Movie Review of “World Trade Center”

I finally saw the film, World Trade Center and I will tell you this: It was an extraordinarily moving experience. I have always believed that Nicolas Cage is a brilliant actor, but this movie showcases that talent perfectly. I remember 9/11 as a horrible tragedy, and also as a moment in time that united, (temporarily at least) the United States as a country, but I was very withdrawn from that tragedy because I had no family members or friends involved in the horror. This movie brought it all much closer to home.

I watched the two men trying desperately to survive under all that rubble, their bodies crushed by the debris, and I was moved to tears by two lives struggling to hold on. I had heard the story of these two men before, but a story you read is different from a movie where you get to experience it first-hand with the actors. Now I fully understand the tragedy in a way I never could before. The acting in this film was perfect, and honest to a fault, and the story played out as very real, except for one tiny point that bothers me.

After the policemen arrived at the Trade Center, they were walking, not running through the corridors between the towers, practically strolling as if on a casual Sunday walk in the park. This may or may not have been the real-life situation, but it did not strike me as particularly real. If I had been one of those cops beneath those towers at that moment, I would not have been walking to assist people, I would have been flat-out running. However, in real life, there were moments of powerful confusion on that day, that may have caused these officers to be unaware of the severe dangers they faced at that moment.

The film displays those moments of confusion very well. For instance, in one scene, people were speculating that Israel had been blown off the map, when of course we all know that it had not. People thought that only one tower had been hit, and until they saw the double damage, they would not believe it to be true. These confusions made the movie more real because there actually were confusions in the real life events, at least until it was all over with anyway.

The horrors experienced by the families of these two men really helped make this movie come alive, with an excellent supporting cast, special FX that was obviously top of the line, and that ever-present, ominous smashing sound that represented the bodies of jumpers hitting the pavement. News footage from the actual day was perfectly intertwined with the film footage, in a seamless marriage of movie and reality. If ever I wanted to see an ultra-realistic film, this had to be it.

We often look at our own lives, and our daily trials and tribulations, with the “poor me” mentality, but the old adage about there always being someone worse off than me, came to life in this movie with startling clarity. It seems that there really is always someone worse off than myself, but I cannot help but wonder who could possibly be worse off than those two men were that day. All in all, I find this to be an extraordinary movie depicting a horribly tragic event in world history. I give it a perfect ten on my film ratings scale, even with that tiny problem at the start of the film, and I fully recommend this movie to anyone who remembers 9/11. It is a genuinely moving experience showing us a heroism that you will not soon forget.