A narrow focus vs. a wider horizon...

Rating: 7/10 (16 August 2006)

Some will call it the strength of the film--the fact that it deals almost exclusively with two of the trapped police officers beneath the 9/11 rubble rather than giving us a broader view of the tragic event. Others will lament the fact that it never widens its horizons to show us a more complete picture.
Whatever, Oliver Stone has done a commendable job with what he has chosen to show--but leaving me with the feeling that I, personally, would have preferred a wider horizon of events. Instead he has chosen to tell the story while the men are trapped by going back and forth from the rescue scene to their worried families. It must be said that all of the dialog for these family scenes is completely natural and never seems forced or over sentimentalized.
He has chosen not to show the actual footage of planes hitting the building at the start of the film--except for a background shot of TV footage--and the only time we are even reminded that planes did this damage is when we see a shadow of a plane against a skyscraper shortly before the first tower is hit. I think it's a mistake not to have shown this important footage as a prelude to his story.
Of course, the dialog (which shows how much better communication should have been between police officers), does mention planes from time to time, so it's hard to understand just why Stone chose to blunt the visual impact this would have had at the opening of his film.
Instead, he confines all of his coverage to the rescue efforts of two very heroic survivors who manage to keep each other alert under perilous circumstances. Since the two men are played in a totally real and sympathetic manner by NICOLAS CAGE and MICHAEL PENA, it is especially hard to witness their struggle to stay alive as even more dangerous rubble falls around them, making them even more vulnerable and helplessly trapped amid new explosions.
All of the technical factors are excellent with regard to the realism of the war zone damage (before it was called a war), but strangely missing from the ground damage is the white ash that covered so many who ran from the huge clouds of smoke and debris. Only huge amounts of paper are strewn about, as though the ash never existed. This is the one technical blunder I found almost unforgivable.
The women are competent, nothing more, as played by MARIA BELLO (as Cage's wife) and MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL as Pena's pregnant spouse. The emotional investment in the story depends entirely on the performances of Cage and Pena and they don't disappoint. Both are extremely real and affecting in difficult roles that limit their physicality due to being caught beneath the tower's rubble.
Perhaps it's time for this to be seen for what it really is--a good reminder of the enemy we faced that day and still do--without politicizing the event the way we might expect Stone to do. And since most Americans seem to have short memories, it's a good thing Stone made this film when he did, memorializing the start of a new kind of war that began five years ago on 9/11.