'WTC' Opens, Viewers React

Moviegoers Respond To Oliver Stone's Film About 9/11 Attacks

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NEW YORK, Aug. 9, 2006 | by Jessica Derschowitz

(CBS)  Questions and controversy have followed Oliver Stone's new film, "World Trade Center," throughout its production. Some people have wondered whether Stone, who has made a number of controversial films, was the right person to direct a movie on such a delicate subject as the 9/11 attacks. Others worried that it is still "too soon," for a film like this, especially with the fifth anniversary of the attacks coming up next month.

Now that the film has been released in theaters, those who see it can decide for themselves.

Brian, who saw the movie Wednesday morning at New York's Ziegfeld Theater, was one who was not impressed.

"I thought it was really hokey and somewhat overwrought," he said. "It's just huge budget and spectacle … there's nothing really provocative about it."

Roberta Hill disagrees. Hill, who has lived in New York since 1983, found the film not only provocative, but very real.

"Those two cops are down there and they're so thirsty — and I'm feeling like a bastard because I'm sitting here with a full water bottle and I can't give it to them. I mean, that's pretty real," she said.

2The two cops are John McLaughlin and Will Jimeno, two Port Authority policemen who were among the few people to be pulled out alive from the rubble of the collapsed twin towers. Their remarkable story is the basis for "World Trade Center." Stone hired the two as paid consultants in order to ensure the film's accuracy.

However, it's this accuracy that has some people worrying whether the film may be too traumatic for some to see.

Phil believes that is a personal decision.

"I can imagine for some, the film would be upsetting," he said. "For others, it may have the opposite effect — it could be empowering, it might help them deal with their feelings of what happened that day."

By Jessica Derschowitz
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