In this game the most committed wins.
Viewed through a post-9/11 prism, Edward Zwick’s The Siege seems at times both impossibly naïve and uncomfortably prescient. Ultimately, however, this movie is more effective as postulation than it is as a narrative, smarter about its subject matter than about its story. Whatever points it scores are undermined by shallow, clichéd characters and a stock, predictable ending.
We prepared for everything. Not for this.
Okay, admit it. When you heard that Oliver Stone was going to make a movie about the events of September 11, 2001, a lot of you rolled your eyes and thought, “Oh, my God, what’s he going to do now?” Was he going to have Richard Nixon rising from the grave to plant explosives in the twin towers? How were the Grassy Knoll gunmen who killed John Kennedy involved? And how did it all tie back to the Vietnam War?
Surprise. Not only is World Trade Center completely devoid of even the slightest hint of conspiracy theories, the movie could almost be described as reverential. It is certainly Stone’s most conventional film since Wall Street and an unabashedly sentimental tribute to heroic people doing impossible jobs. It’s also a very good movie. Perhaps it’s not the equal of Paul Greengrass’ raw quasi-documentary United 93, but completely worthy of our respect.
