Review of World Trade Center (2006) by Lewisp. — 10 Aug 2006

It occurs to me that the story of the rescue of two Port Authority cops during the World Trade Center Disaster should have been one of perhaps 30 smaller scenes in a larger and grander movie. When Stone depicts the technical aspects of the disaster (such as the implosion of the Towers from within) as well as the actual rescue of the policemen, the film is quite gripping.

All the stuff in the suburbs with the wives takes away from the film since there's little dramatic tension in those scenes. Stone starts his film off artistically with cinematography hinting at the approaching dread.

But he drops the ball when he fails to show the horror of the day in detail. We need more agony before the relief of the rescue of the cops otherwise the film descends into sentimentality. The "agony" scenes should have included the last moments of people in Windows on the World, the frantic cries of the stewardess as she realizes the first hijacked plane is dipping too low, the young man who evacuates from Tower 2 but decides to go back upstairs and is trapped when the second plane hits, the jumpers, etc, etc.

In addition to the tough stuff, Stone could have included a few of the other "survivor" stories, finally culminating in the resuce of the Port Authority cops. Because of the film's narrow focus, the audience is short-changed and one fails to experience the full impact of the World Trade Center Disaster.