World Trade Center

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source: World Trade Center

Oliver Stone salutes the ordinary heroes of this extraordinary circumstances. He puts himself way behind their stories, so far behind in fact that he is almost imperceptible. In Italy, the academics, snobs and other fauna dismissed it as rhetoric and banal. I have the words of the laid back "opinionist" Barbara Pallombelli accusing Stone of "inventing" How silly really. The ignorance between the cultures seems insurmountable sometimes. The story was told by the two men under the rubble and their families. They were working people, not professional "opinionists". They will hum the theme from Startsky and Hutch to keep themselves alive. I wonder what pseudo intellectual would have done.The film is a gripping depiction centered mostly on two men and their families. The event caused a catastrophe that is still growing, based mostly in personal interest and massive inter cultural ignorance. The film is not about that. The film is about the tiniest enormity of the domestic drama. I wept and longed for a private happy ending. The rest, well the rest is still part of our daily existence. Most of the detractors accuse World Trade Center of not being an Oliver Stone film, if he had done a classic Oliver Stone film he would have been accused of that. Stone will be controversial even for standing still. My hat to you Mr Stone, please keep going your own way.

If you liked this movie, you might be a redneck. Leave it up to the citizens of an oblivious, myopic, imperialist country like ours to love a movie that "redeems" the events of September 11. Leave it up to such citizens to like a movie because it does NOT make a political comment, or any other kind of comment, and is, instead, a story of courage and the "triumph" of the "human spirit." How very refreshing. It all reminds me of the sarcastic musings of a Beckett character, who says that before he dies, he hopes to become more able to find "the good in the bad, the bad in the worse." People, if we're always finding the mote of hope in the sea of tragedy, then why should we consider ANYTHING a tragedy? The reactions most people have to this movie are a symptom of a disease--and they are a hint that September 11 has basically changed nothing about the way we think about the world. They are a sign that "it" will probably happen AGAIN. So--go watch this flick, crunch your popcorn, shed a few sappy tears, then get back into your Hummer, fill up with 70 bucks of gas, run over a few homeless people (why can't they just get a job?!), and continue about your day.

I recently caught an advance screening of "World Trade Center". If you are planning on seeing it, please consider these questions first... 1) Despite signs all around you that state "9/11/2001 We Will Never Forget", do you find yourself easily forgetting huge, traumatic events of the past few years? 2) Do you often view after-school specials, only to have them end and think "I don't get it. What life lesson was I supposed to gain from this?" 3) Are you under the age of eight? 4) Do people often repeat things to you, without you prompting them to do so, because of the vacant look in your soulless eyes? 5) Do people often repeat things to you, without you prompting them to do so, because of the vacant look in your soulless eyes? If you have answered yes to any of the above questions, then, by all means, run, don't walk to see this "important" film. Then, punch yourself in the genitals for the next two hours. The first twenty minutes of the flick is build up to when (spoiler alert) the towers come down, trapping our heroes in the rubble. It is chocked full of impending disaster; A quiet city-scape where all you hear is a plane in the sky, people telling each other to be careful, TONS of long, hard stares. And, I was unaware of this, but apparently, Police officers, Port Authority and Firemen only speak in exposition. They don't have conversations like normal humans. They deal only in information that is unseen by the camera. There is a scene with the Port Authority workers on a bus, and it sounds like an office water cooler conversation. "I heard that this happened!" "Well, I heard this!" "Hey Guys! My wife just said that she heard on the radio, blah, blah, blah." I've heard that, in cinema, it is better to show than to tell. But that's just what I've heard. So after the towers fall and our heroes are trapped, there are a few very intense scenes (including a cameo by Jesus, looking like an Ipod advertisement), but unfortunately, most of their story is a series of conversations that David Mammet would call "I once had a kitten" stories. These are tales that give you a little background and build sympathy for the character. Because who would be sympathetic towards two guys buried under twenty feet of rubble, unless you knew about their problematic family life? Now I know that this is a true story, and that these conversations probably took place, but does it make for a good film? Not to me. In the end, when (spoiler alert) Nick Cage is finally pulled out to the surface, we hear him saying "thank you" over and over again to all the people helping him. And this is Oliver Stones way of saluting those that were there. Come on Oliver. If you want to honor the fallen, then lets kick that conspiracy-loving brain of yours into high gear and look at what our government has done in response to and/or leading up to 9/11. Leave the after-school specials to the amateurs and do what you do best. Did this flick really need to be made while the wound is still so fresh? I can see how, in years to come, this could be an interesting story that attempts to capture the confusion/panic/heartbreak of 9/11 for those who have no memory of the events. But for most people, I think this is a story we are still very familiar with. Who wasn't glued to the TV during that time? Who didn't watch and hope that they would find more people alive in the rubble? The people who were there, that's who. And if I was there, why the *&#@%! would I want to sit down in a dark room, surrounded by strangers, and relive that horrible period of my life so soon? I should probably mention that, right next to me were two guys who couldn't stop sniffling through the whole flick, so maybe I'm just an insensitive jerk.

Normally, I am not a fan of Oliver Stone, having only slightly liked a few of his films. I also know about his penchant for conspiracy-spouting in his films, and I took that with me into the film. What I saw, however, was a truly inspirational, realistic, and gritty film that left me in awe of the two brave men depicted in the film, and how the extraordinary events of a day that will forever be in our memories affected even the most normal of people. I have also seen United 93, which was an incredibly realistic and powerful film. Thankfully for myself and every other viewer of World Trade Center, Mr. Stone left his conspiracy soapbox at home, and presented another film about 9/11 in the same vein as that earlier film. It doesn't present anyone as a hero--just a bunch of ordinary people caught up in one of the worst losses of life in our nation's history. However, by the end of the film, you learn that there is a hero in all people, and that when called upon by circumstances, everyday people can become truer superheroes than any comic book character ever was. I highly recommend this film to everyone, though its more graphic sequences may be unsuitable for younger viewers (under 13). In fact, I think both this and United 93 should be required viewing for anyone who wants to understand why this--like Pearl Harbor for my grandparents and JFK's assassination for my parents--is the day my generation will remember exactly where each one of them was when it happened. For those who died, we can not--should not--ever forget.

I'm absolutely disappointed with this film. When you are about to see a film of this magnitude, you expect to see something that can touch your heart, and make you feel. The only thing that I fell with this movie was boredom. OK, yes... I'm from Argentina and I don't lived with my own flesh and blood the S-11, so I can't know how it feels for the Americans. I totally agree. And there's where the film fails! Oliver Stone directed the film for Americans, not for outsiders. There's no great FXs, and the script and the history it's completely boring for those who not live on the US. (Honestly, I don't know where'd go all those millions that cost this movie.) The characters -and specially the marine- are crude imitations: They don't make you feel the pain, the despair, the fury, the hopeless and the grief that America lived in S-11 (unless, obviously, that you lived it). And in my humble opinion, all the fault falls down on Oliver Stone. He failed on every key matter of the film.