Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Review of World Trade Center ***SPOILERS***

jar_e · 08-07-2006, 10:36 PM

Well,

I had the great opportunity through work to see a pre-screening of Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center." As you read this, you should realize that this movie has alot of personal meaning to me as my dad is a firefighter and had the somewhat "honor" to attend New York and ground zero to honor fallen firefighters. That along with that I now work with Calgary Fire made me appreciate this movie on a different level. That being said, here's my review.

As much as I think this got drawn up as borderline American propaganda, the lack of Americanism in it is quite surprising. I didn't see this movie as a homage to the American spirit but rather a great documentation of the willpower and strength of the human spirit. If you weren't aware of the general idea of the movie, it depicts the true story of two Port Authority police officers who get trapped underneath the fallen buildings. I think Oliver Stone did a great job of showing the pure mayhem that occured on that day. There was a great mix of showing the family lives and what they went through and showing the two trapped police officers determination and will to live.

I'll be honest, I was very close to shedding tears twice in the movie. Both times included the family and the kids of the police officers and the second time was near the end when the one officer is thanking everybody as he was being rescued.

Suprisingly, there were moments of laughter in the movie. I was surprised at when people laughed and I'm not sure if it was just nervous laughter or what, but there were some "funny" parts. In my opinion, this worked greatly most of the times, though there were times where I questioned how close some of these "funny" moments popped up to more serious ones.

With everything considered, I'd highly recommend this movie. It was a great story as I said and thought the cinematography of the whole movie was stunning. I wasn't sure how much of the footage they used was real, but it was hard to tell what was from a newscast and what was genuine footage. It was a great movie (almost 2 hours on the dot) and I think didn't push any boundaries in regards to how close the movie came out to the date of it happening. As I said, I didn't see this as an "American" movie, but rather a "human" movie.

Any questions, feel free to ask. It's hard just to wing something like this up.

08-07-2006, 10:36 PM	#1
jar_e Franchise Player Join Date: Mar 2006 Exp:	Review of World Trade Center *SPOILERS* Well, I had the great opportunity through work to see a pre-screening of Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center." As you read this, you should realize that this movie has alot of personal meaning to me as my dad is a firefighter and had the somewhat "honor" to attend New York and ground zero to honor fallen firefighters. That along with that I now work with Calgary Fire made me appreciate this movie on a different level. That being said, here's my review. As much as I think this got drawn up as borderline American propaganda, the lack of Americanism in it is quite surprising. I didn't see this movie as a homage to the American spirit but rather a great documentation of the willpower and strength of the human spirit. If you weren't aware of the general idea of the movie, it depicts the true story of two Port Authority police officers who get trapped underneath the fallen buildings. I think Oliver Stone did a great job of showing the pure mayhem that occured on that day. There was a great mix of showing the family lives and what they went through and showing the two trapped police officers determination and will to live. I'll be honest, I was very close to shedding tears twice in the movie. Both times included the family and the kids of the police officers and the second time was near the end when the one officer is thanking everybody as he was being rescued. Suprisingly, there were moments of laughter in the movie. I was surprised at when people laughed and I'm not sure if it was just nervous laughter or what, but there were some "funny" parts. In my opinion, this worked greatly most of the times, though there were times where I questioned how close some of these "funny" moments popped up to more serious ones. With everything considered, I'd highly recommend this movie. It was a great story as I said and thought the cinematography of the whole movie was stunning. I wasn't sure how much of the footage they used was real, but it was hard to tell what was from a newscast and what was genuine footage. It was a great movie (almost 2 hours on the dot) and I think didn't push any boundaries in regards to how close the movie came out to the date of it happening. As I said, I didn't see this as an "American" movie, but rather a "human" movie. Any questions, feel free to ask. It's hard just to wing something like this up.