This thought provoking exposition on the history of aircraft hijacking offers a fascinating glimpse at a terrifying phenomena. Shot pre-9/11, DIAL HISTORY travels back to the 1960s for its first examples of commercial flights being commandeered, mostly as a means to get a political message across. Few of these early demonstrations met with a grizzly demise, as the hijackers usually guided the aircraft to a remote destination, then proceeded to negotiate their radical demands. But as the media increased coverage of the unsavory occurrences, terrorists seized on the chance to gain vital airtime for their messages. Following this, a toning down of terrorist activities swept the media in the 1990s, cutting off the jugular of power that had fed hijackers for years. Director Johan Grimonprez highlights all this and more in this absorbing treatise on the subject.
