World Trade Center - Part I

We saw the movie Thursday.

The title is wrong. It should be "Jimeno and McLoughlin," or more precisely "J & M h\Have a Bad Day." It is not about the WTC; that is only the backdrop. The collective 60,000 individual stories of people who escaped or didn't on 9/11 might make up something that could be called WTC.

Is this movie political? One of my reactions walking out was, "This isn't a political movie." On further thought, this reaction was based on what I expected from Oliver Stone. Any movie about 9/11 is political given that 9/11 has been George Bush's justification for everything. It could be seen as apolitical in that it is 'just' the story of two Port Authority cops who got trapped in the collapsed WTC, their families, and the rescue. Another realization was that it is handled with complete lack of irony. The music isn't there to heighten tension, to build up suspense. It is solemn, patriotic, and respectful, like the music in Shindler's List, or a military recruitment ad. It tells the audience "No fooling around, this is serious."

There were no pictures of airplanes crashing into the building that I remember (maybe in all the shots of people around the world watching on tv there was one) and I don't recall any mention of who flew the planes into the building. Everyone knows, so it needn't to be said. This movie isn't about them.

So, what does it mean politically? That liberals can own 9/11 too? That this is not just a conservative issue? Maybe. On one level, this is simply an homage to the rescuers.

But I was also struck, eventually, by the total futility of the rescuers. This group of cops shows up at the building. They really don't know what to do. They aren't really coordinated with any other rescuers. They grab some equipment and they are going to 'go help.' Even though the world is watching events live on tv, these guys really have no idea what is going on. They rescue no one. They lost all but two members of their team. The two get resuced from the rubble the next day. It's not clear in the movie how much permanent physical or mental injury they still have two years later. If this group of cops had just stayed away, the death toll and pain and suffering would have been diminished.

The dramatic rescue scene shows the cops, pulled out on stretchers from under the rubble being passed from hand to hand through a column of jubilant rescuers like a bucket of water being passed on to throw at the fire. The cheers at the news that they had found two live cops in the rubble, and the crowd of rescuers helping to pass along the stretchers also symbolized the complete powerlessness of the police and fire departments. Everyone wanted to be part of the very little the rescuers actually accomplished. Wanted to feel that they had something to show for being there. This was highlighted by the words written on the screen, that only 20 people were rescued.

When the other 60,000 stories are told, then we will have something that can be collectively called The World Trade Center.