Recommended viewing for those who need to see...

Rating: 8/10 (23 November 2006)

Let me start by saying that I am a cynical son of a gun, for want of a better euphemism. I am also an Aussie, so was fairly detached from 9/11. Not that detached that the whole of Australia barely worked that day, and the TV was going in full force. The impact was none the less huge, even here. This movie to me was clichéd, yes, was Hollywood, yes, was the closest thing I have seen to an accurate depiction of the events surrounding a small bubble of actual event, also yes. I have seen a lot of negative reviews of this movie, but Oliver Stone was always going to cop a curve ball, prepared though he surely was. Touching nerves is a good thing though, and I feel strongly after seeing this movie, that the ordeal suffered by the world on that day, has been stylized effectively in one of many storytelling facets. In actuality I cried. There you have it. I'm a cynic, an Aussie, not a sentimentalist, or a Nic Cage fan per se, (although a mate of my mates buys swords with him at Japanese auctions, and assures me he's a sound bloke), and yet, I learned something. I heard that on that same day that a natural disaster caused many more deaths in India on that same weekend, and for years I threw that into a verbal battle, but there is an inherent sadness in terrorist aftermath, an unjust heaving of the soul that although is equal in grief to the death of any loved one, is, on another level, amplified by the decisive hate of those who are taught to destroy western culture. Not to enter into a debate on religious creed, and staying with the movie, I enjoyed it, clichés aside, and feel that the uber-cynics should either avoid this movie, or accept its foibles without casting slings and arrows at an otherwise above average attempt to share a moment in shared history that has ultimately brought us closer as a world audience amongst the hurt. As a footnote, those who feel Oliver Stone has capitalized on this event may wish to look at most of his past films. This is a man who has a track record for factually documenting many events in history, and it would be awry in my opinion to cast aspersions on this most recent attempt which is clearly no different.