In the days after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, there were all sorts of stories in the air. It was healthy to be skeptical.

One story I doubted was that hijacked United Airlines flight 93 crashed in a Pennsylvania field because the passengers had fought back and thwarted the terrorists’ plans. It might be true, but it seemed too convenient — it was just what we wanted to hear in those dark days. Where was the evidence?

The facts were pieced together over months. The evidence: phone calls from crew members and many passengers, made on cell phones and Airfones during the flight; the flight data recorder, and the cockpit voice recorder. The incredible story was true.

I just returned from a matinee showing of United 93, a new movie that tells this story as we’ve never seen it. The film was destined to be controversial. A few weeks ago, some theaters pulled previews for the film because audiences found the subject matter upsetting. To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect when I walked into the theater.

There were only four people in the audience. Which is a great shame. You need to see this movie.

It’s classified as a docudrama, but there is none of the soppy back-story that has been such a hallmark of that genre. You get to know the passengers and crew on the plane much as you would if you were flying with them. You can watch what they do, sometimes overhear what they say, and you never sense the heavy expository hand of the big Hollywood writer.

On the ground, you see civilian and military flight controllers and managers doing their everyday jobs, and gradually coming to understand that September 11, 2001 was not an ordinary day.

The story is told in something very close to real time. The fumbling and stumbling we’ve come to expect from the federal government in recent years is not in evidence here. Controllers make split-second decisions of life and death. Mistakes are made. As well as possible, the mistakes are fixed. When problems seem overwhelming, they adapt and carry on. No excuses, no finger-pointing.

It’s astonishing to see how quickly the passengers on flight 93 — ordinary people, strangers — make their decision, form a plan, and get together what they need to carry it out. Their courage, strength and ingenuity saved uncounted lives. It could not save their own.

This is a movie for grown-ups. It’s not exciting — at least not in the way other Hollywood movies are exciting. It's not fun. There is violence, but the movie doesn’t revel in it. There’s no dramatic three-act structure. In the end, the plot is not tied up with a neat bow. In the Washington Post, reviewer Ann Hornaday wrote:

“United 93” is a great movie, and I hated every minute of it.

No kidding. You have to see this movie.