In the press packet about the movie, Oliver Stone is quoted as saying:
"Although my politics and John and Will's may be different, it 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 - it's about courage and survival."
One of the five who died, Dominick Pezzulo (played by Jay Hernandez)
survived the first tower collapse, but not the second. The real Will Jimeno
says of his friend, "He was a cop, a schoolteacher, a father, a son, but in
the end, he was a great American."
Movies like "World Trade Center" - and "United 93," which preceded it -
don't come along very often. More should.
There are many scenes that will cause audiences to reach for the tissues,
but the last one is a true resurrection moment. As Jimeno, first, and then
McLoughlin are lifted out of what could have been their graves, they are
passed from hand-to-hand along a gauntlet made up of their colleagues, more
than 50 of whom are real-life members of the PAPD, the NYPD and FDNY who
were flown to Los Angeles for the scene.
Whatever one thinks of Oliver Stone, the man knows how to make movies. This
is one of his best. It deserves an Oscar in so many categories. It also
deserves the thanks of a grateful nation. Go and see it beginning Aug. 9 and
make him a large profit so he might consider inspiring us again, as his
predecessors so often did during Hollywood's Golden Age.