Directed by: Oliver Stone
Grade: B
There is one major question that must be asked about Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center: is it film about those who survived 9/11, or is it remembering those who perished? My answer is both. The film follows two police officers (John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno) who struggle to keep breathing while being pinned down among the rubble of the falling buildings, and watching that made me cringe against my couch throughout the entire film. These two guys miraculously survived after being found by US Marines and being trapped in the debris for most of the day and well into the night, after which they were delivered into the loving care of their families, whose deep worry and concern we see analogous to the story of the two trapped men. We gradually learn to care for these two guys as the film progresses, learning about their trials they have encountered in recent times, the hard work they have put into their professional lives, and the better relationships they wish to build with their respective families. As we finish congratulating the few who were rescued out of the rubble at the film’s end, the closing text informs us that over 2,000 perished in 9/11. This is a brief moment of reflection upon those who did die, and here I can rest my case upon my answer to the opening question.
What really makes the film work is how firmly the characters are able to connect with the viewers, and this compels the entire story forward from beginning to end. While the best scenes are easily the practical ones where the two men are trapped under the rubble, and confide in each other to stay awake and hope for rescue, I was equally compelled by the interwoven, tender sequences involving the family members who bond together and pray for the lives for their entrapped loved ones. By the way Stone interlaces the scenes involving the trapped men and the family members; we are able to comprehensively follow two parallel stories at once, and this is how we begin to not only feel sympathy for the characters in the film, but to also find a higher level of respect for those who went through the chaos of 9/11.
This is a different kind of movie for Stone, as it is not near as cynical or over exuberant as some of his other pictures, but there still limitations to be taken into account. Nicolas Cage, as McLoughlin, fails to decisively establish himself in the lead role. Also stalling is a cyclical motion of events in the family scenes: while these scenes are undoubtedly touching as I have explained above, there is nothing to prevent an overexertion of relatives crying in home, watching the news for a glimmer of hope for survival of their nearest and dearest, the children as equally (if not more) determined then the adults to go to the scene of the wreckage themselves…the list might as well stop here. More prominently however, is the deliberately slow conclusion, which contrasts itself to the fast paced, intense drama of the previous sequences. What’s important to note here is that these scenes are a dejection in the film when they just as well should have been overwritten for something more unsullied. Fortunately, the key blemishes here are outnumbered by the film’s cumulative strengths.
What makes World Trade Center a finer drama is the fact that it’s strappingly character driven, even for all the stains that I went over in the last paragraph. It is for those stains that World Trade Center may at first be seen as a summer popcorn disaster flick. The reality is that World Trade Center is a movie about a tragedy, a piece of remembrance to those who perished, and a signal of a sigh of relief for those who made it out alive.
B
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