I caught World Trade Center on Monday and I highly recommend this moving tale about how some Americans reacted to the attack on the trade center. I did go in prepared to enjoy the film since, with the exception of Alexander, I have enjoyed all of Oliver Stone’s movies, even when I disagreed with his politics. Also, Nicholas Cage is the actor I would want to play me if Hollywood ever makes “The Norman Kirk Singleton” story.

The movie is mostly free of politics, expect for one brief clip of Bush and two comments made by the ex-marine who gets a crew cut and puts on his old uniform before going to New York to help in the recovery effort (the film makes clear the reason his changed clothes and hairstyles before going to New York is so he could get through the police barriers set up around the towers). The first comment is when the marine is watching the events on that day with his coworkers and says “I don’t know if you people realize it, but we are are war,” before storming out. I objected to this not for ideological reasons but because it struck me as cheesy in a film that otherwise avoided cheese.

Near the end of the film, the marine character comments that “It will take a lot of good men to avenge this.” This strikes me as a perfectly reasonable sentiment, especially uttered by someone standing amidst the remains of the World Trade Center. The film does not examine whether invading Iraq and making us take off our shoes and dump out our sodas before boarding an airplane has anything to do with avenging 9-11 or making sure we never relive that day. Maybe Stone will make a follow-up film examining those issues.

While it is true that Chuck Sereika, paramedic and recovering drug addict, is not shown as the first man to reach Officers Jimeno and McLaughlin Sereika is a prominent character in the movie. The way the rescue contributed to Sereika’s personal redemption is one of the best things about the movie.