'Trade Center' honorable, horrific

It is not an easy thing to review a film based on an awfully recent tragedy that affected so many people to such a great magnitude. Likewise, it was certainly no simple task for Oliver Stone to direct such material. The director does a masterful job, holding back like never before in making a film that pays much honor and respect to those directly involved or affected by the events of Sept. 11.\n "World Trade Center" focuses on two real life Port Authority police officers, John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) and Will Jimeno (Michael Peña, "Crash"), who were trapped under wreckage from the collapse of the towers for nearly 24 hours before finally being rescued. Stone tracks the officers through the beginning of their work day when they are called to the Trade Center. A majority of the story takes place as the men lie trapped some 20 feet under the rubble. Their conversations drive these scenes of entrapment as the men struggle to stay awake and help each other survive. A parallel storyline revolves around the families of the two officers. Their wives and children wait in agonizing emotional pain, following the television closely, not knowing if their husbands and fathers are even alive.\n While Oliver Stone is often criticized for showing gratuitous scenes of violent content in some of his films (see: "Natural Born Killers"), "World Trade Center" is the antithesis of this criticism. Besides shots of one person jumping out of a building and a few other bloodied and dirty individuals, the carnage is kept to a minimum. The real pain in this film lies in its emotional core. On Sept. 11, no one felt safe; anyone anywhere could have been the next target. The mass murder hit so close to home because it was right in our country's backyard. It is difficult to distance oneself from these horrific events that were only too recent, and Stone brings us right back to that fateful morning.\n Oliver Stone has said that "WTC" is not a political film. In that case, the film's message seems to lie within its theme of benevolence. After all the evil of that day, so much goodwill followed. This point is exemplified toward the end by the heroes who worked tirelessly to rescue the officers from certain death. In addition to the two officers, only 18 others were rescued from the ruins that day. \n "World Trade Center" is a very inspiring and heartwarming film, but only time will tell if the movie will be remembered as a memorial to 9/11, or if it will become just another "Armageddon"