United 93

Humans are drawn to looking at the unwatchable as a way of betraying death. At smallest, that's what I told myself to arrange for observing United 93, a harrowing, documentary-style reenactment, in genuine time, of what might have occurred on the one airplane that didn't fulfill the terrorists' intended goals on Sept. 11, 2001. We eagerly look at terrible things, often over and over — genuine footage of war and dramatizations, genuine catastrophes and historical re-creations, the tragic conclusions of which are never in question — for the thrill of being alive. Perhaps we're as astonished by our own good ...