Oliver Stone: Hollywood Conformist

Rating: 5/10 (24 September 2006)

I would definitely say that I am a fan of Oliver Stone's work, but the sad truth is that he hasn't really made anything particularly exceptional in the last decade. Alexander was considered a huge failure (though I thought it was good), and ever since its negative response and poor box office performance, Stone seems desperately eager to please. First, he makes a "director's cut" of Alexander, cutting out anything too "gay," and now he has made World Trade Center. His clear intention is to go against every expectation an audience would have when they hear Oliver Stone has directed a film about 9/11. There is no political agenda, it is more about emotion and character, but it just plainly and simply is not good, and drags on way too long.
It isn't completely bad, the first act was actually very good. I had a feeling that it would get even better after the tower collapse scene, and I was more than ready to commit myself emotionally to these characters. However, it did not get better; it gradually became pretty bad, resorting to shameless emotional manipulation complete with an over-abundance of flashbacks to back when the two men were happy in their lives with their families, and the "for your consideration" speeches from the wives.
What really just pisses me off about this movie is that even though it's a true story (and a great, happy, positive one!), it barely takes into account the fact that thousands of people lost their lives that day. It's a sappy, sugar-coated tale that treats the audience like infants, assuming that a movie about a family of the officers that didn't survive and how they have to deal with it just wouldn't sell enough tickets. The message we're left with at the end of the film is unbelievably moronic: apparently, in times of need, people will do what's right, and help other people, and shucks, you know what- that's good in my book. Give me a break. This movie is insulting to peoples' intelligence, their emotions, and it's also insulting to anyone who lost someone they loved on that terrible day.
World Trade Center really is everything you could hope that a 9/11 movie wouldn't be. This is something you'd expect from Michael Bay. What's worse is that it's even getting Oscar buzz, which I feel it is unworthy of. The profoundly superior 9/11 film is United 93, which is blunt, frank, and treats the audience and the 9/11 victims with a courageous respect that we just don't see enough of in films based on true tragedies. I left World Trade Center feeling angry and frustrated for many, many reasons. It is one of the year's most disappointing and unnecessary films.
My rating: 5/10