Oliver Stone’s new movie World Trade Center opened in American cinemas here last week starring Nicolas Cage and Michael Pena in a story based on true-life events about two Port Authority police officers that were among the last survivors to be rescued from the rubble on September 11. Five years on from the tragedy filmmakers are now starting to feel that audiences are finally ready to deal with movies on the subject –and have undoubtedly been spurred on by the relative success of such projects as the A&E cable network’s Flight 93, the theatre-released United 93 and countless documentaries- but the oft-controversial choice of Stone to direct this feature was obviously a decision that puzzled many. That said, Stone made a concerted effort in the lead up to his film’s release to point out that this was not a ‘political’ film, and though, under the circumstances of that day this may not be an entirely possible assertion, he has at least delivered a movie that is free from any of the kinds of conspiracy theories and deliberate bents of opinion that he has emphasised in his other works.

And yet while this is effectively a ‘straight delivery’ –at its core, though a true story, this is a well-presented disaster genre movie with competent performances that speaks of the triumph of the human spirit at the worst of times- I found it difficult to separate myself from those politics of 9/11 that Stone would have us know he tried to avoid. Perhaps in this sense, with even the same White House administration still governing the country as at the time of the attacks it is too soon for this kind of material to be properly digested by a viewing public though I doubt that’s it. Rather, and in this I’m inclined to agree with the recent discussion by TIME Magazine’s James Poniewozik on the matter, for all of the inspiration we can gain from the experience of seeing this film, it’s impossible to forget throughout the movie of those many individuals who didn’t make it out alive that day, as well as all of the glaring failures and mistakes that allowed the attack to happen and have plagued alleged attempts to prevent it from ever happening again (see the findings of the 9/11 commission, the ‘war on terror’ shifting focus to Iraq, etc…).

It’s not that we shouldn’t celebrate the good fortune and incredible will to live demonstrated by these survivors, nor that we should constantly wallow in misery as if forced to take penitence for a very necessary grief – ‘lest we forget’ is incredibly important, but looking ahead and into brighter, more positive directions is critical too.  And though it’s not always possible, what of the countless other victims in tragedies around the world we never hear of? Can we become so centred on our own grief surrounding a specific event that we begin to lose touch with larger, more important perspectives? I’m not sure I can answer that. But what I can offer, and maybe it is just me, is that I simply couldn’t separate myself long enough from the movie and other ‘real events’ surrounding that day to feel we yet ‘deserved’ the kind of inspiration on offer in World Trade Center when there is so much other focus, albeit grim, even five years on, that should more overwhelmingly command our attention.

Ultimately Stone delivers a powerful tale that it’s hard not to feel moved by, especially because we know that these men actually, physically went through this horrific ordeal. Occasionally, especially in his handling of the police officer’s rescuer -the former marine David Karnes- Stone does get a little heavy-handed with overly melodramatic and sentimental dialogue and music, but as compared to a bully like Anne Coulter I’m not so arrogant as to suggest what kind of emotions should or shouldn’t yet be attached to the events of 9/11 so long as we’re not drowning in self-satisfied flag waving and back-slapping that clouds our direction and rewrites history. That we can never do.

In the end I walked out of World Trade Center completely affected by the experience. I was sad for the incredible loss of human life and I was sad for the way in which the terrorist attacks permanently jolted so much of the world out of what had been an enjoyable and extended slumber of blissful ignorance. But most of all I started to get angry. I thought of the kind of arrogant, misguided and often corrupt leaders and decisions that allowed 9/11 to happen, and that have done so little in the aftermath to prevent the kind of tragedies I’d just so clearly been reminded of by Oliver Stone and company from being repeated. Maybe in this sense, if the movie can jolt us back into pursuing true priorities it will be a success, though given the way the right wing appears to now be moving to claim it as their own I’m not so sure.

What I do know is that World Trade Centre very much is about politics and it spoke most to me of one crystal clear reality, and that is this: we’re not even close to being out of the woods yet.