Oliver Stone, 9/11 and the Big Lie...

[marmar]

Published on Wednesday, August 16, 2006 by TomDispatch.com
Oliver Stone, 9/11, and the Big Lie
by Ruth Rosen

When World Trade Center ended, I left the theater tense, my muscles aching. The superb directing and acting, coupled with still hardly imaginable scenes of death and destruction, had sent painful muscle spasms up my back, evoked tears, and left me, yet again, with searing and indelible images of that hellish morning.

I felt disoriented in the bright sunlight of a Northern Californian afternoon. As my mind regained its critical faculties, however, another kind of shock set in. I suddenly realized that Oliver Stone's movie reinforces the Big Lie -- endlessly repeated by Dick Cheney, echoed and amplified by the right-wing media -- that 9/11 was somehow linked to Iraq or supported by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

It might surprise you that this Oliver Stone film is neither ideological, nor conspiratorial, which in my view is just as it should be. Instead, it is a portrayal of what the men who braved hell and the families who anguished over their survival experienced.

World Trade Center gives 9/11 a distinctly human face by following two Port Authority policemen and their families. We watch the men muster their courage to help evacuate people in one of the towers; we gasp as they are buried alive; we wince as heavy slabs of cement crush their bodies; and we hold our breath as they struggle to keep each other going in the face of imminent death.

Expert editing brings us the anguish suffered by their wives, children, and relatives. Some are in denial, others in shock. Some have faith; others are resigned to the men's deaths. They live in their own hell and we empathize with their wrenching agony.

The complete article is at: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0816-33.htm

[sinkingfeeling]

1. She's right. Oliver Stone has helped to perpetuate the Big Lie.

[Jed Dilligan]

2. I don't really want to see it... maybe on video.

I think the plotters would make a better movie than the 1st responders and it would have to confront the truly controversial aspects of what happened that day.

[enigma000]

3. Does this really perpetuate the Big Lie?

It seems no one in particular is blamed for the attacks in the movie - reasonable since no one knew at the time who did it.

In the postscript it reads that one character served in the Iraq War. But if in a movie about Pearl Harbour we learned later that a character served in the Korean War, few would believe the Koreans attacked Pearl Harbour.

Funny thought: What if you watched a WWII era movie about fighting on the Pacific front and at the end, a postscript made it clear that no Germans were involved in the attack on Pearl Harbour? OK, different situation.

[Nightjock]

4. I saw it last night

It was a pretty good movie and in my opinion Stone does not give comfort to the big IRAQ LIE.

I am one of the 38% of AmeriKans who believe the government is lying to us about 9-11-2001.

The movie just follows the cops and thier friends and families. The film may have lost some emotional impact for me because through half of the movie I literally kept thinking,
"FUCKING bush probably could have stopped this!"

In an interview with Oliver Stone (I believe it was Entertainment Weekly) Stone hinted he does not believe the official version of what happened and added maybe some time in the future he will make "THAT KIND of 9-11 movie."

[Emillereid]

5. It sounds like the movie was a wasted opportunity to expose the

contradictions and inaccuracies of the 'official' story. Too bad -- I expected more from Stone. There are enough holes in the official story to fly a Boeing 747 through -- he didn't have to reinforce the nonsense official lie.

Unfortunately the popular culture versions of historical events become history -- and between the Flight 93 movie and this one -- getting to the truth of 911 has just been made that much harder. People will go on believing that steel structured buildings just up and explode and fall at free fall speed from a kerosene ignited fire! And that three such buildings came down from the machinations of steely eyed muslims living in caves and a two-bit dictator from a devastated country. Boy, it's must have taken a while to concoct this crazy story -- that it's been made into a Hollywood movie is fitting.

[HamdenRice]

6. There are apparently some 9/11 Truth hints in the movie

I haven't seen it yet, but I read a review by someone active in the 9/11 Truth movement. Sorry don't have the link. But the reviewer wrote that there are scenes that are inconsistently with the official conspiracy theory.

If I remember correctly the reviewer wrote that there are scenes in which there are strange "secondary explosions." Also the reviewer said there is a scene in which the heroes are menaced by inexplicable molten metal. Lastly, there is apparently a scene in which police in a headquarters type setting are shocked by the collapse of WTC 7.

The reviewer inferred from the film that Stone does not believe the official story, left certain hints, but did not want to make a movie explicitly about the alternative theories.

For those who saw the movie, did you also see these clues?

[GeorgeGist]

7. 9/11 didn't need to be a myth...

but that's what it became when the truth got lost.

[ShortnFiery]

8. I will not ever see it ...

I'm disgusted with this FEAR MONGERING ... it's just sick and NOT respectful toward those who had loved ones perish on 9-11. Stop this nasty fear and terra promotion. :grr:

[Apollo11]

9. Thanx for the heads up

I will not support this movie by seeing it in the theater.

Maybe next year I will rent the DVD for a couple of bucks.

I would hope that a movie about an event like 9/11 from a Director like Oliver Stone could educate the public by providing information about the political context - however complex or inconvenient.

If there is no information about why this event happened or who made it happen - then what's left?

Basically an action movie or worse - just a depiction of human suffering.

Why would I pay to go see that?