United 93: The Film

I saw United 93 today.

I didn't want to do so. Reliving even part of that day is hard, but this is a film that deserves to do well.

It is extraordinary on several levels, not the least of which is the fact that several of the key air control and military personnel portray themselves. Nothing is overstated. There are no big-name stars and no bold speeches. The story is permitted to unfold as the camera shifts from the plane to the air traffic control officials.

People as ideologically diverse as George Will and Roger Ebert have praised the movie for its taste and restraint. Like Schindler's List, it is a movie that performs a public service.

Lee Harris, in his book on terrorism, wrote:

Forgetfulness occurs when those who have been long inured to civilized order can no longer remember a time in which they had to wonder whether their crops would grow to maturity without being stolen or their children sold into slavery by a victorious foe....They forget that in time of danger, in the face of the Enemy, they must trust and confide in each other, or perish.

They forget, in short, that there has ever been a category of human experience called the Enemy. And that, before 9/11, was what had happened to us. The very concept of the Enemy had been banished from our moral and political vocabulary. An enemy was just a friend we hadn't done enough for -- yet. Or perhaps there had been a misunderstanding, or an oversight on our part -- something that we could correct. And this means that our first task is that we must try to grasp what the concept of the Enemy really means.

The Enemy is someone who is willing to die in order to kill you. And while it is true that the Enemy always hates us for a reason -- it is his reason, and not ours.

United 93 reminds us that there is a real enemy out there.