Reactions from The Eyrie: World Trade Center

Okay, this isn't a real film review. There are no cast and crew details (that's why IMDb exists, after all) and I've never taken Film Appreciation at even the lowliest level. I just know what I like or don't, and occasionally I'll post that here, because I can.

I seldom see films nowadays for obvious reasons (cash flow, dearth of quality, annoying and rude theatergoers), and ones based on disasters are not usually on my short list when I do go. My husband really wanted to see Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, and I went along to please him more than anything else. Being claustrophobic, the last thing I really wanted to sit through was a depiction of two Port Authority police officers buried alive under the devilish wrath that was September 11, 2001. However, I owed Irish big after he sat through March of the Penguins and Pride and Prejudice, so off we went. I knew it would affect me emotionally and even physically regardless of the director's method. Indeed, there were a few scenes during which I had to look away, and some that made me visibly shake. Irish asked if I needed to leave the theater. I wanted to, but was riveted by the thought that if those people could live through something like that, I could honor them by at least staying to hear and see their story.

The movie is vivid without being ghastly in its realism. The entire cast does justice to the victims, living and dead, of that awful day. At no time do we see a Hooray-for-Hollywood-rootin'-tootin' sensationalized tabloid tale. Instead, bedraggled female characters, all but forgetting to take a breath, let alone fix their makeup, endure the most agonizing day of their lives; men look like they've just been belched from the very maws of death itself; kids lose their childish trust that Mom and Dad will fix everything and the world's an okay place to be. Besides being honest, World Trade Center is a family-honoring and (big surprise!) God-honoring work. (Imagine, people of faith being portrayed positively, even heroically in a mainstream movie!) Above all, I was mightily impressed that Stone managed to make good on the story and not inject his particular political slant. That alone is a huge measure of its success as a film and his as the director. (Did I really just say something complimentary about an Oliver Stone film?).

Nothing being perfect this side of Heaven, the movie has its flaws. Could anyone have accurately portrayed the hardship the rescuers endured, hour after hour digging down into what could very well have been their own tomb? The rescue effort itself had to be truncated, both for time's sake as well as to spare the audience from being itself buried in the tragedy. Some characters were inevitably combined or overlooked. Without giving spoilers, there were a few characters and occurrences in the story line that I chalked up as script devices to move the plot along or add drama. I was amazed to read interviews with the real-life Will Jimeno and John McLoughlin later and find out that these were, in truth, part of their actual experiences. Amazing.

Please don't take children--this is much too overwhelming for anyone younger than mature teenagers to sit through. The use of profanity is brief and quite appropriate. The audience filed quietly out at the end without the usual banter and giggling that accompany a Saturday night crowd. Don't shortchange yourself by sitting this one out. It was the day life changed profoundly for all of us.