Release Date:  August 9, 2006
Rating:  PG-13 (for intense and emotional content, some disturbing images and language)
Genre:  Drama
Run Time:  125 min.
Director:  Oliver Stone
Actors:  Nicolas Cage, Michael Pena, Maria Bello, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon

Immediately following September 11, 2001, it was difficult to imagine how filmmakers might render the event in years to come. Would they bring their own agendas to the films or let the historic events largely speak for themselves? Would they politicize the day? Would the films be as traumatic an experience as that day itself was? And if so, would we want to sit through them?

The answers, as the fifth anniversary of September 11 approaches, are clearer now – and tremendously gratifying. Although it has been used as grist for the political mill (Michael Moore’s muddled "Fahrenheit 9/11"), that tragic day has been brought to vivid, horrifying life in three films that manage, through the carnage, to inspire. First was the documentary "9/11," aired on CBS and comprised of footage from two French filmmakers who were in Manhattan on that day. Then, earlier this year, director Paul Greengrass’ superb "United 93" told a straight-ahead story of the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania, brought down by terrorists who were nearly overcome by passengers united in their efforts to keep the plane from reaching its intended target. Now, director Oliver Stone delivers "World Trade Center," one of the most uplifting tales to emerge from that day. It’s a survivors’ story, full of hope and the belief that God and family can sustain us in the most dire of circumstances.

The themes are traditional but the setting is extraordinary, as two men, trapped in the rubble of the Twin Towers, fight to stay alive until they can be rescued. Those men, Sgt. John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) and Will Jimeno (Michael Pena), are Port Authority police officers called to the World Trade Center after the first plane hits the Twin Towers (reports of the second plane reach the workers en route). On the ground floor McLoughlin asks who, among his team, is willing to go up into the building. Only a few respond, but before they can ascend to the floors above, the first building collapses on them and the screen goes dark.

It’s a spectacular scene, and we hold our breath until, in the darkness, McLoughlin opens his eyes, somehow, amazingly, alive, as are two of his team members. Those numbers are soon to be reduced in agonizing, heartbreaking fashion, leaving McLoughlin and Jimeno to wait and hope.

The long sequences depicting the plight of the two officers – pinned down under tons of metal, with only the faintest sign of daylight visible – are claustrophobic, and, at times, terrifying, as the men are helpless to defend themselves against a number of unexpected occurrences that further threaten their lives.