Methinks Cliff and I are on the same wave. Like I try to get at in my piece on it, I like that during the movie we don’t see or think too much about the “bastards” (as one guy watching the news coverage in the movie puts it). That said, the whole movie stands as a reminder of what they did to us and this war. The hell these two Port Authority cops lived was because of the enemy. Their comrades and civilians in the WTC, etc. died for that very obvious reason — bad guys wanted Americans dead. That’s there by virtue of what the movie is, to have explored the enemy’s mind would have been a different movie — and I like that that’s not what this movie was.
At a time, frankly, when people are iffy on the war in Iraq, some focusing talk about what happened nearly five years ago, and how resilient Americans are and need to be as it continues — which comes to us these weeks in the form, I think, of this WTC movie and Rick Santorum’s speech yesterday — is important. And the focus on the good that Americans are willing to do — rescuing, protecting, fighting, serving — is always a great and needed thing. Stone provides some of that focus in spades in World Trade Center.
And what an American, that Marine, Dave Karnes! If you want a portrait of a hero, there are many in World Trade Center, but boy is he one. And as Miller noted, that Stone portrayed these guys who had a clear religious faith with the utmost respect is a testament to him and suggests a real admiration for these good people.