New York - World Trade Center, director Oliver Stone's gritty drama about the September 11 attacks on New York City, has premiered in the city to tears from survivors and rave reviews from the critics.
US director Oliver Stone (2ndR) and family arrive at the world premiere of his film 'World Trade Center', at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York , Thursday 03 August 2006. EPA/ANDREW GOMBERT
The movie, starring Nicolas Cage as a cop trapped in the rubble of the destroyed skyscrapers, premiered in Manhattan's historic Ziegfeld Theatre Thursday night.
The premiere did not feature a gala reception because of the sensitive subject matter, and the invited audience was also asked to contribute the price of a theatre ticket to associated charities.
'I thought the movie was incredibly done,' said retired Port Authority Police Lt John McLoughlin, on whom Cage's character is based. 'It was accurate. They got the feel what was going on with us that day.'
Leonard Crisci, 58, whose brother, firefighter John Crisci, died in the attacks, said the film was hard to watch.
'I was crying,' Crisci said. 'I just wished my brother had gotten out alive.'
'It was a very powerful movie,' agreed former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who also attended the screening. 'It's a story that needs to be told. It was the worst day in the history of the city - and the greatest day.'
New York Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta also gave the movie his seal of approval. 'I think it's very powerful,' said Scoppetta.
Movie reviewers were equally enthusiastic. Oscar-pundit Tom O'Neill said the film was 'the first great movie of 2006.'
'Stone's film rendering is superb,' O'Neill wrote. 'It reflects a key time in history like other great Oscar champs as well, including ... Gandhi and The Deer Hunter.
'Stone has made an elegant, powerful, moving and genuinely personal document,' said Fox News movie critic Roger Friedman.
But some family members also criticized Stone and production company Paramount for not screening public service announcements before the film, and for using the movie as a profit venture.
'The best tribute to my mom and the 2,971 others who died is to ask the people sitting in those darkened theatres to take action to make sure there's no such future tragedy,' Carrie Lemack, cofounder of Families of September 11, wrote in The Boston Globe.
World Trade Center will be released across the US and Canada on August 9. Paramount has said it will donate 10 per cent of ticket sales from the first five days to the victims' families.
By contrast, Universal's United 93, the first movie on the topic of September 11 which portrays the passengers who took back a hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on the day, donated a reported seven-figure sum to the families.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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