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May 10, 2006
Please just hold the fucking camera still
I saw "United 93" last night. Which was a mistake. I'd already seen "Flight 93" the A&E original, and that was a much better film. Where as "Flight 93" tried to tell a story, the main point of "United 93" seemed to be to disorient the audience, which they achieve largely by moving the camera around so quickly you start to feel sick to your stomach even before the bloodshed begins.
In fact, I felt so much like I was going to vomit I had to leave the theater for several minutes and missed the actual hijacking scene. At first I was not sure why I felt sick. Was I uncomfortable with examining the story of 9/11? Not likely, given all the research I've done on the subject and other related movies I've watched. After returning to my seat I realize it was the camera work that almost literally made me lose my lunch. For instance, when they show someone having a phone conversation, instead of letting the acting show their emotions, they keep moving the camera right, left, up, down, almost randomly as if it was shot by a crack fiend desparate for a fix. Once I realized the cause for my motion sickness, I simply closed my eyes when I felt sick from then on, which was often, but I managed to keep from barfing into my popcorn bag at least.
Needless to say, I wish that when I left the first time, I'd returned to the counter and asked for my money back. Last but not least, it was also annoying that they stopped provided subtitles for the hijackers Arabic speech once they were on the plane. I'm sure it was again meant to disorient the audience, but it did not help the story very much in my view. In summary, if the producers thought they were doing anyone a favor by charging people $9 just to give them motion sickness, I don't think they took the subject matter very seriously at all. They got the story right, but the camera work ruins the show.
Posted by Mike at May 10, 2006 08:50 AM
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