Book and Film Review

World Trade Center

Date:12 August 2006
Title:World Trade Center
Screenwriter: Andrea Berloff
Director: Oliver Stone
Principal Actors: Nicholas Cage, Michael Pena, Maria Bello, Maggie Gyllanhaal, Michael Shannon
Released: 2006

Reflections: Tonight I saw a very sentimental and sobering film, one that should in many ways touch a chord with all Americans, and perhaps all people in the Western World, especially if they were alive and cognizant on 11 September 2001. That movie is World Trade Center, and I must say that if this film had a purpose, it certainly is very apt at fulfilling it. What this film did, was to focus on a few individuals involved in the rescue and devastation of the World Trade Center on 9/11, and the story is complete true (to my understanding), which definitely adds to the potency of the film. The characters are very likeable, as they probably ought to be for such a piece, and the film is excruciating to watch at times. This film decidedly takes me back to the actual day this tragedy happened, and I have no doubt that is part of the intention of it. Still, I feel it does a great service to everyone seeing it, by bringing them back to that tragic day, it is a day that was far too easily forgotten and to remember it is certainly necessary. It does, of course, make me wonder about the timing of the release, it seems so eerie that this was released very shortly after Flight 93, and just yesterday there were major threats of more terrorist attacks, and this time by liquid explosives. I am not saying that they are anything more than coincidental timings, but still, they all make me wonder right now.
About the film itself, it is done well enough as far as cinematography goes, and there is a few scenes I found particularly touching as far as this goes. The first thing that sticks out in my mind is the deliberate filming of and focusing on a lady jumping out of the tower; this was very moving for me and sobering as well and me think again back to that day. The second thing that stuck out to me, was the panning out from the rubble that officers McLoughlin and Jimeno are trapped in to the WTC itself, which was particularly touching, and then to Manhattan at large. This was moving because it is a sight that is overwhelmingly sad and tragic to behold and one that made my patriotic spirit soar. The film was often boring and slow moving for me, and I have little doubt this was deliberate as that is what it must have felt like to the participants and they doubtless want to convey the difficult eager waiting that the characters are undergoing simultaneously. It is a film where I was constantly hoping and waiting for the resolve to come, and was quite relieved and happy for its coming. One thing that surprised me at first about this film is how quickly it was from the beginning to the crashes to the collapses of the buildings. The bulk of the film was focusing on the excruciating agony that officers McLoughlin and Jimeno and their families were undergoing, but I feel that is precisely why this film was effective. Generally I am not a big fan of Oliver Stone, but I must say he impressed me with this film, and it certainly stands as a tribute to the brave and noble rescue workers present on that fateful day. It is, however, something I do not know if I could willingly watch repeatedly, at least not without a lot of time between viewing, because it is so hard to watch without flinching and remembering and mourning.

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