/ 22 May 2006

‘This is about what it was like at Ground Zero’

A knot of police officers rush into a burning office building to evacuate survivors. They hear a hellish rumble above and dash for haven in an elevator vestibule as the structure collapses around them.

So begins Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center, the first 25 minutes of which was previewed at the Cannes Film Festival, promising an agonising portrait of courage, camaraderie and perseverance.

Stone, who introduced the footage that showed on Sunday night before a 20th-anniversary screening of his Vietnam saga Platoon, said that war film and his September 11 drama both deal with working-class heroes, not superhuman deeds.

”It seems like the Vietnam War, Watergate, Iraq, all these things get built up, 9/11, into mythologies,” Stone told The Associated Press. ”This is about what it was like at Ground Zero.”

World Trade Center is based on the true story of New York Port Authority police officers John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) and Will Jimeno (Michael Pena), who were among the last survivors pulled from the rubble of the twin towers after the terrorist attacks on September 11 2001.

McLoughlin was a veteran cop involved in rescue operations after the 1993 bombing at the trade centre, while Jimeno was a rookie.

Dispatched to ground zero after the first hijacked plane hit the towers, McLoughlin assembled a group of volunteers, including Jimeno, that entered the concourse between the towers with oxygen tanks and a resolve to escort survivors to safety.

”As history is being written, it’s just as important to acknowledge the heroes in the history as it is to include the terrorists,” said World Trade Center screenwriter Andrea Berloff. ”I’d rather look at it as a day that looks at what Americans were able to do for themselves.”

The film opens with the sleepy start to McLoughlin’s day as he rises at 3.30am, showers, dresses and heads to work. There are moments of police fraternity as a fellow officer makes fun of Jimeno’s colourful boxer shorts in the locker room.

New Yorkers are shown on their morning commute, the pristine trade-centre towers in the distance.

McLoughlin, the sturdy sergeant, doles out assignments during roll call. But after a final shot of the untouched towers viewed from ground level, the routine day gives way to chaos as the planes hit, debris showers on to the pavement and walking wounded begin to stream on to the streets.

There are cries of horror as trapped victims leap to their deaths from the trade centre, with McLoughlin and the other police officers flinching at the crash of their bodies overhead.

As McLoughlin’s team prepares to head up into the first tower, they hear the terrible roar of the second one collapsing. Flaming debris rains down outside and a squall of gray ash surges into the concourse.

Knowing the elevator vestibule is their best chance for safety, McLoughlin shouts for his men to follow him there. The Cannes footage goes black as the men are buried in the rubble, then ends with a final close-up on Cage’s eyes and soot-covered face.

The film co-stars Maria Bello as McLoughlin’s wife and Maggie Gyllenhaal as Jimeno’s.

World Trade Center is the year’s second September 11 offering, following last month’s United 93, a docudrama about passengers who died as their plane crashed after they fought back against their hijackers. United 93 also is playing at Cannes.

Though the five-year anniversary of the attacks is approaching, some movie-goers have said they do not yet have the stomach to relive September 11 on the big screen.

Yet September 11 movies are inevitable, and they can help heal the wounds, filmmakers say.

”9/11 is with us, whether we treat it on film or not,” said World Trade Center producer Michael Shamberg. ”What Hollywood has to add is stories about that day that both illuminate the events and give you a sense of hopefulness, not just tragedy.” — Sapa-AP