appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

liveArticle

appConfig

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sectionsV2

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

json

SCMP Reporter

WORLD TRADE CENTER

Director: Oliver Stone

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Michael Pe?a, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Maria Bello

Prelude: 'We tried to make as realistic a film as possible: two men, buried in the middle of those towers, for 24 hours. What makes a person live?' said Stone, who insists that World Trade Center is not a political film.

'What makes them survive these horrible circumstances? They probably would've died if they hadn't been able to communicate with each other, or experience the memories of their families. I believe, in the end, they survived because of these deeply personal and spiritual reasons.'

The film: Cage and Pe?a star as two Port Authority police officers - real people whose experiences on September 11, 2001 inspired the film. They are trapped under tonnes of twisted metal after the Twin Towers collapse. The two men, incapable of seeing or reaching each other, keep themselves alive by talking to each other about their families, hopes and fears.

The stars: Many critics say Cage delivers the best performance of his acting career in World Trade Center. Cage, the nephew of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, won a Best Acting Oscar when he played a dying alcoholic in Leaving Les Vegas.

He is best known for choosing to play quirky roles, despite starring in plenty of mainstream action flicks, such as The Rock and Con Air.

Pe?a also delivers a brilliant performance. He was last seen on the big screen in Crash (2004).

About Stone: A three-time Academy Award-winning director and scriptwriter, Stone is one of America's most accomplished and controversial filmmakers.

A veteran of the Vietnam war, he made a trilogy - Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July and Heaven and Earth - in the late 1980s and early 90s exploring different aspects of the war. He was also  critical of the US government in his controversial film JFK about the assassination of President  Kennedy.

Why bother: Few Hollywood directors have dared to dramatise the September 11 tragedy  for fear of raking up painful memories.

Director Paul Greengrass, using a cast of non-professional actors and a hand-held camera,  managed to win over both the public and the critics by avoiding melodrama and sentimentality in United 93.

Stone's  dramatic storytelling may be less accessible than Greengrass's  semi-documentary style when handling a subject as solemn as September 11. But courage, endurance and survival have always been important themes in Stone's movies. If anyone can pull this movie off, Stone is the man to do it.



movie buff