Emotionally exhausting and extremely well done...

Rating: 9/10 (18 March 2009)

1st watched 3/13/2009  9 out of 10(Dir-Oliver Stone): Emotionally exhausting and extremely well done accounting of the personal perspective of two New York cops during the 9-11 disaster. The story is a personal account directly from these individuals and is not intended to be an exhaustive account of the incident and why it happened etc.. This is a little different type of movie for Oliver Stone but he executes it flawlessly. We see how they got involved, John McLaughlin(played by Nicolas Cage in a wonderful downplayed performance), is a Sargeant in the group that goes to the towers to help evacuate the buildings. Will Jimenez, played by Michael Pena, is one of the crew who volunteers to go with John into the lobby between the towers and assist with the goal further putting himself into danger. They get trapped when one of the buildings go down as they jump into the elevator shaft(since it's supposed one of the strongest parts of the building). The rest of the movie revolves around their survival as they humor and get to know one another despite their horrible circumstances. We then jump to scenes with the rescuers and each of the families. This is a personal story despite the grand scale of the event and is done with integrity by all involved. Oliver Stone proves he doesn't have to create a controversy to make a good movie, and this is exactly what he's done here -- except, I dare say, it's a great movie in my opinion that should have gotten more accolades than it did.