(a friend writes movie reviews. here's his review of WTC. -- andreas)
Five years have passed since 9/11, and the event, which changed
America forever, does not yet seem to have been grappled with by
artists. Is it possible for a film maker to deal honestly and
respectfully with this thing so soon afterward? And if so, will
film goers want to watch something still so raw and painful?
United 93 was the first major film to attempt it, and largely
succeeded, but attendance has been disappointing. Oliver Stone,
notorious to some for his revisionist takes on American events, looks
at that day in New York City through the eyes of the two Port
Authority policeman who were trapped in the collapse of the buildings
for a day before being rescued. Both men thought they would die
down there, and very nearly did, before their miraculous discovery
and heroic rescue.
Stone begins his story with both men waking up before dawn as usual,
in their commuter communities, to shower and drive into the main Port
Authority Police Station in New Jersey, while their wives are still
sleeping. Nicholas Cage plays Sergeant McLoughlin, a grizzled
veteran of the earlier World Trade Center bombing in 1993, and a new
policeman, William Jimeno, played my Michael Pena, who is eager to
gain the respect of the other men. We see their routines: the
locker room kidding, assembly, briefing, and dispersal to their
various patrol areas. Stones shoots very beautiful scenes of NY
early in the morning with people on their way to work, early trades
already at work, and glimpses of life in the city. The many scenes
of Manhattan with the towers intact early that morning are very
poignant. The tension becomes almost unbearable. We see a group
of people walking to work on a sunny sidewalk when suddenly a large
shadow quickly crosses, and then a sudden boom. Everyone is
stunned. To his credit, Stone does not show the impacts, but we see
it on the faces of people on the street. Jimeno is giving some
tourists directions when he gets a call on his radio to report
back. Someone said that a small plane has crashed into one of the
towers, and soon we are with the group of PA policeman, on a
commandered bus, commanded by Sgt McLoughlin, heading downtown to the
twin towers. One of the policeman on the bus gets a cell phone call
from his wife that another plane has crashed into the second tower,
but no one believes him. As they approach lower Manhattan, they see
people running, general panic, and finally when near, they see the
smoke, some people injured and covered with soot, and chaos. The
air is filled with papers from the towers, like dirty snow. There
is tremendous confusion, with hundreds of people fleeing in panic,
many hurt, and fireman and policeman beginning to enter both
buildings. No one yet realizes the extent of the damage, but we
know that we will never see most of the rescuers again. All of
these scenes seem intensely realistic and often horrific.
By now, glass and debris is showering down in front of the buildings,
and more people are fleeing, many bloody or burned. McLoughlin
takes a team of six men into one of the towers, first collecting air
packs, then starting to go into an elevator. They hear loud
noises, that we know are the building beginning to come apart, but
they continue on. Suddenly the building begins to collapse around
them, and McLoughlin shouts for his men to get into the elevator
shaft. McLoughlin and Jimeno end up in near darkness, covered with
debris, badly injured, pinned, and unable to move, in a small pocket
created by jumbled beams. A third man is also pinned but beginning
to dig himself out. A few minutes later, there is a tremendous
boom (the second tower collapsing), more debris falls on them,
severely wounding the third man. They are barely able to see
daylight many feet above, but the camera begins to climb, until we
emerge into a vast pile of smoking wreckage. We cannot comprehend
the scale until the camera climbs further to survey this scene out of
hell. This scene will never be forgotten by anyone who sees it.
It is breathtaking and heartbreaking.
Stone repeatedly shifts from the trapped men to the families waiting
for news of their loved ones, still unaware of the magnitude of the
disaster. But soon television makes clear what has happened, and
everyone wonders who went into the building, and are they still
alive? Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Allison, Jimeno's expectant wife,
and Maria Bello plays Donna, McLoughlin's wife. Both women try to
cope, deal with their children and families, and fight their growing
fears that their husbands are dead. The news on the television
becomes worse and worse, and the PA headquarters have little
information.
An ex-Marine in Connecticut looking at the news, decides to put his
old fatigue uniform on, and go to the site to see if he can help.
He slips through the police lines, meets another Marine doing the
same thing, and they begin a dangerous climb onto the mountain of
wreckage, still hot and smoking. They hope to find anyone
trapped. Again, the scene shifts rapidly from the Marines above to
the men below. The men below are talking to each other, trying to
keep each other awake. Jimeno has a strange vision, and McLoughlin
sees his wife next to him, telling him to come home and finish the
kitchen that he had begun to remodel. Each keeps the other awake
and alive. Miraculously, the Marines hear Jimeno banging a pipe,
call to him, and promise to get him out. The one Marine says we
won't leave you, we are Marines. Having been saved by the Marines
myself, that line had tremendous power. The Marines bring the
fireman to the spot, who attempt a dangerous dig into the
wreckage. I won't describe the rest of the film, but it maintains
its focus and power every minute, and the acting remains uniformly
outstanding.
I think that Oliver Stone has made a tremendous film here, with great
power, vision and clarity that has sometimes been lacking in his
other films. His depictions seem immensely accurate and in my mind,
are the closest thing to having been there. He shows the intensity
of a people united in an attempt to help and support each other,
often at the cost of their lives. And of volunteers from many other
states, streaming in to help, whether it was simply helping the
injured down the street or handing out food to fireman. Stone makes
us justifiably proud of our response then, almost as if in penitence
for some of his more bizarre films, like JFK. But our long term
response has not been pride worthy, to say the least. A coda
states that that Marine rescuer re-enlisted, and served two terms in
Iraq. Our focus should have remained Afghanistan. What tragic
irony, that this man's patriotism (and millions of others) should
have been so exploited by the Bush Administration. I think it is
important to see this film, because we are seeing great art and
remembering and honoring those who served (not many of us, to be
sure) and those who died on that terrible day. The label of hero
has become much diluted, but these people were the real thing. More
than most films, WTC should be seen in a theater. Ciao, Ian
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