Director Oliver Stone’s ‘World Trade Center,’ in theaters now,
is an uplifting remembrance of 9/11
– and it’s more of a love story than a graphic account. Here’s
what to expect if you plan to see the film and what locals are
saying about it
It might be expected that a movie directed by Oliver Stone titled “World Trade Center” would be a politically charged story beefed up with fiery special effects. But restraint and morale-boosting emotion are two marked characteristics of the film, in theaters now, that make it a powerful, if not uplifting account of 9/11.
The movie stars Nicolas Cage as Sgt. John McLoughlin and Michael Peña as rookie officer Will Jimeno. Both are Port Authority cops who become pinned beneath concrete slabs in the aftermath of the attack on the South Tower.
McLoughlin’s sassy and strong-willed wife, Donna, played by Maria Bello, must comfort their three children when she learns her husband is part of the rescue team entering the North Tower. Jimeno’s wife, Allison, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, is a playful, caring woman pregnant with the couple’s second child. She waits for news of her husband, feeling suffocated by her well-meaning but overbearing family, who surround her as she tries to cope with envisioning her children’s lives without their father.
Perhaps the eeriest part of the movie is in the first few frames, which depict everyday life in New York City the morning of the attacks. McLoughlin barks out daily commands at a morning debriefing inside the police station. Jimeno, with a likable, firm kindness, tells a panhandler huddled outside a bus station to scat. City streets and subway cars are packed with harried business people and college kids talking, listening to headphones and casually glancing at each other. The audience knows what all of them do not, and it’s chilling.
When the first attack occurs on the North Tower, no exploding ball of heated orange and yellow momentarily fills the screen. Instead we see the jet’s gray shadow quietly sliding against the smooth, blue glass of the South Tower – a simple mental image that sticks with you more than high-budget gimmicks.
McLoughlin and Jimeno are among the first responders. While they’re in the concourse that connects the two towers, the South Tower is hit. The men and their fellow officers don’t know what’s happening; they thought the worst was over. They run toward the elevator shaft for cover amid the fire, black smoke, deafening noise and glass shards coming at them horizontally. The next frame is pitch black silence.
McLoughlin and Jimeno – the only two survivors of their group – will spend the next 12 hours there, crushed by rubble, their bodies covered in soot, their mouths and throats cracked with dryness.
Most of us can easily picture the images repeatedly shown in the media following the attacks – the towers crumbling, for example, or the chaos of the rescues taking place near Ground Zero. But here, the view of 9/11 is micro: We are underneath the South Tower with McLoughlin and Jimeno, in the quiet and painful dark, awaiting death. The two murmur and muster any strength they have left to call to each other, reminding one another to stay awake. Sleep likely means internal bleeding will claim their lives.
Meanwhile, in the glaring light of day, the officers’ wives and families are at home, glued to TV sets and nearly undone with panic and uncertainty. The two families – they don’t know each other – are bickering, crying in each other’s arms and remembering – as are McLoughlin and Jimeno – their lives before the horror of that day.
In the cases of both McLoughlin and Jimeno, love and commitment to their wives and families are the only motivating factors to stay alive. No longer are they – McLoughlin especially – hardened cops protected by rescue gear while heading fearlessly into the unknown. They are human beings on the verge of death, two people who didn’t really know each other when they woke up that morning. They are real people who loved deeply, but they inadvertently, and sometimes heartlessly, became consumed by the grind of everyday life – a realization many people had about themselves as a result of 9/11.
To an unromantic person, parts of “World Trade Center” might come across a little too sentimental. The overall message of the movie – that humans are capable of amazing good – is positive, but it’s really the only message to be found.
But as the five-year anniversary of 9/11 approaches, the movie offers a somber remembrance of how our country was forever changed – in many ways – that day.
Local Reactions to Movie Range From Tears to Skepticism
Hollister resident Michele Reid walked out of Platinum Theatres in Gilroy feeling a little more reflective and subdued than when she arrived to see director Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center” last week. The 37-year-old brought her mom, Carol Callahan from Ben Lomond, who initially wasn’t sure what to expect. To Callahan’s surprise, she said, the film was uplifting.
“It was so powerful. I hesitated at first to see it because I thought it might be too depressing,” she said, dabbing her eyes immediately after exiting the theater. “But it was better than I thought it would be. It makes you realize what happened and what it was like to be there. What got me was how everyone was helping each other.”
The teamwork Callahan said was evident in the movie was also one reason Gilroy firefighter Bernhard Szilagyi said he enjoyed seeing it.
“I think in this line of work, you understand a little better what went on that day,” he said. “For someone who doesn’t know how things work within the service and the duties those individuals carried out that day, it was the first time people got to see what emergency personnel are subject to at any time when they’re at work. When something happens, you’re there, and you’re there to carry out your duty – no matter what it is.”
For other public safety employees, though, movies such as “World Trade Center” might aim to portray the jobs of emergency personnel, but often the result is excessive drama and a skewed perception, said 17-year paramedic veteran Dave Zenker, director of operations for San Benito County American Medical Response ambulance company.
“I think if you talk to most people in our profession, we probably shy away from stuff like that – shows like ‘E.R.’ and that kind of stuff. Typically, I think it’s kind of overdramatized,” said Zenker, who said he wasn’t planning to see the movie. “It can be good for educating the public in a lot of ways, but it can also overdramatize what we do.”
The movie is, however, a good vehicle for portraying the teamwork that goes into the public safety profession, Zenker said, and Capt. Bob Brookes of the Hollister Police Department agreed. Brookes hasn’t seen “World Trade Center” either, but generally speaking, Hollywood does a good job illustrating the heroic aspect of the profession – something that shouldn’t be overlooked, he said.
“The most amazing thing about my job is that I command a group of men and women who would be willing to go head in to a gun fight to protect a stranger – somebody they’ve never met and somebody they will probably never meet again,” he said. “When you stop and that about it, for me, it’s just mind-boggling.”
That so many people risked their lives to help strangers is a powerful reminder of how 9/11 has altered our country’s consciousness – even five years later, said Gilroy resident Christian Flores, 17, who saw “World Trade Center” with his girlfriend, 17-year-old Jeanette Molina from Hollister.
“It’s really sad. A lot of lives were lost, and a lot of people risked their lives,” he said. “It touches your heart. It’s a passionate movie.”
