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Review:
 Is
it too early to make a film about 9/11? People have asked that
question again and again every time a new movie on the subject
comes out. It doesn't matter if it's brilliant (Flight 93), or
horrid (DC: Time of Crisis), people are going to complain. So we
might as well forget about the controversy.
The thing to remember about this is that there are no bad guys.
The Arabs do their damage, but they are all dead offstage and
aren't actually mentioned. We know who did it and why and
therefore that part of the story is irrelevant. What's relevant is
that for a brief moment in time, the people of New York and New
Jersey came together as one and the world saw the best of what
American people can do, something they forgot by the 16th at the
latest.
The film focuses on Sgt. John McLoughlin(Nicolas Cage) and Will
Jimeno(Michael Peña), Port Authority cops who's usual job is
getting drunks and hookers out of the 42nd street bus terminal.
But 9/11, as we all know, wasn't a usual day, so Sgt.
McLoughlin orders a dozen men to follow him down to the WTC to
help rescue people stuck in the upper floors of tower number one.
I'm not sure how he did it, but Stone has managed to perfectly
recreate the area around the TWC, from the facades of building
five, to the mall beneath the towers. We wait with drea
d for the inevitable to happen, and then it does.
We go back and forth between Jimeno and MCloughlin trapped in
the rubble to their families over in New Jersey, where Mrs. Jimeno
(Maggie Gyllenhaal) and Mrs. McLoughlin(Maria Bello) unaware of
the other's existence, wait with their families for news of
anything good or bad. We also follow the mystical journey of
former Marine Staff Sgt. David Karnes(Michael Shannon), an
accountant who gets a message from God to go down and save
somebody. He's the one who does.
The use of flashbacks and momentary fantasy sequences, such as
Jimeno's visions of Jesus with a water bottle, are used to good
effect as our two principles try to stay alive for the hours and
hours before they're found.
In many ways, this is Oliver Stone's most conservative film.
There's no politics, no conspiracy theories expounded, no bad
guys, just the heroism of regular people and the reactions of
loved ones to events they cannot comprehend.
It's a beautiful movie, this despite the horror it depicts. We
root for everybody [the Arabs being dead and all] and are rewarded
for doing so. Considering what happened afterwards, it's something
to hold on to.
Eric Lurio
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