worldtradecenter

This is one of the most complicated films I have ever had to review. How can a person living in this
generation be objective about anything to do with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks? I watched this
happen on live television and I was there in the chaotic aftermath over the next week. I will always
find meaning in films about this day, and I will always be offended by something in films about this
day.

Oliver Stone, a director whose work I usually dislike, has tackled a very touchy subject and I must
confess he’s done it with grace and dignity. Nicolas Cage plays a Port Authority cop who leads a
group of officers to the World Trade Center during the Sept. 11 attacks. You know the rest of that
side of the story. What you might not know is that Cage’s character is a true personality who
survived the collapse of the towers and was trapped under them for what seems like days.

Stone gives us a movie that tastefully never shows the towers collapse from news footage or
glorified Hollywood recreation. Instead, Stone keeps us with the Port Authority cops the whole
time. They didn’t know exactly what was happening during the event like we viewers at home did.
It’s a fascinating look into the minds of the men and women who were there when, no pun
disrespectfully intended, it all went down.

The movie is a claustrophobic experience and a harrowing one. On the inside, under the towers,
we see Cage and his subordinate trying to stay alive while trapped under thousands of pounds of
steel and concrete. Above, the families and the city worries, suffers and the audience is left ripping
their hair out waiting for something to give.

This is not an easy movie to see and trust me, it’s not a date movie, although the lovely woman I
was with at the time insisted we see it. Go figure.

I can’t say too much else about this movie because for every American this true story yields some
amazing revelations about the people who were there that day and what lengths our domestic
heroes went to in the quest to save lives. I’d hate to ruin it for you.

My only criticism is the film has a certain sense of monotony, but I guess when you’re trapped
under two of the tallest skyscrapers in the world, variety isn’t exactly in your future for a while. I
admit I also felt a little guilty paying money to see this film as an entertainment when I lived in the
times of this horrible tragedy.