Bill Henry Reviews “World Trade Center”

by Bill Henry on Aug.11, 2006, under Bill Henry's Movie Reviews

World Trade Center
Directed by Oliver Stone
Rolling out nationwide 8/9/2006

“Too soon,” an unidentified heckler yelled out when Gilbert Gottfried tried to tell a 9-11 joke at Hugh Hefner’s fall 2001 comedy roast (thus initiating The Aristocrats). Too soon, people explained away the paltry interest in the movie adaptation of The Guys and Spike Lee’s 25th Hour which added a 9-11 subtext to David Benioff’s picaresque novel. And “too soon?” people are asking with this year’s release of big screen docudramas United 93 and Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center. The question not being asked that should is: Are they good enough to be worthy of their subject matter? Paul Greengrass’ United 93 has already proven its merit. Thankfully, Oliver Stone’s look at rescuing the rescuers is every bit the master filmmaker at his very best.

What captivated Oliver Stone was the script by Andrea Berloff (a relative novice with no widely released film work) who crafted her story with the subjects so substantially involved that the two protagonists and their wives were given screen credit. And the movie focuses on two people trapped in the ruins of the World Trade Center and what happens to their family on that day. And it is simply in capturing that story on that day that Stone has crafted a superior film to his much more ambitious (and drearily uninvolving)Alexander.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, we see the day begin for Port Authority police sergeant John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) and officer Will Jimeno (Michael Pena) waking up, leaving their family, commuting into Manhattan, and getting ready for another Tuesday spent patrolling the bus terminal. But when the first plane hits the World Trade Center, Sgt. McLoughlin (who had been involved with the response plan to the 1993 terrorist incident) leads a squad of PAPD men down to Ground Zero to assist. When they arrive, McLoughlin takes a group of volunteers in to assist with the evacuation. But before they can even get above the shopping concourse, the tower rains down upon them killing most and trapping Pena and McLoughlin.

Some have expressed puzzlement over Stone’s choice of subject matter. Such people only think of him as the director of the lunatic conspiracy thriller JFK and ignore the master filmmaker’s focus on important American stories often focusing on the individual caught in the maelstrom (here literally). In this context, it is Alexander that does not fit.

Much like Stone whose reputation precedes him, Nicolas Cage is often thought of as the actor who goes over the top at the least provocation. But in keeping with the character of the subdued and steady leader, Cage delivers himself completely to the service of the man and the role and shows himself a superior performer to the scenery (and once a bug) chewing days where he first drew notice. Pena (who, if World Trade Center wins the Academy Award for Best Picture-a real possibility-will become the first person in movie history to have a featured role in three consecutive best film Oscar winners) is similarly stellar. The two waiting wives, Maria Bello and Maggie Gyllenhaal, are both superb with Bello particularly striking as Donna McLoughlin. But none of this should really be surprising in that the hallmark of Stone’s filmography include the best performances ever given by such people as James Woods, Tom Berenger, Michael Douglas, Woody Harrelson, Tom Cruise, Anthony Hopkins, and so many others.

One advantage that Stone has going for him that the maker of United 93 did not is the audience’s foreknowledge. Nobody walked away from the Pennsylvania crash, neither the terrorists nor the true martyrs. But as unbelievable as it still seems, rescuers were pulled out of Ground Zero after the towers fell. However, to their credit, the filmmakers do not spend a lot of time with the disaster movie clichÃ© of slowly winnowing the initial survivors and turning the movie into a grim guessing game for the audience. It quickly becomes two cops trying to keep each other alive for as long as they can in the face of insurmountable odds and their families wanting to believe as each passing hour seems to ensure only tragedy. The cutaways to the families trying to remain sane while awaiting word becomes not only relief to the audience, but honestly heightens the emotion of a story that requires no such ratcheting up.

In the end, we are rewarded with an amazing film that taken with United 93 will provide a very high mark for future storytellers to aim for. But as the stories are updated, shots of the real people are shown to compare to the actors, and the credits of the praiseworthy roll, one cannot help but recall that the surviving conspirators who perpetrated this horror are still free while our dear leader fritters away our soldiers’ lives on his cobbled up war, Having used 9-11 as an excuse, each day he besmirches the memory of the brave people who went to the rescue on that day and those who lost their lives.

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