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Reviews
The Hamburg Cell (2004)
Well-made and informative
I'm not good at working with this large a scale so I'm just gonna put 10 to say I liked it, but this film was actually better than I thought it was gonna be. It's very informative on the formation of a terrorist cell, their recruitment by al-Qaeda, training in Afghanistan and US, etc. But I think it can not only provide backstory and what was going on in their heads, but also raise awareness towards just how easily someone can be radicalised. The film focuses on Ziad Jarrah, the one terrorist who had any significant doubts about the attacks. Without an overly religious upbringing, some fundamentalist peers encouraged him to embrace Islam, but not in the way that any of us would like. The film was well-made, had good acting, and overall was a good and very informative film. Recommended.
The Prince of Egypt (1998)
One of my most favourite films...
Whether you're absolutely devoted to to your faith, or an innocent bystander taking RS classes, you'll love DreamWorks' beautiful killer of Disney through the celebration of biblical mythology. This is such a powerful story that so many Jews, Christians and Muslims are very lucky to believe in. The Prince of Egypt is very dramatic, emotional and very faithful to the Book of Exodus. The music sounds like a Webster/Rice piece, and when When You Believe came on, it was so beautiful it nearly made me cry.
Flight 93 (2006)
Watch United 93 instead.
While this film does get a few bonus points for the shots it captured in comparison to United, as well as showing the exterior of the plane better documenting its journey, I've watched both films and I believe United is the better one to watch over Flight. United emphasizes the heroism and cooperation between the passengers as a whole by portraying them collectively, and referring to none of them by name; whereas Flight portrays the passengers individually, and I feel that it places so much emphasis on the passengers and their families, especially after the plane crashes, that it's easy to overlook WHY it crashed there instead of the Capitol. I feel that this is just more sad than dramatic, and when that young girl hung up her mother, I found it quite difficult to handle.
Additionally, the real-time aspect of the film is far off; after boarding, it goes straight into takeoff (which was delayed by 40 odd minutes) and the hijacking (which waited another 40 odd minutes.) The hijacking and the crash were half an hour apart, whereas the film spends so much time on the passengers and their families that this bit extents to 52 minutes. United better portrays the air traffic control, additionally, as they experience the attacks unfolding. United better emphasizes the prior attacks on the World Trade Center, also, adding suspense to the build up of the hijacking, which happens in the middle of the film.