In the shadow of another disaster, their story is especially resonant. Last week, as people starved and died waiting for aid in New Orleans, an 18-year-old commandeered a school bus and drove evacuees to Texas. Circumstances have a way of making their own heroes.
Hurricane Katrina news has nearly overshadowed the fourth anniversary of the terrorist attacks, but the television dial is full of offshoots and tributes. The History Channel alone is airing five 9/11-related documentaries this weekend. Most of them promise to be tough viewing. Four years later, it's still just as hard to see the footage of the planes hitting the World Trade Center.
But the unlikely heroes of Flight 93 are worth revisiting, since their rebellion is so bold and so well-documented -- in the cockpit voice recordings, the messages they left on answering machines, the conversations they held with friends and relatives on the ground.
The film relies partly on sit-down interviews with those mourners, partly on dramatic reenactments of the flight. (Sutherland presides in his husky voice, narrating practically under his breath.) And while it's hard to hear ''dramatization" without raising an eyebrow, the technique is mostly effective here, partly because the acting is solid and the actors look uncannily like their real-life counterparts.
Still, for much of its length, the film is strangely flat. A long setup strips away some of the drama, and at times, the interviews upset the pace. It's only once the hijacking begins that the structure pays off: We learn what the passengers were saying into cellphones and airphones, and what they were hearing from the other end.
To keep their hostages acquiescent, the outnumbered terrorists had said they had a bomb and were returning to the airport to make demands. But the twin towers had already been struck; the plane's true fate was becoming clear. It's gripping, and torturous, to watch the passengers and their loved ones come to terms with the news.
