I still can’t stop shaking.

I saw director Paul Greengrass’ “United 93” about 24-hours or so ago before sitting down to write this review, and no matter how hard I try I just can’t stop shaking. Not because the film is nail-bitingly terrific (it is), or because it is a masterpiece of building tension and suspense (ditto), but because of the memories it dredged back up out of my subconscious.

September 11, 2001 may not have struck me here in Seattle as literally as it did those in New York and Washington, DC but I, like most Americans, felt its titanic impact all the same. Watching “United 93” brought all those feeling back and, like it or not, they still have not left me even now almost a day since the theater curtains closed.

Good. It is about time a movie had the courage and conviction to make me think, to make me cry and ponder and cheer and shout and get angry about something all over again. It is time an artist told, without taking political sides, letting the aura of the truth of a situation speak for itself, stories that assess both who we are as individuals and as a society. Told a story which, at its core, asks us all to look into the mirror and honestly consider just how far we’ve come since that fateful day when a group of terrorists made us all feel afraid.

There are those, of course, who cry a picture like this is just too soon for us to be able to watch and understand. Hogwash. For the life of me I refuse to believe those saying this could possibly be right. Is it too soon to honor those pushed into an act of heroism that, while taking their own lives, maybe saved hundreds, maybe thousands, of lives more? Is it too soon to ask just exactly what their sacrifice has meant in the succeeded years? Is it too soon to wonder if the road against terrorism our leaders have been charging has actually changed a darn thing? Is it too soon to remember; to hurt, to cry, to feel; the pain we felt as a country when we watched in breathless terror those two majestic towers come crumbling to the ground?

No, I say it is not, and while Greengrass’ film is only concerned with the events of the day so far as they affected those aboard United Airlines Flight 93 the questions it asks and the feelings it generates go so much deeper than those narrow concerns. The simple fact is we live in a country were we cherish and honor our rights of free speech, public discourse and creative expressionism above almost all others. Our founding fathers wanted us, no matter what our stripes, to ask questions and state our opinions, feeling doing so would bring us more fully together as a country and not tear us apart into quarrelling splinters.

It’s hard to believe that’s truly the case anymore. Political discourse in this country; on the right, on the left, by conservatives, by liberals; has reached such a fever pitch we’re more inclined as a society to turn off the volume and roll eyes our eyes in disgust than try to enter into it ourselves. Greengrass, a Brit known for searing docudramas like “Bloody Sunday,” as well as being behind “The Bourne Supremacy,” seems to know this, using the kinetic verisimilitude of the day’s events to propel audiences along and leaving the political finger pointing to someone else.

This works, not only to draw us in, but also to make us remember why discourse and discussion generated by a film like “United 93” is so valuable. Talking about the important issues of our day is a right and privilege we as Americans take for granted. What a movie like this reminds us all is that this right isn’t so much the privilege we imagine it to be but a duty we don’t take the time to participate in. By not doing so, there is the possibility we as a nation and as a people could see that right disappear right out from under our very noses. That is one possibility more terrifying, to me at least, than another terrorist strike.

But that is my opinion, and thanks to “United 93” I feel more comfortable than ever to make this opinion known. The passengers aboard that plane died to protect a country they loved dearly. They sacrificed their futures to make sure others could see their own come to life. They took a stand for the ideals our country has cherished and held dear for over two hundred years.

Too soon? I’d go so far to say not soon enough.