World Trade Center
I don't know just how this film will translate to DVD, but I very much doubt it will have the same impact as it does on the big screen (depending on the extensiveness of your home theatre system). As you've no doubt heard Oliver Stone's film about America's darkest of days is void of his usual conspiracy theories or political commentary and instead focuses on a very insular story – the tale of two rescuers getting trapped when the towers collapsed, and the claustrophobia that comes from a tale such as this is impossible to escape in the confines of a cinema.
The start of the film is unnerving in its mundaneness. We know what's coming, but the New York authorities do not as they amble into work that day. Stone wisely avoids showing us the actual airplane impacts on the towers, knowing we've all seen enough of that for our lifetimes, and wanting us to feel the utter chaos and confusion that reigned on the day we are thrown into the situation with the rescuers who only know they have to get in and start trying to save people.
The collapse of the building is only seen from inside, a further indication that nothing is sensationalised here, the exact opposite of what it would have been like if someone like Michael Bay had directed it. What matters to Stone is not the destruction or evil behind it, but the life-affirming tale of two men willing each other to live through the most dire situation imaginable.
Much of the film is just a close up shot of Nic Cage's half-buried face, trading tales of his wife and family with his other surviving colleague while metal burns around them and the wrecking shrieks and screams as it continues to collapse, but it is still absolutely riveting cinema.
Stone breaks this up by often cutting to their respective families, huddling around televisions and the phone waiting to hear of the fate of their loved ones. While Maggie Gyllenhaal hits the right notes as the panicked and frantic pregnant young wife, Maria Bello, who plays Nic Cage's wife, appears to walk through the film with barely a hint of worry on her face. I have no idea if in real life this woman was tough-as-nails and super-strong willed or not, but her lack of reaction seems very unrealistic. The only other time we are released from the tight grip this tense film has on us and reminded it is fact a Hollywood version of events we are watching is when Stone drops in flashbacks of the trapped policemen and their wives, every one a memory filled with everyone smiling like they are having their photo taken on the happiest day in Happyland.
There are those who will criticise Stone for taking an unusually soft option here, but they would be missing the point. The days after the planes hit the towers brought out some of the best in people, and for a small moment the world seemed closer than ever as we collectively grieved, while those closer to the scene risked and gave their lives to help others. Sure, the weeks that followed saw people trying to run scams off the back of 9/11 charities, anti-American feeling picked up momentum, conspiracy nuts came out of the woodwork and the President reacted with an elaborate subterfuge that saw them capitalise on the terror as reason enough to invade any country they chose, but in those first few days in the face of such tragedy humanity showed there was still hope to be found through its heroes, and it is these heroes that World Trade Centre is a tribute to.