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| Path: Main Street : NewsWeek : Archive : Coffee with Cam Articles : Article |
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A movie experience
By Cam Tait
You can feel the grainy dirt running down your face. Then, from nowhere, you feel a small rock sliding down your forehead, over your cheeks and finally down your chin. You can't use your hands because you're pinned under cement and debris. You don't know if they're broken but you hurt all over. You can feel the cough and the extreme effort it took - and that only reminds you how thirsty you are: your mouth is so dry from endless hours of being without water.You can smell the diesel fuel, all around you, and wonder if it might ignite. Your eyes sting from the smoke. And as time ticks by you slowly want to go to sleep. But under all those elements which could certainly be otherwise fatal, you find something - from deep within. It keeps you awake with the hope that someone will find you and lead you to safety.
Then, you re-adjust yourself in the comfort of your seat in the neighborhood theatre, reach for a handful of popcorn and a gulp of your super sized soft drink. You might have to take your eyes off the screen for a moment because the images and sounds seem, at times, overwhelming. Then, you remind yourself that you are in a movie theatre and you're safe and, after all, it's just a movie?
Or is it?
Taking in World Trade Centre is indeed an experience. The movie tells the compelling story of police officers who were trapped in the twin towers hours after they were hit by high jacked planes on that gloomy Sept. 11 almost five years ago. With Oliver Stone sitting in the director's chair, one could expect underlying tones about terrorism and other political statements. But there isn't any of that. Instead, the riveting film takes a very personal look at what happened to two officers and their families during the days after the attacks.
The acting of Nicholas Cage and Michael Pena is nothing short of spectacular. Cage plays Sgt. John McLoughlin and Pena portrays Will Jimeno. Both men head into the first tower that was hit. When the second tower was demolished, the pair are thrown for metres and trapped. For over half the movie, we only see the men from the neck up as they lie in the web of concrete. Yet, their performances -- simply through conversation -- are truly remarkable. They demonstrate how a conversation with just one person in a life-and-death situation can lead someone to see another hour when the end is so close.
We're taken from the darkness of the bowels of the towers to the homes of the families of the police officers. We see the televised images of the attacks like we have seen countless times before. But, this time on the big screen, we see it with a new perspective. We can really feel the fear of their wives and the innocence of their children, especially one son who can't wait for his father to be with him on his birthday, in just a few days.
We're taken from the living rooms back to the two officers in the rubble. And it's there where we can literally feel the dust, the grime; the hunger, the thirst; and the will to carry on. We all have different thoughts of Sept. 11. But if you see World Trade Centre you will see it on a real human level. You just can't help but feel it.
Cam Tait is a sports reporter for the Edmonton Journal. He covered charitable issues for almost 20 years. Thoughts, comments, ideas or a simple hello are welcomed at cam@charityvillage.com.
Opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CharityVillage.com®.
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