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What are your thoughts on the movie World Trade Center?

Hope from the Rubble

By Andrea D. Hicks
CBNNews.com

CBNNews.com – Five years have passed, yet most Americans are not ready to trek to the movie theater and watch films like World Trade Center.

The idea of reliving that day via the big screen can be terrifying. Every time we see footage of bodies plummeting to their deaths or the twin towers collapsing, we feel an overwhelming sense of sorrow, fear, anger, and confusion.

So what makes it appropriate to sit in a dark theater and watch these events unfold again? Why would we want to put ourselves through the anguish?

According to a July 28-30 USA Today/Gallup poll, only one-third of Americans say they are “very” (12 percent) or “somewhat” (21 percent) likely to head to the movies for 9/11- related films.

Some may believe it’s wrong to recreate these events. After all, Hollywood shouldn’t profit from movies based on real human suffering.

Seeing one of these films may dredge up vivid memories and thoughts that America has tried to forget. It may be easier to move on, to look to the future, to leave the horrors of that day behind.

But what about the good that came from 9/11?

As Americans, we should cast aside our fear, anger, and uncertainties about whether it’s “too soon” or “too much” and embrace World Trade Center, a story of survival and the power of love.

“It is one of the greatest pro-American, pro-family, pro-male, flag-waving, God Bless America films you will ever see,” columnist Cal Thomas says.

And he’s right.

The main characters, Will Jimeno (Michael Pena) and John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) are real men with simple lives who aren’t afraid to show how much they love their families.

The film is a true-life story about Will, John, and three others who voluntarily entered the twin towers on 9/11 as officers of the Port Authority Police Department (PAPD). Three died, only Will and John survived.

Overall that day, only 20 people were pulled from the rubble alive. Twenty. Will and John were 18 and 19.

“These two guys were at the epicenter of the collapse. They were right in the middle of it- that’s symbolic. And when I met them, they were everything unglamorous, working-class New York policemen are supposed to be,” said Oliver Stone during an interview with The Miami Herald.

Unlike the simplicity of their normal lives, their rescue was very complex: physically, mentally, and emotionally.

For example, the film depicts the helplessness, yet strength of the wives, surrounded by family and friends, waiting to learn whether their husbands made it out alive.

“You have to take into account that the wives suffered equally that day, because they had to accept the fact that their husbands would not come home,” Stone said in an interview with The Miami Herald.

After the building collapses, John and Will battled every second to stay alive. Meanwhile, their wives held onto the hope of their rescue. The wives faced tough questions from their kids such as “Is daddy coming home?” and “Don’t you care about dad?”

Allison Jimeno (Maggie Gyllenhaal) at the time was pregnant and highly emotional. She was crazy with worry about her man and also the idea of raising her daughter and unborn daughter alone.

As the men lay trapped under mangled metal and shared stories about their families, it was love and even a vision of Jesus holding a water bottle that kept them focused.

“You kept me alive,” John would later utter to his wife in the hospital.

Meanwhile, retired Marine David Karnes (Michael Shannon) felt called by God to rescue people from Ground Zero. He managed to slip through police lines and met another Marine. Because of David's efforts, rescuers were able to locate and pull up Will and John.

This is a story about hope from the rubble. It’s about rising to the challenge and keeping faith in midst of danger and uncertainty.

John McLoughlin (Nicholas Cage) said it best during the film’s closing voice-over monologue: “9/11 showed us what humans are capable of. The evil, yea, but also the good….It’s important for us to talk about that good and to remember.”

Tell Andrea your thoughts on World Trade Center

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