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Capone has a look at WORLD TRADE CENTER!!!
Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here. It goes without saying that Oliver
Stone is an easy target. For whatever reason (because it certainly isn't
because his movies are no damn good), he is a whipping boy among many film
critics and at least one half of the political demographic of this country
(probably more). I'll admit, there's a part of me that wants to rewatch
Alexander just to see if it's as god-awful as I remember it. When I consider
Stone's bull-in-a-china-shop approach to directing and existing, it makes
him an unlikely candidate to use kid gloves in a film about the downing of
the World Trade Center towers.
But World Trade Center isn't really about the big picture. Its focus is a
small, extremely narrow sliver of the world on September 11, 2001. In fact,
huge chunks of this film take place in just a few square feet occupied by
two very brave and lucky men, buried under tons of rubble. This is a film
made up almost entirely of small, intimate moments, and thanks to a
remarkable cast and a story almost impossible to get wrong, Stone pulls off
about half of a great movie.
I do not suffer lightly a director trying to manipulate my emotions with the
subtlety of a sledgehammer. A film can be well written, acted, shot, edited,
and directed, but when I feel a filmmaker is inventing drama for the sole
purpose of an emotional reaction from me, I rebel and resist. Obviously, 95
percent of all romantic comedies fall into this category, and, granted,
movie making is about manipulation. But there are levels. The movie is based
on the real-life story of Port Authority police officers John McLoughlin
(played by Nicolas Cage) and Will Jimeno (Michael Pena), and even when he's
sticking close to the facts, Stone's manipulating is undeniable.
Most of the scenes that you've seen in the trailers--men in rescue worker
helmets and coats running for their lives as the towers literally fall down
on top of them--are taken from the film¹s first 20 or 30 minutes. These are
rapid-fire sequences that don't need any beefing up, and Stone handles them
perfectly. As McLoughlin and his crew attempt to organize a trip up one of
the towers to look for survivors, they hear loud crashing sounds above them.
At first you think it's debris; then you realize the sounds are the bodies
of those who jumped out windows rather than be burned alive in the towers.
The rescue workers force themselves to not think about what those sounds
mean, and it becomes clear right away that it simply never occurs to anyone
that the towers will fall.
But once the towers fall, the movies shifts gears and becomes two very
different endeavors. If Stone had maybe pushed a little harder (and the
studio been a little more brave), this could have been a film about two men
trapped under tons of rubble, talking to each other for hours on end in an
attempt not to fall asleep and die. Despite their close proximity to each
other, McLoughlin and Jimeno can't see one another; they are both pinned
under rubble, so the most we even see of them are their head, shoulders, and
arms. If ever you doubted Cage as a powerful actor (and why would you?), see
World Trade Center. What he does with just his voice and face is truly
incredible and moving.
Not to take anything away from the equally gifted Pena (who has had smaller
roles in Crash and Million Dollar Baby, as well as a fantastic one-season
stint on 'The Shield'). His performance is perhaps even more difficult
because his character seems more alert and slightly more mobile than Cage's.
As strange as it sounds, he also serves as the film's one source of comic
relief. Even with death staring him in the face, Jimeno is cracking jokes
just to keep the two men talking.
When your lead actor barely moves for three-quarters of the film, there's
not much room for manipulation, and the images of these two soot-covered men
will stay with me a very long time. Your mind can't help drift into thoughts
of 'Is there any possible way I could survive what they are going through?'
And the minute you put yourself in the characters' body, the film owns you.
Unfortunately, Stone frequently wanders from these men and into the lives of
their families, and I'm not knocking any of the performances of those
playing family members, who, for many long hours, are fairly certain their
men are dead. The always-perfect Maria Bello plays Donna McLoughlin, while
Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Jimeno's wife, Allison. The problem with these
sequences is that they feel utterly conventional, as if they could have been
directed by anyone in line to make the next 'very special episode' of some
crap series on the Lifetime network.
I don't doubt that this is exactly what these families went through, but
seeing it re-enacted doesn't add anything to the inherent drama of these
moments. If anything, it robs the power of the scenes under the rubble by
taking us away from them. Yes, we learn about the thoughts going through the
heads of these two men struggling to catch each breath, and naturally, they
are thinking about their wives and kids (Jimeno's wife was pregnant at the
time). The scenes of the families offer tension, passion, and lots of
screaming and crying, but what they don't offer is relevance, and what they
don't add is weight to the situation at hand.
Perhaps more interesting but not necessarily any more pertinent are the
half-dozen side plots involving men and women from across the country who
found any means to get to New York and help search for survivors (there were
only about 20 people pulled alive from the rubble). My personal favorites
are played by Frank Whaley and Stephen Dorff, as the first men who actually
crawl into the unstable rubble to find the trapped officers.
When this year is done, I have no doubt that United 93 will be in my top
five of the best films of 2006. There¹s just never been another film like
it, and the timeliness of its release made it all the more riveting and
necessary. As a record and representation of an event that still leaves so
many hurt and angry, World Trade Center is a far easier pill to swallow. Its
edges are rounded; its emotions are largely uplifting; and Stone leaves all
sense of politics and grandstanding somewhere else.
There are times during World Trade Center where you can feel Stone
force-feeding us sentimentality, and when that happens, the movie falters.
There is nothing more powerful or gripping than the story of two men in what
they believe are the final hours of their lives. When Stone sticks to
telling that story, World Trade Center is a thing of beauty. So am I
recommending the film? I am, but not without some major reservations. The
one good thing about the family scenes being so weak is that they don't
stick with you long enough to ruin what is so good about this movie. This is
a very good movie that missed being a great movie by so little.
Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com
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+ Expand All
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Now start the angry TB
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making movies about 9/11? He made approximately 823 movies about Vietnam, after all, and I'm sure once enough time had passed he'll get around to the wild conspiracy theory/capitalism-is-evil drivel that we all know he is itching to make.
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Aug 09, 2006 9:35:55 AM CDT
The world saw evil that day. Two men saw something else
by engineer_at_peac
A paycheck
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You lost me there. Who keeps casting that grub?!! I dunno why, but she grosses me out!
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you wanted to re-watch 'alexander' so you could see rosario dawson's tits flying around, and for no other reason.
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I'm not sure if it was shown in the USA, but it was here. The documetary about a rookie FDNY called simply '9/11' was to me the definitive 'in the eye of the storm' movie on this subject. How the day unfolds, the sound of the bodies hitting the ground and then the panic as the two towers collapse is far more moving than anything could come up with. You know that with Stone his film it's only an interpretation and recollection of what happened. The 9/11 movie is as close to a real time mvie of the days events as you will ever get. I urge everyone to see it. As for the Stone/Cage movie itself, may go and see it when it comes out - And hopefully it won't stomp on the hearts and memories of the people who lost their lives in Pennsylvania that day the way "Flight 93" apparently did, so I've read.
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So Capone wants the camera to stay down with Cage & Pena the ENTIRE time? Wow, that sounds riveting. You make it sound like the family scenes are oppressive, when the focus is always with the two men. Cutting to and getting to know the families is central to feeling what's keeping them alive. How exactly would you shoot the movie without that, Capone? "Well, there's a picture of my wife and kids in my wallet, but my hands are pinned and my kneecaps are crushed together."
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Crap! Crap! Crap!..... I will not be watching Nicholas Cage and Stone get rich off of the suffering of thousands.
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are you zfisk in disguise?
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Heh, spoiled the little troll's "surprise". It's not funny. At all. The Benny Hill version of "Passion of the Christ", though? Hilarious.
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I guess it depends on what I want to leave the theater, thurougly depressed or laughing my ass off... hrm.
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Could you pick two films any more different lol! Check out our reviews of both if you need help deciding:http://www.movietack.net/r1001-world-trade-center-movie-review.html OR
http://www.movietack.net/r982-talladega-nights-the-ballad-of-ricky-bobby-movie-review.html -
'No one in the history of the world, ever, has had something as evil and despicable as 9/11 done to them'. That statement by Jayjew is positively dim. How about the rape of Nanking? The massacre of Magdeburg? It was the mongols, I believe, who would cut the hands off of the men and enslave all the women they captured. 300 lives is pittance in the grand scheme of the world. The US is clinging to the WTC 'event' as an emotional hook like something that they MUST cling to because the Media and their peers expect it of them and they'd be monsters if they didn't. It was just another Maine, just another Lusitania. Move on.
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are you new? If so you should know that was him doing irony. Badly. Don't respond straightlacedly (I don't know if that is a word) to the despicable little weasel.
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As strange as it sounds, the movie does get a bit boring when they continually cut back and forth between the men trapped underground and the families. How it's supposed to be fixed, I'm not sure, but it does drag. You can read more of my thoughts here:
http://www.thechiefreport.com -
Passion is still the champ but Benny Hill 9/11 was pretty good too. Shouldn't have showed the towers crumbling though, you just can't squeeze humor out of that. But people running fast in sped up motion? Always a riot!
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That hollywood woke and made a movie about the fight against muslim extremists? In Stones movie, supposedly, nary a word is said as to who perpetrated this horror. I want a gung ho, kill those bastards kind of movie reminiscent of the old rambo or Shwarzeneggar movies. OK, maybe not that extreme. But I want a movie that honestly portrays the threat that islamofascism presents to the world.
It will be risky, to be sure, because these nutjobs will kill anyone who insults them, even if it were Tom Cruise or Tom Sizemore.
Remember what happened to Theo Van Gogh. -
I think it was called Collateral Damage and starred Arnie. It was shit apparantly- I never saw it.
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...that the Naudet brothers' movie 9/11 is the best thing on the subject, and it won't ever be topped because it's live footage of that terrible morning as it happened, and from a firefighter point of view. I believe it was shown on NBC in October or November 2001, with Robert DeNiro narrating. It's available at your local library, if you don't flat out buy it. I got it because I think it's important, and I want to show my kids what happened without all the political hoo-ha or theories. Just what happened, and how THOSE men dealt with it on THAT day.
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Thank You, I Just Had It Stuffed.
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Again with this fuckin' guy?! Dude, go shill your wares somewhere else.
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9/11 mania peaked this year. It can only go down hill from here.
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While Jayjew was using hyperbole a bit tastlessly, you, while having a bit of a point, reacted in no less a cunt headed manner. "Move On"? easily said, you twat. People move on at their own speed, so, if you will, stop using the term "the US" as a catch all for the entire populace. I feel like you're probably trying to talk about 9/11 being used as a political tool here (and the UK), and you'd be right. But, for those that suffered loss, trauma, depression, anger, etc, I doubt ANY of those people (regardless of nationality) are "Clinging" to anything. Talk about "Dim"...
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'But, for those that suffered loss, trauma, depression, anger, etc, I doubt ANY of those people (regardless of nationality) are "Clinging" to anything.' Let's imagine that every person that died in the WTC incident had 10 people that were close enough friends and relatives that their private trauma is somehow justified in remaining 5 years after the event. I expect most of their therapists would also be telling those 30,000 people to move on. As for the 295 million others? There is no justification for clinging to any sense of depression, loss, trauma, or anger. If you feel that there somehow is then your therapist isn't doing his/her job. Really, move on.
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My personal favorite Oliver Stone movie is JFK. I love that fuckin movie. I also love Scarface, which he wrote, Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, and the Doors. Those are the best. I don't think that WTC will be a conspiracy theory flick, but I'd like to see it. Seems like a straight forward movie that's trying to get these pull out of the middle-east liberals to get motivated even though Stone is a gungho liberal. Looks like decent shit.
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Natural Born Killers rocks my socks into the next county.
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OH YEAH! Natural Born Killers! Totally skipped my mind! That is a bad ass movie. Yer right, bud.
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is an ignorant wretch that should've died in his mothers ass so they wouldn't have had to hate him till he ran away from home and became a handjob hooker. You are one waste of genetic material I'm quite sure your father would've shot on your mothers back instead of in her ass if he'd known you beforehand. I can only imagine the tears he's shed having such a shit stain for a son. Now please go tuck the hindlegs of your goat back into your boots and leave us the fuck alone.
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Are you serious? Or are you trolling? 'cause, if you're trolling, I'll give it to you: you got me. If not,have you ever suffered trauma? Have you ever had to deal with anything big? I'm not being sarcastic, I promise. And truly, I hope your answer is "No". But, really. Do you fault the Jews for being upset over the Holocost? Or should they all just "get over it"? Me? I'm not Jewish, so I cannot pretend to understand the lasting effect that something like ethnic cleansing might have on a people. But I do understand that maybe the Holocost had a lasting effect on people. And I do think it's a good thing to remember. Hey, if you're over it, then bully for you! Really. Me, I watched it happen, knew people who died, Smelled the aftermath, and am not quite over it yet. I'm ahead of some, behind others (you, and Morgan Freeman). So, really, Malcolm, grow up, and expand your horizons enough to take in someone else's view. It'll help the whole world. And this talkback.
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Maybe because the 9 /11 panel now admitted the Pentagon and Bush administration lied to them? Oh and let's not forget how thousands of heroes and civilians are dying, because Bush said the air was "safe" and then blocked health bill funding for em. But yeah, go ahead and continue to use 9/11 to justify endless wars. Bush was right when he said the terrorists pulled 9/11 because they hate our freedom...
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Wall Street. Great writing...great character arc for Bud too (charlie Sheen)Next...JFK. It's quite an amalgam of conspiracies...he kind of threw everything into the mix...but so well acted, well edited etc. Really stands up to repeated viewings. And Born On The 4th Of July is Tom Cruise's best acting job.
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and Born on the 4th of July because of the music
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i'm getting sick of the war on terror manipulation of 9/11 anger to go kill thousands more civillians,
with our own blood we are being sold a lie.. the 9/11 commissions thomas kean has written a book about his own 9/11 commission deception and the whitewashing of the bush administration- LOU DOBBS on CNN today was really pissed off when he heard about this and had alot to say in his segment today...
remember half the families on 9/11 believe it was an inside job- if the rest of americas retard cant take notice of that then you are totally owned and dont think for yourself.... just open your eyes and you ae already forgiven...
for the 3000 dead i re-salute you, our soldiers and victims of neo-con crimes...
i want justice...... -
There is no radical Islamofacist ideology intent on the death of the west and all "non-believers". This quote from Iranian President Ahmadinejad:"God willing, with the will of God behind it,we shall soon experience a world without the United States. This goal is attainable and can surely be achieved." But pay no attention. He doesn't mean it. It's all being staged for us stupid Americans. Just another neocon(JEW)plot devised so we can "kill thousands more civillians"...YA, that's their plan. Now go back to your PS2 and your 350 channel cable TV, drink your Starbucks and pretend nothing is going on in the world you uninformed,naive little man
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and what seperates this movie from United 93 was that World Trade Center seperates itself and tells you that you are watching a movie. United 93 didn't do that, which made it more powerful. I can't help but compared the two, but I wish some of what was executed so well in United 93 was used in World Trade Center. But, World Trade Center was very well produced. The recreation of the floor level of the World Trade Center was amazing.
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... was "V for Vendetta" - that is if you are (like me) one of those "crazies" who thinks our own govt. was involved in the "attack" on the world trade center (and pentagon) - commence your stone throwing... now!
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Dont go see this movie
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doctor who
its not a neo-con jew plot- its a neo-con "zionist" plot
israel needed iraq out of the way- its in richard perles and douglas feiths "clean break" open source strategy papers- they are the chief forign policy makers in the DoD they both risigned when a subordinate of thiers (larry franklin) got cuaght by the FBI handing over US intelligence to AIPAC members (american israeli public affairs commitee)
the AIPAC trial keeps pushing back and is now in october- the spy-ring had foreknowledge of 9/11 through israeli intelligence...
the plame and AIPAC trails are closely inter-linked and will more than likely merge- but mainstream people are not interested in looking into things that detract from thier usual busy lives....
i cant tell you to get your head out your ass, becuase you dont read for that reason,
but if your interested read here-
http://www.rys2sense.com/anti-neocons/viewtopic.php?t=645
if youll read that youll be on my side of the fence- but i'm guessing your way too scared or mentally incapable of reading just like the rest of alot of the new illiterate generation... -
larry franklin is serving a 12 year jail sentance most likely under plea bargain, and the two people that US intelligence was being smuggled to at AIPAC were fired and are going to prison shortly-
why doesnt the media report this? becuase of the mel-gibson effect- mel gibson is a fucking retard and gave all anti-zionists a bad name..... -
OK we get it, you hate America. That kind of intricate thinking must really go over well with your fellow Nazis, but it's just old here.
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you conspiracy theorists. Isn't it something like 1/8 of Americans think they have been kidnapped by aliens, and a way higher percentage believe that Elvis is alive? Also, these conspiracies seem to focus on a lack of proof- there is a distinct lack of evidence for the conspiracy- so they resort to pointing out holes in the official (far more credible) line. I have said it before- show me some actual concrete evidence that is properly sourced and wholly founded in fact, rather than the usual "lack of evidence is compelling" argument used ad nauseum, and I will begin to give some credance to this paranoia. What is being cited at the moment is the hysterical "zionist neo con" crap that holds as much water as a colander. Just show some proof (not gleaned from a paranoid online source- yes zfisk I am referring to you).
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is about rescue workers emptiying out the cash register when they dug out J. Crew.
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ever
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and it makes me wanna kill arab scum!! Fuck Iraqi women and children--they need to burn just like the rest of 'em! Turn their country into a parking lot! Nothing but total extermination will suffice! Nothing is more important than gasoline for my giant S.U.V. and fuck any liberal pinko that says otherwise!! Dubya again in 2008! We're putting an end to terror forever! U.S.A.!!! U.S.A.!!!! We're #1!! FUCK YEAH!
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I did link to that site. Pretty sprawling "stream of conciosness" posting going on there Poorly indexed. What, did you want me to read the whole freakin' thing? And hey, that Larry Franklin guy WAS reported on by CBS news. He should go to jail for breaking the law. But a question for you:Are you unhappy with the fact that he provided Israel with info about Iran that could protect them?
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James Woods' performance is incredible.
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This has always irked me when a critic says "the film is trying to manipulate me" and uses that as a negative. I'm sorry but movies ARE supposed to move and manipulate you. You sound pretentious and "above" us common folk when you say stuff like that. It's just stupid. Later.
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both have excellent performances and are well worth the time.
Although, I do look forward to seeing his take on "My Pet Goat"... -
JayJew and Jar Jar 4 Prez and whatever other alias this pathetic virgin instigator has created. He thrives on throwing bullshit out there to mask the fact that his balls never dropped and he has a peek-aboo penis. He probably tells himself that he is playing devils advocat but ya know he's probably just a fucking kid that is using the internet irrespsonisibly. Freedom of speech doesn't mean this kind of nonsense just like democracy doesn't mean driving in the left lane because you're "free". Let's ban this fuck. He's pissing me off - he's pissing everyone off.
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Well has anyone here seen the film loose change, anyone, anyone. The supposed terrorists the American government lists as the hiijackers of the planes on 9/11, guess what? Almost all of them have been found alive in their native countries. Kind of hard to do if you've just rammed a plane into the side of a building that then toppled to the ground, don't you think. You are right about one thing. It is one of the worst days for the American people. But that's because our own government instigated 9/11 to force the war on terror. I hated discovering the truth. But if you don't believe, watch loose change. Give yourself at least the chance to open your eyes to reality. And check out the footage the government released of the supposed crash into the pentagon. Watch it, there is not a single frame of a plane. Some people, might say that "well it was going so fast you don't see it before it crashes into the Pentagon". But that's bull**** the plane was large enough (the one they claim hit it anyway) that it would be visible in at least one frame before crashing. And just a note. It wouldn't be going at its top speed anyway. This added to the fact that all surviellance from a gas station and hotel near by (both with camera's pointing at the pentagon and having a line of sight to the crash site) had their surviellance tape confiscated moments after the crash, and the tapes have never been seen again.
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WORLD TRADE CENTER was absolutely devastating! My mind was twisted like a pretzel. Kudos to Oliver Stone!
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