UNITED 93
RYAN: Well. “United 93.”
CAROLINE: Dragged kicking and screaming into seeing this film.
RYAN: At first we didn’t want to see this film because it is too soon to dramatize something like 9/11. But knowing that it’s getting good reviews and that the families were behind it helps. ‘Cos it’s really based on a lot of information they have. We really felt like we had to see this because there’s buzz. You’re all talking about it.
CAROLINE: Even though we didn’t really want to.
RYAN: Right. And it was amazingly articulated as a film.
CAROLINE: The shooting was incredible. What I’m assuming is hand-held camera work, the franticness, and all that, was pretty amazing.
RYAN: The impact… I can’t even begin. I lost it. I was shaking. And I lost it. I’ve never cried like that in a movie.
CAROLINE: I didn’t have that but I definitely felt physically ill at one point. My heart was palpitating. And then when they’re all calling everyone they love to say good-bye? Whew, that was rough.
RYAN: I don’t know if I was afraid because you kind of felt what they were feeling, or felt the fear of what it was like to be in their shoes, all of those things. But it was different from the scariness and ickiness you feel when you watch a Holocaust movie, which is equally but extremely differently riveting and engaging.
CAROLINE: Well, we can’t personally relate to something like the Holocaust whereas we can completely relate to this given that we watched the whole thing go down. And they totally show the planes hitting the towers, which is footage that I could go my whole life without seeing again.
RYAN: And there are a lot of people in this country who have only seen that footage onscreen. You and I were working together on 9/11. I remember calling you after the planes had hit. But we didn’t watch it on TV. We saw the buildings fall down with our own eyes. So as New Yorkers, 9/11 is different. But this movie, I don’t know that I regret seeing it, but it was so, so hard to sit through. Painful.
CAROLINE: Yeah. I mean, if you have a remote concern that you might not react well to this film, then don’t see it.
RYAN: Yeah, it was intense. Final thought?
CAROLINE: It’s hard you know, because you can look at it as a movie, and you can look at it as an emotional experience. As a movie, it is good – the actors are great, they’re very convincing. Like I said, the camera work is pretty amazing. That final shot is unbelievable.
RYAN: Oh my God, I don’t even want to think about it. Nightmares for years.
CAROLINE: But the emotional experience – it’s horrible. I didn’t need that tonight.
RYAN: I feel wretched right now.
CAROLINE: Yeah, it doesn’t feel good. Not a dry eye in the house, I’d venture to say.
RYAN: Yeah, there were a couple of performances that weren’t that great. I don’t think that it was the best-acted film we’ve ever seen; but, the emotional wretchedness of it definitely transcended that. And this movie hit every emotional chord it was intending to hit.
CAROLINE: Right.
RYAN: Also, I have to say, the men who took that plane down, the Americans who overtook, the real heroes of this story – were incredible.
CAROLINE: Yeah, they were great.
RYAN: Wow, the strength that they had. Would you have done it?
CAROLINE: Hell no, are you kidding?
RYAN: I’d like to think that I would, but I mean, I don’t know.
CAROLINE: Well, I’m a chick. But yeah, it was the guys on the plane whose acting I meant specifically was great.
RYAN: They were – wow.
CAROLINE: And I like that had some real flight attendants and traffic control people playing roles. That was pretty cool.
RYAN: If you can handle a film, kind of like “Munich” or “Schindler’s List,” it’s definitely a heavy film like that. And if you want to see this and you’re interested in this flight and a 9/11 story, you should see this. But brace yourself, because that’s what it’s all about.
CAROLINE: For sure.
RYAN: Brace yourself because I was kind of caught off guard by how much it hit me.