Review(s): DVD World Trade Center (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)
A Moving Tribute
Nicholas Cage and Michael Pena star as two New York City Port Authority police officers in this magnificent film by Oliver Stone which describes one of the darkest days in the history of the United States: September 11, 2001.
Cage stars as Sgt. John McLoughlin, and Pena stars as officer Will Jimeno. These two men, along with a crew of other officers, entered into the stricken World Trade Center shortly after the brutal terrorist attacks. Their job was to go up inside the tower and assist with rescue efforts. However, shortly after entering the buildings, the collapse began. The officers immediately dove for an elevator shaft; supposedly one of the strongest places in the building. Despite their quick thinking, McLoughlin, Jimeno, and the rest of the officers are buried under tons of concrete and debris. McLoughlin and Jimeno are the only survivors.
Meanwhile, Jimeno's wife Allison (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is 5 months' pregnant with a new baby daughter, and McLoughlin's wife Donna (Maria Bello) is busy making plans for her son J.J.'s birthday party. Both see the terrorist attacks on television and immediately fear for their husbands' safety. The two families begin a consant vigil while waiting to hear any news about the well-being of their husbands.
While buried in the rubble, Jimeno and McLoughlin try to do anything they can to stay awake and keep each other alive. Fearing internal injuries, neither man wants to fall asleep. They keep each other awake by talking about their families and their lives as police officers. A deep bond forms between the two, and neither wants to be rescued without the other.
Efforts to find survivors have begun, spearheaded by members of the United States Marines, along with the New York City Fire and Police Department. One member of the Marine unit is Sgt. Dave Karnes (Michael Shannon). A former member of the Marines, Karnes has left his regular accounting job to come to New York to assist with rescue efforts. He, along with another rescuer, hears Jimeno banging on a pipe. Soon, Karnes has located the two fallen officers, and reinforcements are called in to get them out. The two men are soon pulled to safety and taken to a local hospital.
Only twenty survivors were pulled from the wreckage of the World Trade Center. McLoughlin and Jimeno endured more than most people possibly could, and they survived to tell about it. Both endured several surgeries on their road to recovery, but something more came out of this ordeal; a life-long bond and friendship between two officers who were merely doing their jobs.
This is a truly moving and magnificent film. Nicholas Cage gives one of the finest performances of his career as Sgt. McLoughlin, while Michael Pena is excellent as officer Jimeno. Oliver Stone's directing is first-rate, and he tells the story of 9-11 in a factual, yet sensitive and tasteful manner.
I give this tremendous film my highest recommendation. Watch and see how two heroic police officers risked their own lives to save the lives of strangers and ended up surviving their own personal hardships. If you have a dry eye after watching this movie, then something's wrong.
Complete disappointment....daytime soap!
If you enjoy watching Nic Cage buried in debris for most of the movie while cutting to the various soap opera like goings on above ground - then you'll probably love this horrible film. One would think after the Alexander debacle, Oliver Stone would rebound - he's nowhere to be found in this film. This is moviemaking as bad as it gets, plain and simple! See United 93 for a film worth seeing on this subject (the day the world changed for America). It's hard to believe they even released this movie to the public viewing.
4.5; effective film that just falls a couple ways from greatness
Oliver Stone, known for his wild conspiracy-laden film JFK, the ultra-violent Natural Born Killers or Vietnam centered Platoon, directs this film and unless you took off the credits and everything, you probably couldn't tell he did this. No shift from color to black and white, no hyper camera or politics. So don't think this film is meant to be a big rant against terrorists, or even America for its politics or, I must admit they show sometimes, their arrogance. Instead what we get is just simply a first-hand account of 2 caught in the rubble, as well as the families that were on pins and needles waiting by a phone.
September 11, 2001, a day like any other like the opening scenes show us. 2 cops, John McCoughlin and Will Jimenez go to work only to hear of a plane hitting one of the towers at the World Trade Center. In they go, as well as other officers, to rescue those trapped in the buildings until both towers collapse. Miraculously they survive but are trapped and severely injured. We follow both men struggling to live out of sight and unable to move. We also switch to their wives, John's wife Donna and Will's wife Allison as they wait impatiently for news on their husbands.
One commonly asked question at the time, and even a song title by Alan Jackson, was "where were you?" Me, I was in Math class until I had a spare at 10:30 that took me right to lunch. As I was walking to the stairway to go downstairs and out the door, I heard one student say they "bombed the Pentagon" but I thought crazy kids always talking about movie plots or just being weird. It wasn't until I looked on a website at home that it was the top story. Turned on the TV and there it was. One thing I hated was the TV coverage. Seeing each plane slam into one of the towers every 7 seconds from different angles was a bit much: over 100 lives on each plane not to mention those in the vicinity of where they hit gone in a few seconds. Then of course we have the collapse which they replayed again. Thankfully this film doesn't show them from a filmmaking perspective, putting them on news report or sounds. Oddly the highlight even though it sounds morbid is when they towers collapse with the officers inside: it's incredibly harrowing and powerful really even if it doesn't last as long as I would like. The film suffers from a Catch-22 though: switching back and forth from the families to the 2 officers is a bit jarring even though both would work fine on their own. Seeing 2 cops who can't move talk to each other for an hour and a half would've been kind of boring but when they switch, it's like "hey put it back!"
One thing that happened a lot before the film came out was people asking whether it was too soon to make this. Oddly, this is the 4th film I can recall about 9/11 specifically: Flight 93, United 93, the Great New Wonderful and this film. It doesn't really feel early for me. Instead it feels like a film that was doomed by the public before it even premiered(didn't help that star Maggie Gylennhaal made a comment about America and 9/11 that America was in a way responsible. This of course was highly offensive to them, especially New Yorkers but it does feel like what the film's reaction was too: mention 9/11 and a shield is set up, preventing anyone from talking about it in any way. Stone manages to for once be non-political and presents a simple straight-forward story.
Recently I bought the extended edition of King Kong, the third release to feature extensive background info on the making of the film, the other 2 being the original 2-disc as well as the Production Diaries set. While the film was rather lackluster, the amount of attention paid to the making-of suggests that they obviously loved making the film, just to bad the finished product wasn't as well as it should've been. Same thing with the Some Kind of Monster documentary, chronicling Metallica's recording of the much-maligned St. Anger album. It's not that World Trade Center is bad, far from it, but what this film could've been and seeing the special features makes it clear this film could've been incredibly moving.
It's a film that I admire but I find it hard to love. That said, this is not a cinema blemish and it's at times a very effective film.
Related DVD's World Trade Center (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)
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