Not Coming to a Theater Near You

World Trade Center / U.S.A. / 2006

I don’t dispute the horror of the event itself, the terrible experiences that individuals went through, and the individual acts of true heroism that occurred, but here I’m talking about the movie World Trade Center, a slow, dull, ponderous piece, that apart from a couple of moments (especially a one-minute scene with a walk-on character in a hospital) left me surprisingly unmoved. Actually, a little bored. Dramatically, its dramatised-real-life-story nature poses a major problem – the film gets effectively buried in the rubble along with its two protagonists, orand then sits around waiting along with their wives. Nor does it help that its “inspiring message” has to be spelt out in voice-over in true TV movie-of-the-week style. But maybe it’s a relief that this is Oliver Stone in a restrained, modest style. No attempts to stun the audience into submission with fast-paced editing, and no crazy conspiracy theories, too. Except for one big one: why, otherwise, follow up our straitlaced, Christian-fundamentalist Marine hero’s promise to take revenge “out there” (wherever “out there” may be) with an end-title telling us that he served two tours in Iraq, unless Ollie means to buy into the thoroughly discredited Bush administration linkage between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein – the craziest and most dangerous conspiracy theory of all.

by Ian Johnston | Source: 35mm print
02 Oct 2006 3:03 PM | Comments (1)

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1. rob / 2 October 2006 / 5:32 PM / URL

   I didn’t think about the connection between the hard-as-nails marine and the end title credits. I’d chalk it up to sappy screenwriting more than anything, which I thought was the major downfall to this film. Stone’s direction was strong enough throughout that I like it as a whole, but I wonder why on earth he chose THIS script.