Lafayette Journal & Courier

Early reviews call 9-11 film 'positive'

By TIM BROUK

August 10, 2006

A dramatization of one of the most life-changing events in American history is on the silver screen.

Almost a month before the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington D.C., World Trade Center opened Wednesday in movie theaters nationwide.

The drama starring Nicholas Cage and directed by Oliver Stone has gained positive reviews from local theater-goers, despite the sensitive subject matter in the film.
"I thought he portrayed it very well," said Ryan Cappechi, a Purdue University junior, speaking of Stone.

World Trade Center is rated PG-13 and is showing at Wabash Landing 9 and Eastside 9 theaters.

Cappechi was among the first in Greater Lafayette to see World Trade Center at Wabash 9. He thought the film was superior to United 93, a movie that opened in April and was the first big-budget, Hollywood release to look at 9-11.

"The known facts and true story worked better than United 93," Cappechi said. "United 93 could only guess what really happened on the plane. World Trade Center works from facts."

Cappechi had no qualms about big names like Stone and Cage being associated with the movie. He said the actors do not drive the film, the story and emotion do.
"It didn't matter who was in it," Cappechi said, "but they did do a good job."

Lafayette's Walter McNeal also was at the first screening. He thought the timing of World Trade Center's release was not too soon since the movie concentrates on the rescue of World Trade Center victims and the people doing the rescue.

"It celebrates the police and the jobs they did," McNeal said.

Purdue English professor William J. Palmer has written books studying the social history of films and many of those deal with Stone's works. He finds World Trade Center fitting Stone's pattern in being "history-minded" and having "groups of men working on a problem," but Stone stays far away from any conspiracy or political theories -- two things Stone has become known for since 1991's JFK.

"I think this is a positive movie," Palmer said. "Stone found a way to make a film about the 9-11 attack a positive experience. It's basically a rescue film with a lot of time underground with the trapped police officers."

Palmer believes World Trade Center will have the legs to carry it to Sept. 11. He bets the film's producers spent a lot of time debating on when to release it.

"It was totally calculated," Palmer said. "If they opened it on the first week of September, there would be all kinds of charges of crass exploitation. Opening a month earlier is pretty smart on their part."