When it was announced that director Oliver Stone would be making a movie about the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, most people believed he’d be making controversial or loose-with-the-facts version of the events. There were people who cited Stone’s previous “historical” films, such as JFK and Alexander, as not telling the truth about their individual subject matter and they figured he’d do the same with the events of 9/11. Now that the film is out, it’s obvious that those people couldn’t have been more incorrect. World Trade Center is an accurate account of the events of the day, almost completely devoid of any factual manipulation other than possibly for drama’s sake.
World Trade Center centers on Port Authority Police Department Sgt. John McCloughlin (Nicolas Cage) and Officer William Jimeno (Michael Peña) who were buried in the rubble when the first tower fell at Ground Zero. Through them, the movie takes us back to the morning of September 11th, as they head into work, get their daily assignments, and head out to do their jobs with no idea that the day would be any different from any other.
The movie effectively portrays the confusion of that day as the news of the attacks arrives along with rumors about their scope. “I heard they nuked Israel!” exclaims an officer on his on the way to the towers. We learn that even while firemen, police, and rescue units streamed into the towers to help with the evacuation, most of them had no idea that the second tower had been hit by another plane. They were focused on getting prepared for the daunting task of evacuating people from a 110 story building, not watching the news.
While the movie could have exploited the events of the day in bombastic detail, Stone keeps the actual attacks off-screen. The first plane is seen in shadow as it flies low over the New York skyline. The second plane isn’t even shown but is referred to by characters as they discuss what may have happened. When Stone does go into detail with on-screen depictions of the day’s events, it’s from a perspective that, thankfully, most of us have never seen: the collapse of the towers from inside and underneath. For those that have been numbed by repeated showings of external views of the buildings’ collapse, this will put it all on a truly terrifying personal level.
The film loses steam, however, when it moves away from Ground Zero. Admittedly, there’s not a lot of action when the two lead actors are pinned under debris but World Trade Center takes on an unnecessary melodramatic tone as we see the families of McLoughlin and Jimeno deal with the uncertainty of their loved one’s survival. Taking the movie’s attention away from the two trapped officers is a mistake but it doesn’t ruin the film. It just makes it more ordinary than a movie about this subject should be.
Almost doing the unbelievable, Stone has managed to make a movie about 9/11 that is not likely to offend anyone. No matter your political affiliation, World Trade Center has something to offer. Whether one considers it to be an uplifting story of survival against the odds or a celebration of the American spirit, World Trade Center works.
4.0 out of 5.0 stars
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