No. 13 World Trade Center (2006) 24 of 100

 

Five years after the devastating events of 9/11, director Oliver Stone assembled a star studded cast to try and tell some of the stories behind the disaster. It would be churlish to criticise the film too much as it is well intentioned and celebrates worthy people, but you may find it a bit mawkish and sentimental.

The film centres on Nicholas Cage’s Port Authority cop John. After the attacks take place – mostly off camera; we see only a shadow of a hijacked plane – Cage is sent down to the site to assist in the rescue. He comes over as a bit cautious and fusses about looking for equipment as the towers burn and fall. I’m not sure what was being conveyed here – was he playing it safe and by the book or was he fearful of walking in to near certain death? His choices are quickly made for him however, when a tower collapses and he and his men dive into a lift entrance that quickly collapses. Most of the men are killed immediately with another shooting himself in what I trust was a true incident, as it seemed a bit unconvincing in the film.

Cage and his colleague Michael Pena survive, but both are trapped by their legs. The remainder of the film documents their bid to survive as they comfort and cajole each other to stay awake and listen out for a rescue. As they do so we enter their minds and see flashbacks of better times. They also have visions of Jesus and imagined conversations with their wives. These scenes took me out of the moment somewhat and although they may be accurate to the men involved, it just seemed daft when a vision of Jesus came down to offer salvation as well as a bottle of water.

Whilst the men are struggling to survive in the dark, the film also intercuts with real life events using stock footage from the day, interwoven with scenes of the wives and family back home, waiting to hear of their men’s fate. The women in this film are poorly severed with Pena’s partner, a pregnant Maggie Gyllenhaal, being annoying throughout and Cage’s Maria Bello having weird eyes. IMDb says her eyes were colourised for the film and it is poorly done and is distracting.

Shannon doesn’t appear until almost halfway through the film and he doesn’t get a lot to do. We meet him at his accounting job when he learns of the attacks. He heads off for a quick pray at church and a haircut, which seems a strange reaction, until we see it’s a buzz cut he gets and he’s donned his military fatigues to get involved in the rescue effort.

Shannon’s Dave Karnes bluffs his way onto the site and, with a fellow ex-marine, he looks for survivors after the official search has ended for the night. He manages to locate Cage and Pena and calls in their location. That’s pretty much the end of his involvement until near the end when we learn that he re-enlisted and served two tours in Iraq. His character comes across as a bit of a loner and a nut, and it seems telling that the real Dave didn’t want to be involved as he had differing political views than director Stone.

It’s a pity Shannon wasn’t more involved and I think the real Dave was poorly served by a script that had him as a bit strange and a religious zealot.

After some digging the two men are eventually released from their tomb and we then jump forward two years to see that they have done well in their rehabilitation, with marital and baby naming issues all happily resolved.

The film does well not to ponder on the political aspects of the events and focuses more on individual stories. This gives the film some heart, but it also makes it feel somewhat unsubstantial when it covers world changing events. The performances are mixed, with a lot of shouting and screaming taking the place of real acting. Your sympathies lie with Cage and Pena from the start and their outcome was never really in doubt. The backstories and family dramas were decent but I didn’t like the wives much and some of the dialogue was too on the nose to be believable.

Overall I’d give the film a pass as it deals with tragic and emotional material well, but I never truly bought into the characters we were offered and their annoying families only served to distance me from the heart of the story. Shannon and a few other familiar faces like Frank Whaley were decent and all had small redemption arcs that seemed a bit shoehorned in. There was a lot to cover in a two hour film and I think ultimately it was a worthy, but unsatisfying effort.

When is Shannon-On? - 46.50

Outcome? Off to re-enlist and fight terrorists

Film 3/5

Shannon Stars 3/5