World Trade Center

Day 254 - 9/11/09 - Movie #254

BEFORE: I've been avoiding this one, because I don't necessarily agree with the notion that a national tragedy is an appropriate setting for a Nicolas Cage action movie. But if I'm ever gonna watch it, today's the day. At least I've programmed back-to-back Oliver Stone films...

THE PLOT: Two Port Authority police officers become trapped under the rubble of the World Trade Center.

AFTER: The movie takes an unusual approach, focusing on two men trapped in the rubble, giving the whole thing a sort of tense, claustrophobic atmosphere. Then to break up the tension, we see the wives and families of the two men, waiting nervously for any news about the men's survival.

Without getting into too much of my own experiences on 9/11/2001 - since I'm trying to separate my review of the film from any feelings about the event (I was closer to the WTC during the 1993 bombing - about 1 block away, but that's another story...), the film still made me uncomfortable - but I suppose that's the whole point.

I suppose Oliver Stone had to tread a very fine line when making this movie - we can HEAR bodies hitting the pavement outside the World Trade Center, but we just don't see them, I suppose that would have been too distracting. Then again, maybe it was a cost-cutting measure, since we only see the towers collapse in all-too-familiar news footage. Re-creating the plane crashes and the building crashes would probably have been too difficult, too expensive, and too controversial.

So what we're left with is little bits and pieces of the day, and I'm not sure they add up to a big, coherent whole - which means that the ultimate 9/11 movie has yet to be made, and probably won't be for many years. This is sort of the equivalent of "From Here to Eternity", which showed personal bits and fragmented pieces of the Pearl Harbor attack, where the real big-budget Michael Bay film took 50+ plus years to be possible, and appropriate.

Still, the movie manages to hit home, especially since it's based on real events. The real John McLaughlin and William Jimeno spent hours buried under rubble, and were nearly last among the few people who were rescued from the pile. The film does manage to capture the feeling I remember from that day, the feeling of helplessness, of not knowing exactly how to react, or what the future repercussions of the day would be - just that there would be long-lasting ones.

I will give credit to the filmmaker(s) for showing all the different aspects of that day - humanity at both its worst and its best. We do see people going to hospitals to volunteer, driving down to the site itself to offer food or just support to disaster workers, and people (and dogs) traveling to NY to perform search and rescue operations, just because it's part of their skill sets. There are thousands of stories and it would be impossible to incorporate them all, so focusing on a select few makes the most sense.

The film didn't make it easy to spot cameos from character actors - since most everyone's face was covered in soot and dust - but I did notice Stephen Dorff and Frank Whaley as rescuers, and Nicholas Turturro as a P.A. officer - and of course Maria Bello, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Donna Murphy and Patty D'Arbanville among the officers' family members.

On a side note - one of the On Demand channels is offering all 4 of the "Airport" films, which I've never seen. Is it wrong of me to tape "Airport" on the anniversary of 9/11?

RATING: 7 out of 10 oxygen tanks