World Trade Center (HD-DVD Set)
Picture:
B+ Sound: B Extras: B- Film: B-
In the
1980s, Oliver Stone overtook Arthur Penn as the American auteur of the moment
taking the hardest and most controversial look at the U.S.; something noticed
by writers like Robert Kolker in his amazing book A Cinema Of Loneliness. In recent years, though, Stone has somewhat
dropped the ball. Though experiments
like Natural Born Killers were bold,
they did not age well, while U-Turn
was an oddity. With films like Any Given Sunday and Alexander, he was being commercial and
too much so for his own good. Too many
compromises and a loss of his edge and mark as a filmmaker made things look
grim for his future work. World Trade Center (2006) looked to be
a comeback in controversy about 9/11/01 in New York, but something odd
happened.
The Far
Right, his greatest opponent, embraced the film as patriotic and in many was it
is. That is not a bad thing, but it
becomes a long term issue in a movie about how ugly things were on that awful
nightmare day. The film was written by Andrea
Berloff from the direct accounts of survivors and is thorough about the
events. On that level, it is effective
and at times, Stone’s touch is back, but without the pretension of even
beginning to try to figure out how the planes got through and instead focuses
on trying to recreate the experience like the chaos of Vietnam in Platoon.
With so
much nightmare going on that day, this film focuses on how two New York Port
Authority policemen (Nicolas Cage, Michael Pena) are trapped in rubble and try
to survive. Stone uses it as a metaphor
for the struggle of everyone that day to survive and how people banded together
to help each other even when their government could not. That never gets political, but it is somewhat
implied whether Stone intended it to be or not.
Now I had
problems with Platoon and they are
the same as in this film and that is a visual and aural recreation of the
events are not sufficient enough to totally recreate or address the
matter. Platoon was a tale about how wrong and bad Vietnam was as a fiasco
and action in general. After all the
awards and box-office it received, that should have been enough for such a
thing never to happen again, but it was not the best film on Vietnam and the
same mistakes have been made all over again.
That is now my largest fear with World
Trade Center, which is less political.
This is
too broad in that respect. United 93 managed to deal with the
issue better simply because it seem Stone might have been too cautious. No one was expecting an analysis and the
actual conspiracy theories about that day are so dumb that they outdo the most
paranoid possibility of any of Stone’s best political work. (Crazy example: The CIA used torches on the building the
night before and other disguised agents flew into the building, killing
themselves!?!?!) For what the film does
offer, it feels more like a continuation of Ron Howard’s Backdraft (reviewed on HD-DVD elsewhere on this site) than a 9/11
film and who knows how it will date. For
its time, it asserts why a country as great as America is worth fighting for a
debating about, especially for Stone who is one of its great cinematic
dissidents.
Also
making the film work is its strong supporting cast, including the underrated
Maria Bello, Jay Hernandez, Danny Nucci, Nicholas Turturro, Maggie Gyllenhaal,
Patti D’Arbanville, Nicky Katt, Julie Adams, Stephen Dorff, Frank Whaley and
star on the rise (we hope) Viola Davis.
One thing you can always say about Stone; he is an A-list director and
when he goes all out, he knows how to get the actors.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image was shot by Seamus McGarvey, A.S.C., and
has some great moments here and if more such moments were present in clarity
and definition, I would rate this disc even higher. As it stands, it does have one too many
stylized moments that hold it back, but no DVD is going to match this. Color is consistent, Video Black rich and
Stone has a knack for good looking films, even if he has switched
cinematographers. The Dolby Digital Plus
5.1 is almost as good, with a mix of subtle and powerful choices in the
surrounds. Like Mission: Impossible III, why Paramount would issue a double HD set
(these are arriving in Blu-ray sets at the same time) and not use either Dolby
TrueHD or DTS HD (especially at a Master Audio level) is odd. Still, this is a good mix and standard Dolby
would not be able to match this.
Extras
include two feature length audio commentary tracks: one by Stone & the other
by real-life survivor Will Jimeno and rescuers Scott Strauss, John Busching
& Paddy McGee, Stone Q&A, Deleted/Extended Scenes with optional
commentary, The Making of World Trade Center 3-part
featurette in HD, Common Sacrifices
2-part featurette in HD, Building Ground
Zero featurette in HD and Oliver
Stone's New York interview featurette in HD. What a pleasure to see all these featurettes
in high definition. Overall, this is a
solid set and the film is worth a look at least, but the extras really enhance
the package. For an even stronger
positive review of the film, be sure to check out our theatrical release
coverage at:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4102/World+Trade+Center+(2006/Theatrical+Film+Review)
- Nicholas Sheffo
