When actor Christian Clemenson was asked to portray Pepperdine’s alumnus and 9/11 victim Thomas Burnett Jr. in the feature film “United 93,” he felt proud and excited, despite the huge undertaking of portraying a real life hero.
For Clemenson, the three months of filming in London was an acting challenge like no other. Under the direction of Paul Greengrass, who has directed other films like “The Bourne Supremacy” and “The Bourne Ultimatum,” actors were given an outline of events of the flight along with a multitude of information about specific characters — but no script.
“We were expected as actors to come in to filming every day responsible for our characters,” Clemenson said in an interview. “With very few assigned lines, it was improvisation. We were free to create as our characters.”
Producers of “United 93” were meticulous about gathering details about the flight, visiting the family members of each and every passenger. All of this compiled information was then given to the actors to help illustrate the details of that day: what clothes the passengers wore, how they would have responded under such stress, the view from the plane, and other elucidating details.
Through this methodical biographical research, Clemenson stumbled upon several crossing points between himself and his character, Tom Burnett. Not only did both men grow up in the Midwest, but their parents also grew up in the same small town in Iowa.
“Learning more about my character and finding connections between our lives helped me think of things that he might have done in that situation,” Clemenson said.
Even the filming process was unconventional, in order to help set up a more realistic atmosphere for the actors. Universal Studios commissioned the set of a Boeing 757 to the crew in London, which was then constructed in a way that allowed for jarring and dipping motions. Real life United flight attendants and pilots acted in the film to bolster the reality of the environment.
Clemenson described the filming process as strange, but wonderful. Contrary to the typical “Hollywood style”, there were not many close-ups along with abnormally long takes, sometimes switching cameras to last more than 30 minutes.
“It’s the unique way that [Paul Greengrass] makes movies. He casts actors as closely to the characters that he can, sets them in realistic situations, then watches them go,” Clemenson said.
As an artist, Clemenson finds truth in Leo Tolstoy’s quote, “the aim of art is not to answer questions, but to state them clearly.”
“This film gathers all the facts from that horrible day and presents them; no attitude, just what happened, and how they responded,” Clemenson said. “There is no way to leave after watching this movie and not talk about it.”
After several other artistic depictions of the Flight 93 story, there were many family member complaints about the inaccurate amount of attention paid to the five individuals that stormed the terrorists in the cockpit.
“On the set, there was a deep sense of obligation to get everything right,” Clemenson said. “There were no ‘extras’ in the film, every person in the movie represents an actual person on the plane.”
Besides holding national significance and Pepperdine sentiment, the Flight 93 story is an important reminder of the struggle that continues today between American and Islamic extremism, according to Clemenson.
“The last image of the film is Tom Burnett’s and Ziad Jarrah’s hands grabbing the yoke of the plane, with the ground coming closer and closer,” Clemenson described. “The end result of the film is very much the director’s vision, and is very powerful.”
The film will be shown this Sunday, the eleventh, at 1 pm in Elkins Auditorium as a part of the series of events to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of 9/11. Professor of communication Craig Detweiler will lead an additional discussion with Clemenson following the film.
