"Too soon, it's too soon." It's not too soon. It's never too soon.
Days after the September 11 attacks people where making jokes and finding conspiracy theories that coordinated with the date.
There already was a documentary called 9/ll that aired on television months after the attack. After the great United 93, a well made movie about a historical event, no matter tragic or heroic, is never too soon to watch.
World Trade Center is graphically stunning. I'm not saying that that is a good thing, but the too accurate to watch set designs showing you what couldn't be seen on the news networks puts you in a trance.
Personally, when I relive that day and the days that followed, I heard more news about the fire fighters than the police officers. I'm glad that Oliver Stone made the movie and centered it around the police department because they deserve as much credit as the rest of the men and women who helped out that day.
For movie sake, World Trade Center shows the day through the point of view of two police officers, Sgt. William McLoughlin (Nicholas Cage) and William J. Jimeno (Michael Pena). It shows them going into the towers together and gives them all of the head shots they need when they battle the mental and physical war they deal with in order to survive when they are buried under 20 feet of rubble of the fallen towers.
WTC is slow to watch, but maybe that's the effect that Stone was going for.
At some points WTC is too Hollywood and makes sure that Nicholas Cage carries the film. It seemed that instead of being a movie about 9/11, it was about Nicholas Cage's head shot and all of the built up emotions he can convey when he can only move his eyes and some of his head.
I think everybody feels emotionally attached to that day no matter if the movie was made or not, but besides the fact that the plot revolves around 9/11, I didn't feel any emotional attachment except when the wives at the end finally greet their husbands. As for Oliver Stone's blatant political view points, they were more died down, but he still peppers the story up so you'll raise an eyebrow or two.
For example, instead of concentrating on the dozens of paramedics and firefighters that saved these two men, Oliver Stone gives the weight to an ex-Marine who thinks he's some sort of messiah. It might be true to the story, but because the editing makes him look like a plastic GI Joe doll, he's out of place.
Yes, the story of these two men was captivating and heroic, but if it were under different circumstances I found it no different than the film Touching the Void when two men are trapped in an ice cave in the middle in the Peruvian Andes. Touching the Void is a much stronger film about two men's stamina to survive and is shot beautifully because your eyes never want to leave the screen, while when watching World Trade Center they sometimes might.
I give World Trade Center *** out of 5 Roses. World Trade Center comes out on August 9.
Reach the reporter at monis.rose@asu.edu.
