World Trade Center

I went to see World Trade Center today and I must say I was extremely impresses. The criticisms of the movie seem to me to be based on the assumption that Oliver Stone must not be making a serious 9/11 movie. A frequent criticism of the movie seems to be that it doesn’t focus on the actual attacks enough. Just to me it seems that the movie was not meant to be an account of the attacks. We are so close to the attacks that the history of the actual attack is familiar enough to render the movie pointless if it was only focused on that one thing. However, the movie keeps you remembering throughout that this is a terrorist attack which has caused the trapped policemens’ problems. The movie has TVs in the background constantly playing the actual news footage from 9/11. It isn’t clear what change came over Oliver Stone. It isn’t just the lack of conspiracy theories, but the religious and family themes to the film. The film clearly suggests that religious faith saves Jimeno and the love of his family saves McLoughlin. What the film best conveys is the absolute pandemonium that was all over New York on that day. For example, the Port Authority policemen on the scene had no idea that a second plane had hit the building. The movie also did a very god job of showing the normal life in New York right before the attack. A minor nitpick is the way he made up a Yankees game instead of taking the one that happenned. Of course in his made up game Jeter has to hit the homerun. (Note: I’m a Yankee fan who thinks Jeter is a little overrated.)