Paul Greengrass's Bloody Sunday stunned those who had the chance to see it on the big screen; it breathed new life into the stultifying genre of films about the Northern conflict by employing a 'documentary style' aesthetic and semi-improvided dialogue. It did much more, of course; it fanned the flames of debate about the actions of the British military in Northern Ireland, with Greengrass hailed as the father of history or father of lies, depending on who you listened to. After a sidetrack to direct two films in the Ludlum Bourne franchise, Paul Greengrass returns to dramatic reconstruction with United 93, another documentary-style fiction closely modelled on real events. The subject this time is the 'other' plane to have been hijacked on 11th September 2001, the one that didn't collide with anything noteworthy, didn't provide any snappy footage for CNN, and was consequently forgotten.

United 93 seems like the ideal subject matter for a made-for-TV 'true story', and in the hands of a lesser filmmaker would probably have been cloying, manipulative, exploitative, and jingoistic to boot. Not so with Paul Greengrass. Every second of United 93 reveals Greengrass as a mature, confident film artist who understands every aspect of his chosen medium. There is no attempt to establish characters in the disaster-movie style familiar from Airport or The Poseidon Adventure, character is allowed to manifest itself through action. Even more astonishing is the lack of exposition – especially given the complex nature of air traffic control, and the equally complex relationship between the military and the civil aviation authorites.

The portable cameras favoured by Greengrass bring the viewer right into every confined space. The bulk of the film takes place in the aeroplane and a handful of control towers, resulting in an intensely claustrophobic atmosphere. Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd doesn't take an exclusively functionalist approach, but manages to capture some very beautiful images such as the heat haze on the runway and the blinking of console lights in the reflective glass of the control towers. The camera is restless and shifting, in moments of confusion the picture is confused, the shot composition, editing, dialogue – you are there. The tension created is astonishing – almost too intense to experience in a cinema.

United 93 is not an action movie, nor – despite superficial similarities – is it 24. The audience know from the outset that no-one can save the passengers and flight crew, and neither Harrison Ford, nor Keifer Sutherland, nor George Bush will appear in the nick of time. There is no individual 'hero', we are rarely even aware of the characters' names. The result is a film closer to Battleship Potemkin than Air Force One. None of the dialogue sounds forced, aided by the fact that many of the aviation and military officials play themselves. The actors playing the passengers, hijackers and cabin crew are mostly unknown (with the exception of the now craggy-faced David Rasche), thus aiding verisimilitude. Given the highly dramatic nature of the subject, director and cast alike deserve limitless praise for the level of control that comes across on screen. Restraint is also used in the arena of sound: Greengrass doesn't need to pursue the standard Hollywood route of cackhanded scoring to create fear and emotion – the action does that for him, coupled with some ingenious music, and some truly stunning sound design.

The makers of United 93 managed to secure the co-operation of the victims' families to help portray them on-screen, a factor which aids the actors' performances considerably. Perhaps for this reason the film follows the 'official' version of the flight's final end. While Bloody Sunday was criticised in Britain for its opposition to the 'official' state line, United 93 is likely to fall foul of commentators for its adeherance to it. We will probably never know what really happened – whether the hijackers, who were already off course, simply lost control of the plane, or whether it was brought down by authorised or unauthorised military action (a possiblilty overtly denied in the postscript to the film) – but the comforting notion that heroic passengers seized and diverted the plane smacks of cynical government spin. America needs its heroes, especially after the despondance caused by the loss of so many lives.

But when have we relied on cinema to tell us the truth? Hollywood likes its grassy knolls, the convenient pat solution to a complex problem. United 93 deserves praise for breaking with every other convention of a western mainstream film. The fact that the film has had such success in the US is probably due more to its subject matter than Greengrass's artistry, but it has exposed thousands of cineplex-goers to a work that doesn't follow along hackneyed lines, and pushes the art of mainstream filmmaking into the 21st Century.

United 93 is probably the English-language film of the year, and places Paul Greengrass alongside Michael Winterbottom as one of the finest British directors working today. Bloody lies? Maybe. Bloody brilliant? Definitely.

Lir Mac Cárthaigh

Rated TBC (see IFCO website for details)
United 93 is released on 2nd June 2006
United 93 – Official website

Read interview with director Paul Greengrass here.