Common Sense Note
Parents should know that the film isn't appropriate for younger kids and may be too much for sensitive teens. It includes explicit images of the World Trade Center Towers collapsing, mostly from inside the buildings (with crashing/exploding sound effects). It also features potentially upsetting television footage and recreations of Ground Zero, the air filled with smoke and dust, with fires burning. Early on, you see a body falling from a tower (and cops' horrified reactions); later, several men are crushed by the falling building; one dies on screen, gurgling blood from his mouth as another observes (again, horrified). At the hospital the victims' injuries are visible (broken limbs, bloody faces). Family members waiting for news are tense and sad, and some argue; a woman cries about her lost son; a pregnant woman vomits; some characters smoke cigarettes and use occasional harsh language.
Families can discuss the relationship that develops between the two survivors, John and Will: How do they keep each other alive by sharing personal stories? How does the community get through the waiting and grieving? How do the kids react to their fathers' unknown status? How do their mothers answer their questions in ways that are honest and also comforting?
Families can also talk about their own recollections of the day and answer any questions kids may have about the tragic events.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs
September 11th remains a difficult day to remember, even as it's increasingly mythologized and recast in media images. While it may not be time for all viewers to see the images of devastation in WORLD TRADE CENTER, others will appreciate the uplifting point as it focuses on a small group of people to recount a vast tragedy.
"Based on actual accounts of surviving participants," the movie builds on details. We see the digital alarm clock that shows the day's beginning for Port Authority Police Department Sergeant John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage,/a>): He rises, showers, and leaves for work without waking his wife, Donna (Maria Bello). His men arrive one by one, most making long commutes to work in midtown Manhattan. Their routines will be changed forever that day, when the Twin Towers are hit by commercial jets and collapse, killing just under 3000 people, including policemen and firefighters.
John takes a team inside, planning to "help," but the towers fall before they can, trapping him and rookie cop Will Jimeno (Michael Pena). They will be numbers 18 and 19 of just 20 survivors retrieved from Ground Zero; they hang on for long hours, beneath slabs of concrete, their limbs pinned, their chests smashed, bleeding internally. The survivors' waiting comprises much of the film, their fear and character exposed in tight close-ups. Unable to move, their heroism is defined by their pain and fortitude, rather than comic-booky action.
As the men wait, the film shows TV viewers around the world, shocked at the destruction, as well as their own families, not knowing what's happened "down there." While Donna's son accuses her of "not caring" because she's not searching the wreckage herself, Will's wife Allison (Maggie Gyllenhaal), five months pregnant, ponders how to tell her young daughter that her father isn't coming home.
John and Will also wonder what they thought they were doing, and the lack of information that propelled their initial efforts. Between despairing and raging at their crushed bodies, they essentially talk each other into staying awake. At one point, Will exults, "You wouldn't believe what I saw," and you see it too: a gorgeously backlit "Jesus with a water bottle," literally, a commercial spring water bottle clutched in his sacred hand, dutifully translated from Jimeno's "account."
It's a supremely subjective moment, the film's effort to reconstruct what went on in the men's minds during this most grueling experience. It's more effective than the film's other strategy, a heavy-handed representation of Marine Dave Karnes (Michael Shannon), who hears about the attack while in Wilton, Connecticut, prays for guidance from Christ, then takes time to get a buzz-cut before he heads south. A kind of military guardian angel, he looks at Ground Zero and proclaims, "It's like God made a curtain with the smoke, shielding us from what were not ready to see."
It's an outsized, quintessentially Stoneian moment (think: Willem Dafoe dying with arms outstretched in Platoon), resolutely apolitical and burdened with mythic meaning). According to an epigraph, Karnes goes on to seek "vengeance" during two tours in Iraq.
Families who like this movie might also like United 93. Or you might want to see heroic rescue mission movies, such as Black Hawk Down or Saving Private Ryan.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentA couple appears in bed together during a white-lit, happy flashback (some kissing, much laughing). |
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ViolenceA shot of the hole left by one of the planes shows flames; a tiny figure appears from a long distance, jumping/falling from one of the towers; scenes of the collapsing towers are disturbing (loud noises, chaotic editing, cuts to black screens); people emerge from towers bloody and dazed; TV image of United Flight 93 crash site in Pennsylvania; men lying beneath rubble are plainly injured (they have trouble breathing, lose consciousness, describe their crushed knees and other damage; a trapped man fires a gun into the air, then dies. |
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LanguageOne "f--k;" other profanity used by injured men. |
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Social BehaviorCharacters cope with traumatic circumstances with resolve, courage, and compassion. |
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CommercialismMention of Target, CVS aisles show glimpses of products. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoCharacters smoke cigarettes. |
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