Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer

John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) in a scene from the movie World Trade Center. - Contributed

World Trade Center is a story of survival. It is an emotionally intense movie that goes for heartstrings and yanks hard. Though it leaves much of the story untold, the side that it presents is very well told.

Directed by Oliver Stone (Alexander, Any Given Sunday), the film is based on the experiences of William Jimeno (played by Michael Pena) and John McCloughlin (played by Nicolas Cage), Port Authority policemen, who became trapped in the World Trade Center during a thwarted attempt to rescue people trapped in the buildings after the planes hit on September 11, 2001.

The movie inter-cuts the expe-riences of the two men with those of their wives Donna McCloughlin (Maria Bello) and Allison Jimeno (Maggie Gyllenhaal). As such, it provides a balance between images of light and dark. The story focuses on the two trapped men, and tells their story evoking their pain, horror, fear and hopes in larger-than-life detail.

Additionally, as the movie manages to depict in flinching detail a lot of the destruction which had been seen as blurring news camera images. It lingers over the details with great impact, to fully highlight the nature of the tragedy.

Yet by casting largely unknown or barely known actors for the roles, the movie frees itself from the star personality shackles, and allows a good portrayal of ordinary Americans.

Movie politics

Of course even as one appreciates the successful feat in storytelling which has been achieved, the movie's politics are quite evident. A significant element of this is the portrayal of Staff Sergeant Dave Karnes of the marines. Karnes first line in the flick is "For those of you who don't know, we're at war now." And this film is a part of that extended war. It is a part of the publicity project that provides justification.

As such, later, just before the credits go up, Karnes calls his sister and lets her know he is signing back up for duty. "They're gonna need some good men out there to avenge this," he says. Then we are told that Karnes served two tours of duty in Iraq. So through Karnes, the movie draws that mythical line between the attack on the twin towers and the war in Iraq without a smudge of oil coming through to blur the picture.

Furthermore, World Trade Center paints the picture of America the beautiful, innocent, God fearing country which was suddenly attacked for no reason at all as it was a mere by-stander.

In truth, what took place at the World Trade Center was a horrible example of man's inhumanity to man. Yet, though the movie's tagline says "The world saw evil that day," the world has seen much evil before that, and that atrocity has been used to commit many more acts of evil since then.

Was World Trade Center only the story of Jimeno and McCloughlin's survival, it would truly be a tale of hope and fear and even the power of love. Yet, by sneaking in tales of vengeance and a God sent mission, World Trade Center is corrupted by the scent of oily propaganda. And even so, it remains a beautiful tale. Just ensure you have your salt on hand before you swallow.