World Trade Center Movie

Seen at Yahoo news at noon on August 10, 2006: "European carriers cancel flights to U.K." It was the title of an AP article describing the effects of the terror attack, involving a plot to blow up airplanes in mid air, the U.K. says it foiled. The advertisement within the article was that of Oliver Stone's new movie "World Trade Center".

I take it advertisements are not assigned to articles so this ironic combination must be the result of a random choice. Somebody really should be checking this stuff, I don't believe this was the effect the WTC movie advertisers were looking for - or yet again, maybe they are.

When I walked out of the movie theater Wednesday night, I looked into the sky above the parking lot where I used to see the World Trade Towers. Jersey City's movie theater at the Newport Center mall, is a mere stone throw away from Manhattan. Until about five years ago, the World Trade Centre towers stuck out high above the mall, their scale giving them a sense of proximity although they were actually situated across the Hudson River on Manhattan ground.

I was wondering about the odds of something on this scale to ever happen again; I didn't have to wait long for the answer (although of course the execution of the plan could have taken a bit, given the alleged terrorists hadn't bought a plain ticket yet).

When entering the theater to see the WTC movie, one is expected to know what happened on 9-11-2001 and if not, lets say you are a visitor from out of space, only the TV news the various characters are watching will fill you in. The plot revolves around two Port Authority policemen and what they - and their families waiting for news from them - went through after being stuck in the towers' rubble. The two policemen were two of the twenty people rescued after the towers fell.

The ex marine who found the two men in the rubble claims a dominant spot at the end of the movie although he has few lines ("someone needs to revenge this" he tells his boss in Connecticut when explaining why he won't come in). Maybe it is the forceful way he said "for those of you who don't realize it, we are a nation at war". In the "two years later" portion of the movie, it is explained how he reenlisted and served in Iraq.

The police men, their fallen buddies and the people who rescued them are about the only ones portrait in this movie. The many that did not make it out of the towers are glanced at briefly when the family of the rescued officer passes by a wall of pictures of missing persons.

About 50 spectators watched the movie at Newport Mall late Wednesday night. While exciting, the comment most heard was "Too much drama." Still, the mostly young men in the theater had clapped at the end of the movie, so Stone must have done something right. I gather it was the fact that the movie concentrates on heroism and actually has some humor in it (the scene with Jesus and the water bottle comes to mind).

But a drama it was. What with the portrayal of two families' ordeal in what became known as the attack on America. If it weren't for the 9-11 theme, this movie might well be deemed a chick flick.

Many New Yorkers and New Jerseyans claim that this movie was made too soon or shouldn't have been made at all. They do not want to be reminded of the terror attack they say. Trying to forget will be hard to do with the alleged UK terror plot constantly in the news. America again is deemed under attack.

"Today our lives have changed," Brian Williams said on NBC's evening news. CNN must have been right Thursday morning when they said: "The rules have changed while you were sleeping." Judging by the reaction of the Americans on TV, giving up carrying water and toothpaste in their hand luggage, or who knows giving up carrying hand luggage at all, is something they are going to do in stride. It's already seen as a heroic deed in the fight of terrorism.

Heat Wave Drives Workers to Air Conditioned Workplace With a Smile

I was happy to come to work today", Fiona, a Curves gym technician in Jersey City, told me Wednesday morning, "I haven't slept well last night, here I have central air conditioning."

She wasn't the only one to tell me that story. In the supermarket, a man, lets call him Jose, was ticketing prices with gusto, "I can not imagine having to work outside now", he said.

Office workers seemed to walk from the PATH station to the office with even more jest of urgency in their stride than usual. Most women were carrying something with sleeves with them, because those air conditioned cubicles can get chilly.

Hamilton Park in Downtown Jersey City was virtually empty that day at noon and the usual hot dog and ice-cream salesmen were nowhere to be found. A lone maintenance worker was trying to catch a break on a bench under a tree. I didn't ask him how it felt to work in the 100 degree heat - not to mention the 114 heat index, because he was holding something with a long wooden stick.

I did what Mayor Bloomberg suggested in his press conference yesterday afternoon: "If you see somebody working outside in this heat, give them a smile."

It might not have helped to ease the pain, but the storm last night, knocking 20 degrees of the thermometer, sure did