World Trade Center Hits You Where it Hurts
It’s September 11, 2001. Everyone is going to work. Everyone is starting their day-to-day lives. One of the men working on that day was Port Authority officer – husband and father of 4, John McLoughlin (Cage). He wakes up earlier. He’s prompt. He’s dedicated. But, you might almost suspect the man lacks motivation of any kind.
On the same day, Port Authority officer, husband and father of one – so far, Will Jimeno (Pena) goes to work. He’s accompanied by fellow officers – all are men who we barely know, and may never know. We have no idea what the future lies in store for them.
Just as everyone is getting settled in their duties, the inevitable doom that awaits the twin towers happens. It comes so early on in the story, the horrendous event that shocked the world that day doesn’t come as any surprise. Afterall, it’s only been 5 years and that day is still fresh in all of our minds. The officers in John and Michael’s brigade are among the first men and women rushed into the towers.
They get their equipment and just before we know what’s going on, everything collapses on top of them. Considering the first avalanche of cement and twisted metal was probably the first tower to collapse that day, it’s hard not to think anyone to have survived such a catastrophe was pretty lucky.
Only three men lived the first avalanche; John, Michael and fellow Port Authority officer, Dominick Pezzulo (Jay Hernandez; Hostel). But, it leaves both John and Michael pinned down under such heavy debris it’s damn near impossible to pull them free. The second took Pezzulo’s life. His ending dialogue and actions seem a little trite and unrealistic, but it’s still the right shock value.
At the same time John and Michael are waiting to be rescued, their families are at home watching everything on the news – as we all were that day in a state of fear and disbelief. John’s wife, Donna McLoughlin (Bello) is a tough woman. She watches helplessly as her life and world around her falls apart, and she keeps an unimaginable cool head. She keeps her family together, and tries to keep them from losing it.
Michael’s wife, Alison Jimeno (Gyllenhaal) sometimes looks like she’s losing her mind. Being obviously pregnant, she demands to leave the house when she knows she should stay. On the way home, she storms out of a car waiting at a red light because she needs to get home for the phone call saying whether or not her husband is dead or alive. Her biggest obstacle is trying to figure out how to tell her little girl that her father isn’t coming home.
After everything settles, the biggest question is whether or not John and Michael are going to make it. While the beginning was a frenzy of introduction and what seemed to be some Hollywood-ized conflict, it’s at this point when the movie finds it’s emotional center.
Coming away from the Rasberry-award-winning disaster that was Alexander, Oliver Stone picks himself up, dusts himself off and really hits us the way we know he can. When that core point of the story finally hits the screen, Stone pulls all the right chords and makes heroism seem almost heart-wrenching.
World Trade Center isn’t a perfect film. For Stone, it’s a giant leap up from his previous failure – perhaps even a throwback to his masterpiece, Platoon. And the film acts becomes a fitting monument to all the men and women that lived and died to save the people in that disaster. It’s a film to see. It’s a film to experience. Just don’t forget to bring some tissue.
