Bravery and Courage

Rating: 9/10 (3 September 2006)

Oliver Stone reconstructs another epic, this time the tragedy of the World Trade Center on 9/11/01. Stone focuses on two New York policemen who were trapped beneath the debris from the falling buildings. Nicolas Cage does a nice job depicting one of the policemen. The bravery of those who have a family and who choose to survive until rescue is realistically depicted. Certainly, it would be easy to just give up and shoot yourself as one of the other policemen chooses to do. But, winners never quit, and Nicolas Cage shows himself to be a winner. And, it could be easy for America to just give up in the face of the overwhelming malice of Islamic terrorists. But, perhaps it would be better to never quit. Bravery and persistence in the face of evil is the predominant tone of this movie. Stone does a good job also of depicting the charming families of the policemen trapped under the rubble, as they are driven to fear and hysteria and then hope and triumph as they desperately seek information concerning the fates of their loved ones.
In regard to the tragedy itself, it would seem that skyscrapers are inherently vulnerable to terrorist attacks because of inadequate fire protection services. A single source water based sprinkler system is clearly inadequate for such multi-story buildings. Much better would be redundant fire protection systems available for these dangerous buildings. For example, an automatic halon fire protection system for each computer system should be required. And, numerous dry fire extinguishers should be available in readily accessible panels on each floor to allow occupants to fight the fires themselves. It was obvious by the numerous fires in this film that destroyed the iron superstructures on each building that not enough fire protection services were available inside the buildings. And, where were the fire fighting helicopters frequently used in fighting huge fires in California this past summer, for example? In other words, the fire fighting effort was clearly inadequate, both in design and execution.