Aug 17 2006
A Quick Review of “World Trade Center”
I just listened to Roepert’s review of Oliver Stone’s latest movie, World Trade Center. He thinks it’ll get nominated for best picture. The best I can say is that I was able to sit through the whole thing without wanting to walk out. But I wouldn’t call it good either.
It probably will get nominated for best picture for political reasons (like Philadelphia did). Patriotic Americans are going to eat it up. Everyone in the movie is a hero. We never really see what it’s like to hear the bad news about a relative who died when the towers collapsed; we only get to know the families of the policemen who live. So no, it’s not manipulative at all.
Then there’s the businessman/former marine who dusts off his old uniform and covertly makes his way to ground zero (as it was called) to look for survivors. What a guy! He’s not even signed up, but like he says to one of the men in the rubble, “You are my mission!” There’s an even better scene at the end of the movie where he decides to officially sign up to the marines again because, “Someone has to avenge this.” Great. (George W. Bush is going to love this movie.)
World Trade Center may have some basis in truth, but you can’t believe anything Oliver Stone throws at you no matter how straightforward his direction is in this film; he still manages to put his fingerprints all over this one. It’s just another sentimental, flag-waving, I-love-America movie. In the context of the events of 9/11, that somehow feels unnecessary to me.
I don’t recommend it. Rent United 93 instead.
