughts/reactions are pretty much divided into 2 sections – the emotions I felt, and other thoughts.

Emotions first.

I remember the first time I saw the movie “HAIR”. I was in college, so probably about 21, and totally unfamiliar with the story. I knew it took place in NYC, and that one of my college roomies had been an extra in the Central Park scene. I also knew it was about hippies. I didn’t know it was about love. I didn’t know it was about friendship, and the sacrifices a friend will make. And I most definitely didn’t know how it ended.

I remember sitting in the campus theater, watching it end, watching time tick by inexorably, desperately hoping the blonde guy would get back from his date in time to trade places back with Treat Williams, who was pretending to be him. I remember watching Treat Williams marching onto the transport plane, knowing he couldn’t survive on eday in combat, and I remember his grave marker.

It’s been almost 25 years since I saw “HAIR,” and I’ve only ever seen it the one time. There are lots of details I don’t remember (character and actor names, for instance), but I remember the stunned disappointment – -no, it was grief — when the blonde guy didn’t get back in time, and Treat Williams went to war in his place.

I saw a movie today that left me with a similar feeling, even though I knew in advance how it would end.

I’ve known the ending of this movie for almost 5 years, and still, I sat there holding my breath at the end, watching time tick by inexorably, and hoping against reality for the happy ending.

There wasn’t enough time, not enough airspace, for United 93 to have a happy ending. They were too close to the ground, moving too fast.

The movie faded to black, and the theater was silent, as it had been throughout.

I had told some friends earlier this week that I considered it a movie about heroes and heroism, and it was.

But more than that, it was a movie about ordinary people, doing what they could in extraordinary situations. From Air Traffic Control to FAA to NORAD, to passengers and crew, it showed reactions to crises, both good and bad.

Yes, it brought back memories. Yes, I shed some tears. There was a point, early on, where it showed the 2nd plane hitting the towers, and I was back in 2001, watching it for the first time.

It reminded me of that horrible day, and the wonder I felt when I first heard about Flight 93’s bravery. It’s good to be reminded of that. I’m glad I went, even though it was a hard movie to watch.

I drove home in silence.

************************

Other thoughts:

I grew up in the era of disaster films. Poseideon Adventure, Towering Inferno, Airport 1 through 1,000,000, etc. I even have vague memories of some TV movie about a huge pile-up on some California coastal highway. And of course there was Jaws 1 through 1,000,000, as well.

In each case, these films of my childhood/adolescence worked hard to give you backstory, and/or build sympathy for the characters. And dont’ forget the music. Shoot, the music *was* Jaws.

United 93 did none of that (well, there were a couple spots where the soundtrack stole my attention from the film, but only a couple). Instead, it gave us a slice of life. There was no attempt to identify the passengers as they boarded, no recognizable stars (at least, none that I recognized).

We saw people sitting at a terminal gate, boarding the plane, etc., much like the flyers I see on my business trips. Much like the flyer that I was, back in 2001. Air Traffice Controllers, FAA personnel, etc., were never specifically identified, other than their location. We were watching people who knew each other – who worked with each other on a daily basis, and it was like we walked into a conversation that was already ongoing.

I’ll let the more knowledgeable folks comment on the NORAD scenes. I’ve not been in a command post since my first year in the Air Force, and that was only for one exercise.

It was a movie about facing the unface-able, a movie about coming together, about keeping going when you’d rather curl up in a corner and hide.

It felt balanced to me. It showed devout muslims who looked just like any other people – not monsters. One was a little more zealous than the other 3, and one a little less thrilled. All were nervous, and perhaps a little scared about what they were doing. It did not inflame my emotions, or leave me hating all muslims, or all Arabs (or our gov’t, for that matter).

Instead, it reminded me that we are handicapped by our imaginations. We had a hard time realizing/believing that the planes had been hijacked, because it had been almost 20 years since our last hijacking. We didn’t think about using planes as weapons, because we wouldn’t fly a commercial airliner into a civilian building, and so it’s hard for us to believe someone else would.

I know that a lot of what they showed on the plane is speculation. But it felt believable. And even though I knew how it ended before the first reel was loaded, it still had me on the edge of my seat.

It was well-done, and worth watching. But if I had seen it first-hand, it would be hard to watch, if not impossible.

Also, if you have a hard time hearing movies in theaters, you may want to wait for the DVD and use the subtitles. I had a hard time hearing in some spots.