World Trade Center---***1/2
At the end of April, British documentarian Paul Greengrass gave us a harrowing re-creation of the only one of four hijacked airliners which didn't reach its target in the docudrama United 93. Now, American filmmaker Oliver Stone recounts the memories of two Port Authority (PA) policemen who survived the attacks on the Twin Towers on 11 September 2001.
The name "Oliver Stone" conjures up thoughts of conspiracy theories and the like. However, in World Trade Center, Stone has given us a film based solely on the recollections of the two policemen (and their wives) that this story follows. It is a story about the human spirit. It is about fear and fraility as well as strength and courage.
Nicolas Cage plays John McLoughlin, a patrol sergeant with the Port Authority stationed at the authority's midtown bus terminal. On the morning of 11 September, McLoughlin awakens early to prepare for his day at work. Stone deftly lets us know without a whole lot of exposition that there's trouble in the McLoughlin marriage. The sergeant rolls out of bed without so much as disturbing his wife. He showers, dresses and checks in on his children. He then makes the drive into New York City to begin his day.
Through a variety of establishing shots and background radiocasts, Stone lets us know that it is what passes (then) as a normal day in New York. Meanwhile, rookie patrolman Will Jimeno (Michael Peña) jumps in his SUV and heads to work as well. After a time, Stone takes us to morning roll call at the bus terminal's police sub-station where McLoughlin makes routine assignments for the day.
Jimeno, after bantering with his buddy Dominick Pezzulo (Jay Hernandez), heads out to Eighth Avenue to begin his assignment. Our first inkling that something is wrong is when Jimeno hears a jet roar overhead and we see the shadow of an airliner against a nearby building. In short order, the various members of the squad hear a code on their radios which they recognize as an emergency order to report back to the substation. As Jimeno, Pezzulo and their colleagues return, they see newscasts of the crippled North Tower. Speculation starts to run rampant about what has happened at the Trade Center.
McLoughlin assembles a team and commandeers a city bus for his team's trip downtown. On the bus, the patrolmen speculate on what has actually happened. One of the patrolmen has talked to his wife and learned that a second plane has hit the South Tower. Meanwhile, in a department Suburban, McLoughlin and his lieutenant (Kassimatis, played by Nick Damici) discuss the rescue plan for the Towers. It's here where we learn that McLoughlin helped draw up emergency plans for the Trade Center complex after the 1993 terrorist bombing. However, McLoughlin lets Kassimatis know that there's nothing in their plans to cover the scenario facing them.
Once downtown, McLoughlin asks for volunteers to go into the Towers. After some hesitation, Jimeno, Pezzulo and a few others step forward. What follows is nightmarish as McLoughlin and his team set about gathering equipment to help rescue people in the Towers. There are sheets of paper everywhere, falling debris, and the frightful sounds of explosions and the buildings shuddering.
Just as McLoughlin's team has gathered all the equipment that they need, the tower above them starts to shudder and McLoughlin, realizing what is happening, shouts “Run!” McLoughlin and his team head for an area between the two towers which McLoughlin knows holds the best chance for their survival. However, we soon learn that only McLoughlin, Jimeno and Pezzulo seem to have survived.
From this point forward, we're watching what those three officers did to survive and what those above did to rescue them. Interspersed with these images are how the officers' families deal with the uncertainty of not knowing whether their husbands are dead or alive. We particularly follow the tribulations of Donna McLoughlin (Maria Bello) and Allison Jimeno (Maggie Gyllenhaal) as they wait for word about their missing husbands while trying to cope with their families around them.
What happens to McLoughlin, Jimeno and Pezzulo after the towers collapse is positively frightening. Stone doesn't spare us any intensity as we view what happens below and above the rubble.
I should mention the performance of Michael Shannon who plays ex-Marine Dave Karnes. Karnes, who was an accountant who decided to go to New York to help search for survivors of the attack. Karnes calmly leaves work, gets his hair cut, dresses in Marine fatigues, and heads for Ground Zero. Save for the fact that this part of the story is based in reality, this would seem incredulous. Karnes is single-minded in his attempt to find survivors. When he, along with fellow ex-Marine PFC Dave Thomas (William Mapother), finds the buried PA patrolmen, it brings one of the few uplifting moments in the film. When Jimeno pleads for Karnes not to leave, Karnes simply states “You are our mission!”
[The identity, until last week, of the second Marine was unknown to investigators and filmmakers. However, it is now known that he is former Marine Sgt. Jason Thomas. You can read about Karnes and Thomas in the articles cited at the end of this essay.]
World Trade Center is heart-wrenching while at the same time exasperating. Unlike United 93, which more or less took place in real time, this film takes place in compressed time. With the amount of narrative that Stone has to cover, that shouldn't be such a big problem. However, despite a running time of two hours and five minutes, I would like to have seen just a tad more exposition leading up to the critical events. Also, since a great deal of the narrative takes place beneath the rubble, the film tends to be claustrophobic and sluggish. The nature of the material also tends to make this film much more melodramatic than United 93.
All in all, this is a film worth seeing. It exposes the raw elements of human nature but also the triumph of human spirit. It makes an excellent bookend with United 93.
At the close of the film, we learn that 2,749 people died in the Twin Towers attack. Only 20 people survived.
