I went into “United 93” with a queasiness based on uncertainty, figuring the worst coming from Hollywood. I came out thinking that there is no way the film about the events on United Airlines Flight 93, the fourth hijacked plane on Sept. 11, 2001, could be done any better.

English writer/director Paul Greengrass has made a couple of big hits with “The Bourne Identity” and “The Bourne Supremacy.” He began his career doing documentary work and, in 2002, made “Bloody Sunday,” a docudrama about a 1972 incident in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, where 13 unarmed civil rights demonstrators were killed by British soldiers.

Greengrass brings that same even-handed docudrama approach to “United 93.”

That means there’s no effort to set up the back stories that give many “based on a true story” films their overwrought emotionalism. Nor are there long scenes setting up the characters in the film — in fact, most of them aren’t ever named.

Instead, Greengrass goes for a “you are there” realism that extends from the plane to airport control towers to the Federal Aviation Administration’s operations command center in Herndon, Va., to the military’s Northeast Air Defense Sector in upstate New York.

A real Boeing 757 was used to in the plane scenes, real pitch and roll was incorporated in the plane’s movement and the picture was shot in semidocumentary style, utilizing cinematographer Barry Aykroyd’s handheld camera.

Wisely casting unknown actors rather than putting a movie star in the middle of the realism, Greengrass added to the film’s authenticity by hiring real stewardesses and pilots to play those roles and bringing on some controllers who worked on Sept. 11, including the FAA’s Ben Sliney, the man who ordered all planes grounded that day, who plays himself.

The film opens with an Arabic chant, the prayer of one of the four men about to board United Flight 93 and hijack the plane. Again, Greengrass handles the terrorists perfectly, simply showing what they did rather than demonizing them.

That is the most obvious example of another of the qualities of “United 93” — its lack of editorializing. This is a straightforward, harrowing depiction of what happened on that day. That says enough without any extraneous comment.

Playing out in real time, the movie shows passengers boarding the plane, then starts cutting to the air traffic control centers as word of the first hijacking gets out. Tension mounts at the airports and control center as the planes disappear from radar.

Then helplessness and confusion set in after the first plane hits the World Trade Center. In one of the film’s most powerful moments, controllers at the Newark Airport, across the Hudson River, watch in stunned silence as the second plane slams into the towers.

Meanwhile, on board United 93, the terrorists wait to make their move. Once they’ve taken over the cabin and turned the plane, it is the passengers’ turn to wait until the time is right. Operating with a minimal amount of information gleaned from phone calls to the ground, they figure out that they are on a plane that is part of the same operation that we now know came from al-Qaida.

When Todd Beamer, recognizable by his Ohio State hat, says, “Let’s roll,” it’s not yelled as a patriotic call to arms. Rather, it’s urging action, sending the passengers down the aisle of the plane to confront the hijackers.

Greengrass created his script through interviews with family members and controllers and by using official documents and other information about the events. That makes “United 93” as accurate as any docudrama is going to get and it makes it a realistic film about real heroes risking their lives under pressure.

What the passengers on United 93 didn’t know was that by rushing the hijackers they were saving the U.S. Capitol and anyone who happened to be inside the building. We know that as we watch the film. And we know what’s going to happen.

That makes “United 93” hard to watch. And those who see it will be shaken by what is on screen, but, at the same time, touched by the heroism of the passengers and reminded of the vigilance necessary to prevent another similar attack.

The most asked question about “United 93” has little to do with its content and execution. Rather, it is the simple query: “Is it too early for a movie about Sept. 11, 2001?” Given the continuing media examination of the events of the day, it seems as if they happened last year or two years ago — but it will soon be five years.

Whether that is a long enough timespan is, obviously, up to each person who considers going to see “United 93.”

But if you choose to go, you will see a commendable film that handles the sensitive subject matter as well as could possibly be done and shows the heroes of “United 93” to be just that.

This is a movie that will rightfully stand for years as the cinematic touchstone for Sept. 11, 2001.

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.

United 93

Director: Paul Greengrass

Stars: Ben Sliney, J.J. Johnson, David Alan Basche, Trish Gates

Rated: R for language and some intense sequences of terror and violence;

Running Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Now Showing: Grand, SouthPointe

The Reel Story: This docudrama follows the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and the passengers on United 93, the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, becoming an accurate, realistic depiction of heroism and national tragedy. Some of the dialogue is in Arabic with English subtitles.