Rick's World

Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469641/

I must confess, I was hesitent to see this movie. I was hesitent for several reasons.. First, I felt it was in poor taste to try to profit off of the horrible events of 9/11. Those were horrible events that I will never forget. Second, knowing the director who made this movie - Oliver Stone, I very much expected a very polically slanted movie. Stone tends to make very controversial movies. I was very much expecting a very anti-war, anti-American movie. Thankfully that was not the case.

I saw this movie this past Saturday. The theater was packed. There were so many people in the theater that there was no room for a 'safety seat' between me and the bro. Nearly every seat was taken. The movie centers on the true story of two New York Port Authority cops who were called to the World Trade Center right after the first building was hit. While they were inside the building, the entire building collapsed on top of them, buring them in the rubble. They were the only two of their unit who survived, even though they were buried and unable to move. All they could do was lie there and talk to each other, while waiting for someone to find them. Most of the movie consists of the two buried cops talking with each other. At the same time, the movie regularly breaks off to show their families reactions to the attack and collapse of the towers, and their obvious worry when their husbands go missing. Eventually, they do get found and rescued.

I was very pleased to see that this movie was not politically slanted at all. It was simply the collapse of the towers, and the two cops trying to survive, while buried in the rubble. I was also very pleased to see that they never actually showed the towers collapsing or either plane hitting the towers. All this was shown in a very indirect way. All you really saw of the tower collapse was a view out the window of some rubble. Then they run and then everything goes dark. For the planes, neither is shown at all. At best we see a shadow of a plane fly over head. Yes there are some views of the families watching the burning towers on TV, but that's about it. I felt it was a very tasteful way to depict these events. As it was, the movie was very emotional. I heard many people in the audience crying. I think had they actually shown the towers getting hit and collapsing, it would have been too much for many peole. It was a very good movie. I will not be buying the DVD though. Why? The events of 9/11 were traumatic enough. I don't want to subject myself to this again.