Posted on 07/17/2006 6:25:55 PM PDT by World_Events
Ready for a shocker?
Oliver Stone has made a movie that is sure to please cops, fire fighters, red-staters, the military, and even the GOP.
Yes, you read the name correctly. It's that Oliver Stone.
I recently had the chance to screen Stone's latest film "World Trade Center."
The movie I saw was not a final cut; it was a high-definition video version with a temporary score. Stone had prepared a written statement, which was read to the audience prior to the screening and explained the unfinished state of the preview cut.
Notwithstanding, what came through on the screen was a tender rendering of a story that is rich with timeless themes.
From the opening sequence to the end of the film, one can discern that Stone used painstaking care to tell the WTC story without embellishing it with a political agenda.
Some on the left will be disappointed to find that Stone eschews the customary Hollywood conservative bashing ritual. Instead, through his main characters, he elevates and celebrates the time-honored traditions of faith, love of family, and uninhibited masculine valor.
"World Trade Center" tells the true story of Sgt. John McLoughlin (played by Nicolas Cage of "National Treasure" fame) and William J. Jimeno (played by Michael Pena of "Crash"). The two are New York Port Authority police officers who were part of the first responders to place their lives on the line when the WTC was attacked on 9/11.
McLoughlin and Jimeno were among those who attempted to evacuate tower 2. They were subsequently trapped beneath the rubble when the towers collapsed.
Only 20 people were rescued from the wreckage in the disaster. Miraculously, McLoughlin and Jimeno were numbers 18 and 19.
The two trapped officers survived the ordeal by talking to each other about their wives, kids, and life in law enforcement.
Meanwhile McLoughlin's spouse Donna (played by Maria Bello, "A History of Violence") and Jimeno's pregnant wife Allison (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, "Adaptation") attempt to hold their family and personal sanity together while they anxiously await news of whether their husbands survived the devastation. The overall casting of the film is outstanding with Bello and Pena stealing many a scene.
Andrea Berloff's script provides a powerful subplot with the tale of Dave Karnes (played by Michael Shannon, "8 Mile"), a deeply religious retired Marine who in a spiritual calling feels compelled to put on his uniform once again, head out to Ground Zero and assist in finding survivors.
You won't find the cynicism of "Wall Street" or political content of "Born on the Fourth of July" in this film, but you will see some of the grit of "Platoon."
While "World Trade Center" recounts one of the many occurrences that took place on that mournful 9/11 day, it moves beyond the infamous and calamitous and explores the supernal courage and virtue displayed by ordinary Americans who, when circumstances required, were able to soar to extraordinary heights.
Stone handles his task of cinematically relaying this true story with the kind of integrity one expects from a great journalist and the kind of artistry one appreciates from a veteran filmmaker.
Stone explained to film scholar Emanuel Levy the political restraint he exercised in making the movie: "These men were not concerned with politics. Although my politics and their politics are different, that didn't matter. We all got along. I can make a movie about them and their experiences, because they went through something that I can understand. Politics does not enter into it. The movie is about courage and survival."
"World Trade Center" is set for release on Aug. 9.
More than a mere chronicle of the nation's attack, the film is a homage to the courage and selflessness that were displayed amidst tragedy.
Summer is the season for blockbusters that feature superheroes; the flights of fancy that include characters who are able to perform extraordinary feats.
"World Trade Center" is about real-life superheroes. And Stone may have just performed the super-cinematic feat of his career.
Oliver Stone's most entertaining stuff now is when he goes on Celebrity Jeopardy. The guy wants to win so badly he looks like he's gonna bust a vein.
My private feeling is that Oliver Stone's been moving rightwards for some years.
Ever since the days of "Nixon" and "Natural Born Killers" in particular. Nixon, really, is a pretty fair portrayal of the 37th President.
Oliver Stone likes to shock people with his perspective or take on events. For that reason, I think he'll try to shock us by playing this story straight. A terrible attack and a uplifting rescue.
He'll be a liberal shithead next time, when we've relaxed.
15 posted on 01/25/2006 10:53:27 AM EST by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
The only movie he ever made that leans to the left is Salvador...
OK. Who's got that graphic with the sign that says Hell dripping with icicles?
Too soon! Too soon! ;)
Ollie knew he had to play this movie straight instead of using to make a political statement. The reason why is that he has to finally make a movie that MAKES MONEY. And he knows that he'll make a killing (no pun intended) at the BO on the patriotic americans who will come out in droves to see a movie that makes us remember why we are fighting in Iraq (even though he might not personally believe it).
Sounds good, I'll wait for a review of the final cut.
And why did he have to choose the horrible Maggie Gyllenhaal who already had one 9-11 movie last year and made the following comments at Tribeca in April 2005:
Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, star of a new flick about the aftermath of 9/11, believes the United States "is responsible in some way" for the devastating terror attacks.
Gyllenhaal, 27, made the comments at the Tribeca Film Festival, where her new movie "The Great New Wonderful" - which has a plot centered on the destruction of the World Trade Center - premiered Friday.
"I think what's good about the movie is that it deals with 9/11 in such a subtle, open way that I think it allows it to be more complicated than just, 'Oh, look at these poor New Yorkers and how hard it was for them,'" Gyllenhaal told the NY1 cable channel.
"Because I think America has done reprehensible things and is responsible in some way and so I think the delicacy with which it's dealt allows that to sort of creep in," she added.
In other words, he shows us real heros and not the standard Hollywood anti-hero? Perhaps I will see this one.
I'm gonna skip it. Too soon.
LOL!
I hope there is at least some protrayal of Rick Rescorla:
http://www.medaloffreedom.com/RickRescorla1.htm
excerpt:
In a Sept. 5 e-mail to his old friend Bill Shucart -- once a medic in Vietnam, now the head of neurosurgery at a Boston hospital -- he mused about kairos, a Greek word for a cosmically meaningful moment outside of linear time.
"I have accepted the fact that there will never be a kairos moment for me, just an uneventful Miltonian plow-the-fields discipline . . . a few more cups of mocha grande at Starbucks, each one losing a little bit more of its flavor," he wrote.
But Rescorla's moment was coming soon.
I'm giving Stone the benefit of the doubt here. Besides, Cage is in the movie and he's one of my favorite actors.
Hmmm... seems Maggie Gyllenhaal is willing to suspend her principals for her paycheck. But, then again, this is Hollywood SOP.
Stone is a brilliant filmmaker. Any political flair in his movies is mostly by accident, imo. Persoanlly, I always enjoy Stone's movies. In fact, I may be one of the few people who loved the 'Wild Palms' miniseries. If it's ever available on DVD, I'm there.
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