World Trade Center - Preview
Preview by Jack Foley
OLIVER Stone is no stranger to tackling controversial subject matter (Platoon, JFK, Alexander) but even he admits to feeling humbled by the relevance of his latest project, World Trade Center.
The film, starring Nicolas Cage and Michael Peña, tells the true story of the heroic rescue of two Port Authority policemen – John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno – who became trapped in the rubble of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 after they went in to help people escape.
The film also unfolds from the perspectives of their families as they battle to find out what happened to their loved ones, as well as the rescuers who found them in the debris.
The film is due to open in America in August – just ahead of the fifth anniversary of the atrocity, in which thousands of innocent people lost their lives. It follows in the UK on September 29 and is one of at least three films to tackle the controversial issue of 9/11.
Yet Stone maintains that World Trade Center does not have a political agenda and is rather a “24-hour document” on the lives of the two Nofficers who became trapped.
“They survived 24 hours under extraordinary circumstances, explained the direvtor at the Bangkok International Film Festival.
“My film is an investigation into how they survived – how they mentally made it under those terrible conditions.”
Officers Sergeant John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno are played by Cage and Peña respectively. They were part of a group of five officers who entered the South Tower shortly before it collapsed – but the only two who survived.
Although filming of World Trade Center took place in New York, the actual Ground Zero site itself was recreated in LA so as not to offend people in Lower Manhattan.
Yet every effort has been made to replicate the men’s ordeal ‘as closely as possible’.
Playing the officers’ wives, meanwhile, are Maria Bello and Maggie Gyllenhaal, who must anxiously wait for news of their husbands at home.
Stone chose to include their worry as a way of returning to working class people and seeing how such events affected their lives.
World Trade Center is undoubtedly a brave movie at any time – yet especially so for a director who is prone to being criticised for his bravura style of filmmaking.
His last film, Alexander, was largely panned by critics while there are already questions surrounding the timing of World Trade Center and whether America is ready to tackle such a subject within the mainstream arena.
But Stone remains bullish about the film’s prospects and will undoubtedly point to several other projects that have successfully tackled the post 9/11 reaction in America – including the hard-hitting TV series Rescue Me
Paul Greengrass, the director of The Bourne Supremacy, is also due to deliver Flight 93 in the spring, about the last of the four aircraft hijacked on the morning of September 11th 2001.
Related 9/11 stories:
Flight 93 preview
Windows on the World review
Gyllenhaal criticised for 9/11 comments
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