<em>United 93</em> and Our Deepest Fears

is the first strike back against the evil that killed almost 3,000 people at the World Trade Center. Still, why would the families do this to themselves?
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Like all good movies, this one strives for mythmaking, to make sense of death, to make it worth the sacrifice, and to touch our tenderest places. Through one lens, United 93 is the first strike back against the evil that killed almost 3,000 people at the World Trade Center.

Through another, it stirs our deepest fears about how we would face death with an hour to think about it. Would I be brave, or calm enough to reach out to those around me? Could I find the right words to give comfort to the loved ones I was leaving behind?

Still, why would the families do this to themselves? They said they trusted Greengrass, who met with each of them and promised to treat their recollections and the answering-machine tapes of last words with reverence. They thought he could keep alive the memory of fallen parents and spouses, children and siblings, and thereby counter the natural desire of everyone else to move on.

Going in, I thought they were wrong. Now I hope I would have done the same.

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