No. 353 : World Trade Center (2006)

World Trade Center (2006) at the IMDb

 

 * I watched this film and wrote a review for my new Michael Shannon Blog 'Michael Shannon and On and On' which will debut sometime soon. Check back here later and I'll link it when it goes live. It would be a disservice to my one follower to not add a review here on the W movies blog, so I have adapted it for this audience with the more Shannon-centric comments removed.

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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 it 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 effort. 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. At least he brought a bottle of heavenly water with him.

Whilst our guys struggle with their predicament, the film intercuts with real life events, with stock footage from the day interwoven with scenes of the wives and family back home awaiting to hear of their men’s fate. The women in this film are poorly served 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 distracting.

We also get a couple of side stories with Michael Shannon's ex-marine accountant going back to the good fight and Frank Whaley's alcoholic character putting a plug in the jug so that he can offer medical assistance to the injured.

The trapped men are located and, after some digging and more bonding, both are eventually freed from their tomb. We then jump forward two years to see that they have done well in their rehabilitation with baby naming and marital difficulties seemingly resolved.

The films does well not to ponder on the political aspects of the events and focuses more on individual stories. This gives the production 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 the 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. There was a lot to cover in a two hour film and I think ultimately it was a worthy but unsatisfying effort.

Best Bit : The building collapse was well realised and the sets were excellent.

'W' Rating 15/23

No.300 : W. (2008)

W. at the IMDb

For our 300th’ post I thought we’d get back to basics with the most ‘W’ film you can get : ‘W.’.

This Oliver Stone bio-pic of the 43rd President of the United States was well observed and entertaining, but I doubt anyone watching it comes out knowing the protagonist any better.

The film employs a non-linear narrative with key moments in Bush’s life shown in flashback, with the year involved captioned to keep you right. We open in the White House as Bush and his cabinet of familiar faces discuss his ‘Axis of Evil’ speech. It’s 2002 and he’s plotting how to topple Saddam Hussein, and finish the job his father started in Gulf War One.

He railroads any objectors and finishes the meeting with a quick prayer. We are then transported back to 1966 with the young George applying to join a frat house. He does well in the company of the beery rabble rousers and we soon see him in jail following a football match fight whilst he’s at Yale. His dad, GB Senior, bails him out but he’s disappointed in him and it’s clear that his brother Jeb is the preferred offspring.

George stumbles through a variety of jobs, none of which he stays at for long. He has a drinking issue and is a disappointment to his Dad, James Cromwell, who is probably distracted with that troublesome pig. We jump back and forth with a present day Dick Cheney trying to get George to sign off on Guantanamo Bay torture with the bold George reminding him that ‘I’m the President’.

The path to the White House is however long with George losing his first bid for congress in 1977, but meeting his wife Laura (Elizabeth Banks) along the way. Fast forward to 1986 when George has a heart attack, gets sober and finds God. He also secures his Dad’s presidency when he runs a dirty tricks campaign for him against Dukakis. We then see George Jnr. as a baseball club owner before Desert Storm in 1991 and his Dad’s loss to Clinton in 1992.

He eventually becomes Texas Governor in 1994 and has a message from God that he should run for President in 1999. We know that he gets the big job but what will his legacy be and will he finally please his old man?

I’d seen this film near to its release but it was a lot better the second time around with the benefit of history and hindsight. Firstly the cast was great with Josh Brolin excelling as the flawed George. At the time Bush was a figure of fun but they did well to focus on the man rather than on the comedians’ take. Clearly you don’t get to lead the free world by being an idiot, but they did temper this by pushing the legacy aspect with his Dad offering no end of help.

Bush’s advisers were all familiar faces with Richard Dreyfuss as Cheney and Toby Jones as Karl Rove doing good work. Thandie Newton was less convincing as Condolezza Rice, with her performance looking more like a caricature.

Obviously a lot of what was said was behind closed doors and had to be speculated, but it seemed a balanced approach with only a couple of scenes inserted to make George look stupid, such as his hospital visit to injured troops where he handed out t-shirts to the maimed.

It was strange that the pivotal moment of his presidency, the 9/11 attacks, didn’t get more focus but it may have been too raw at the time of the 2008 production. Maybe they thought the fallout and legacy of Bush Senior was the story and to be fair it did make for an interesting narrative.

Overall I think this was a worthwhile and interesting bio-pic that did well to show the man rather than offer a commentary on his actions. Like the man the film had its flaws, but overall it was interesting and entertaining.

Best Bit : Oval Office Discussions  ‘W’ Rating 19/23