From hate - Hope

Rating: 8/10 (20 August 2006)

"911 showed us what human beings were capable of, certainly the evil, but also the good...." paraphrase of Nicholas Cage toward the end of World Trade Center
Oliver Stone puts you into Manhattan on the day the towers fell and shows you the story of a couple of Port Authority Policemen who were trapped in the rubble and what happened to them and their families.
Some people love it some people hate it. I really like it.
Stone manages to convey what it was like in New York and what it was like for the cops and firemen down at ground zero. These are not macho men but regular guys simply doing what had to be done.Every act of heroism is tinged with "I don't want to be here" which makes it even more touching.
The film is essentially split in two, the people at ground zero and the people back home waiting for word. Its an odd split and its the films biggest weakness. I understand that by showing the families Stone makes the story bigger than just some guys trapped, but at the same time the split makes the film remain a Hollywood film instead of something greater. Its not bad, its just that the story down in the rubble does not come across as cliché tinged.
Technically this film is amazing. It looks and sounds good. The shots of Manhattan and around ground zero are frighteningly perfect. Yes I know a portion of the film was shot in NYC but much was shot elsewhere. Having wandered around the streets down there I can guess which shot is which street and the sense of it all being real comes not from having seen photos but rather from seeing the real places.
The best part of this film is that its about hope and the goodness of people. The world is shaken and people attempt to fix it. As Cage says at the end its showed us what people are capable of...this film is a celebration of the good.