Previewing “World Trade Center”

Prompted by LiveLarge's post, I just watched the trailer for Oliver Stone's World Trade Center for the first time.  My gut reaction is that the film–in Stone's typical fashion—is much more of a big-budget, stylish, sweeping "Hollywood" production than is United 93.  Nic Cage's presence alone marks it as a mainstream, mass-marketed effort.  While virtually none of the actors in U93 is immediately recognizable, the well-known Cage appears in the early scenes of the trailer as the "working class everyman hero" (a somewhat typical role for him).  I'll be interested to see both the public's and the critics' reaction to Stone's effort.

Separately, I noticed that the trailer continues a tradition of employing two images that now seem to define 9/11:

• the dawn of a clear, bright, warm and peaceful autumnal day
• employees following their everyday routines, streaming from their homes to their offices, oblivious to the gathering threat within the country's borders and the tragedy about to unfold

That's how that day was for me…I boarded a train in Lancaster, thought how especially beautiful the morning was as I waved goodbye to my mother and, 45 minutes later, stood confused on the concourse of the Philadelphia station, wondering why so many people were gaping at a TV in the corner of a commuter bar….

Technorati tags: Oliver Stone, United 93, 9-11