`UNITED 93' TAKES OFF SUPPORT, CONTROVERSY SURROUND NEW FILM DEPICTING 9/11 HIJACKING.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

How do you make a movie about one of the most traumatic events in recent American history, some have asked (and some of them have asked indignantly).

The answer, of course, is with great care and sensitivity. Along with a number of what director Paul Greengrass and Universal Pictures hope are astute creative decisions.

Their ``United 93,'' which opens today, recounts the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, mostly, from the well-documented perspectives of air traffic control centers.

The second half of the movie, however, takes place on board the title flight. That's the plane whose passengers and crew attacked their hijackers and tried to regain control before it crashed into a field outside of Shanksville, Pa.

As there were no survivors, much of this portion of the movie is, by nature, speculative. But British filmmaker Greengrass was nonetheless determined to make every aspect of his movie as you-are-there realistic as he possibly could.

``It's a serious subject, and the stakes are high,'' the British filmmaker acknowledges. ``You've got to be responsible and judicious when you make a film like this. But also, it's got to land because it's real. The problem about 9/11 is that we're in danger of airbrushing the experience out of the event. So somewhere, those two impulses are in tension and you've got to try to pitch it so that they're in balance.''

To start, Greengrass and his research team gathered all the information about Flight 93 that they could, then set out to interview family members of the 40 passengers and crewpeople who died on that plane.

While some were understandably reluctant to participate - though none have reportedly taken issue with the film being made - others felt it was important to share memories of their loved ones.

``It was certainly difficult,'' admits David Beamer, whose son Todd uttered the now-historic signal, ``Let's roll,'' (/U-BODY)for the passengers' counterattack.

``However, the feeling was, this project is going to happen with or without our involvement. And since we felt that they were trying to capture the events of that day accurately, we felt that we should cooperate, painful as that might be. Our hope was that they would get it right. Whatever apprehensions we might have had, we're very pleased with the job they did.''

``My first impression, whenever somebody talks about telling the story of Flight 93, is I'm wary,'' adds Gordie Felt, whose brother Ed was also on the plane. ``I'm not always sure what the motivations are, if they're commercial or done on a higher plane. Universal fairly quickly won me over. They made a concerted effort to talk to as many families as would be willing to sit down with them.''

The next step was to cast little-known actors and, sometimes, real pilots and air traffic professionals.

``I think it was a great choice,'' says Cheyenne Jackson, who plays passenger Mark Bingham in the movie. ``Had you been watching this and all of a sudden they showed you an air traffic controller played by Tom Cruise or somebody, you would immediately get sucked out of the movie. Also, Paul chose a lot of people who had theatrical backgrounds, because there was going to be so much improv, he wanted people who had those skills.''

Indeed, the film was shot from a fact-filled outline as opposed to a traditional script. Confirmed conversation snippets from passengers' cellphone calls, the cockpit voice recorder and other established sources were included, but otherwise the actors worked up their own expressions and conversations - some after speaking with their characters' survivors, others not.

``We were given the option right upfront, and it was intense,'' says Jackson, a Broadway veteran who makes his feature film debut in ``United 93.'' ``I wanted to see how some of my castmates' experiences went. Some people had great talks with the wives, the husbands, and there were a couple of instances where they came away feeling kind of burdened, like maybe the family had an expectation that they wouldn't be able to fulfill.''

Jackson ultimately found it quite helpful to discuss Bingham with his parents. David Alan Basche, who plays Todd Beamer, avoided meeting any of the man's relatives before filming.

``Paul was very clear in telling us that he didn't want a mimic job,'' Basche says. ``He wanted us just to be truthful and honest in the moment, for me to put myself in his shoes. So I didn't get in touch with anyone until afterward.''

The film also refrains from identifying any of the passengers, either by subtitles or having them introduce themselves to fellow travelers.

``Paul wanted the mythology to go away,'' Basche reckons. ``He wanted the glamorization and, in some sense, the individuality to go away. Because these people were forced to be a group when the door of that plane closed. I'm no more important than any other actor, and Todd was no more important than any other passenger. They all were courageous.''

To further the film's sense of in-flight realism, Greengrass filmed it on an actual Boeing 757 that was cut into sections and attached to gimbals on an English soundstage. Real-time takes of the entire event from the hijacking to final descent were shot with multiple, handheld cameras while the plane sections rocked and tilted on the gimbels.

``Every cast member got banged up, almost without exception,'' Basche recalls. ``Personally, I have a couple of scars on my hands that were from the cockpit door. And I'm pretty sure I had a dislocated shoulder that managed to pop back in; I'll probably be dealing with that for a while.

``All of that being said, none of them are complaints. This was done willingly, and I sort of feel like the least we could do was do our own stunts, put ourselves a little bit in harm's way, knowing what people must have really gone through.''

For others, of course, the very thought of watching ``United 93'' is too much to ask. Ever since patrons at a New York theater complained that it was too soon to show a trailer for ``United 93,'' the media has been exploiting the concept that maybe 9/11 shouldn't be cinematically exploited - or explored.

The folks involved with the film - no surprise - beg to disagree. Respectfully.

``No,'' David Beamer says when asked if his daughter-in-law Lisa, the well-known author of a book about her husband, has seen the film yet. ``Firstly, my recommendation to Americans in general is see this movie. However, when it comes to family members and, I suspect, numbers of people in New York City where 9/11 is still very close, they have to decide for themselves when the right time is to see it. At this juncture, really, the rest of our family is in that category. They will decide when and if.''

``Anyone in Washington or New York who lost loved ones, my heart goes out to them,'' says Gordie Felt, who hopes the film will increase donations to the effort to turn the Shanksville crash site into a national monument (Universal has pledged a percentage of the film's opening- weekend gross to the project). ``<NO1>And it may be too soon. <NO>It may be too soon for some of the Flight 93 family members to see this movie. That has to be judged on an individual basis.

``At the same time, I think that if we stick our heads in the sand and don't face reality, if we try to hide from what took place, then we are not only doing ourselves and our country a disservice, but we're doing a disservice to the people whose lives were sacrificed that day.''

Greengrass has been involved with realistic re-creations of political violence in Northern Ireland (he directed the acclaimed ``Bloody Sunday'' and wrote the made-for-TV movie ``Omagh''), and those experiences certainly informed his approach to ``United 93.''

``In any other hands, it might have been exploitative,'' Basche notes. ``But I don't feel that it is and the families don't feel that it is.''

``I think there will always be people for whom it will always be too soon,'' the director says. ``I mean, I can't tell you for certain that it's the right time. In the end, I don't think it's a matter of, is this too soon? I think it's a matter of, it's high time.

``But, in a robust democracy, if we're going to talk about difficult, challenging issues like 9/11 - and I believe we must - you can't do it without upsetting people. Now, I don't want to upset people and I regret any distress we cause. But I think that cinema needs to be urgent, and it needs to be relevant, and it needs to be engaged. Because the alternative, to me, is unthinkable. That would be that every single newspaper, television station, magazine, bookstore and online outlet can discuss 9/11, but somehow filmmakers aren't allowed to.''

A fateful first day on the job

It's the performance of a lifetime in more ways than one. But according to Ben Sliney, a star has not been born.

In ``United 93,'' Sliney plays the manager of the Federal Aviation Administration's National Operations Center in Herndon, Va. It was a position held on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, by one Ben Sliney.

Originally brought on to the project to help recruit real air traffic controllers for small roles in the film, Sliney stayed on as a technical adviser. A few days into production, he got a note telling him to bring a suit and tie to the set; upon arrival, he was asked to replace the actor who had been portraying him.

``Apparently, it's a lot easier to play yourself than have somebody else do it,'' says Sliney, who claims his only previous acting experience was during a law career in between air traffic gigs. ``I did not think it was difficult.''

In the film, Sliney recaptures the horrified resolve he felt as the magnitude of the terrorist hijackings slowly dawned on him and his team. He was the one who eventually ordered the shutdown of all U.S. airspace. Remarkably, it was his first day in the manager's position.

``I would not allow myself on that day, as the person in charge of that facility, to display too much emotion,'' Sliney recalls. ``It would not be my desire to be anything but calm and authoritative. But there was a sense of heightened urgency with each passing scene.''

Perhaps the most convincing part of a very realistic movie, Sliney's performance is receiving justifiable praise. But as he prepares to retire from his FAA career, there are no Hollywood blips on Sliney's radar screen.

``I'm getting ready to go to my house on Cape Cod and play golf in the next month or so,'' Sliney says. ``I have no plans to act. Look, playing yourself is one thing. I have a lot of admiration for actors and actresses who have moved me in many films I've seen. I don't know how they do that.''

- B.S.

CAPTION(S):

7 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) RELIVING THE TRAUMA

`United 93' charts painful realities of 9/11

(2 -- 5) no caption (`United 93' scenes)

(6) Director Paul Greengrass: ``It's a serious subject, and the stakes are high.''

(7) The FAA's Ben Sliney plays himself in ``United 93.''

Box:

A fateful first day on the job (see text)