Oliver Stone is teaming up with Nicolas Cage to bring us a movie about September 11th. Cage is playing a fire fighter who's very much a "John Wayne" type. The movie takes place within a 24 hour period and portrays the events of that fateful and tragic day.

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=21776

Is this appropriate? I mean, it's been four years now, the world is going to hell in a hand basket because of what happened in 2001. It's not fifty years later with some distance and perspective like Pearl Harbor.

Is someone like Oliver Stone, who gave us Platoon, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors, JFK, Nixon and Natural Born Killers going to give "World Trade Center" the type of reverence it deserves? I mean, those deaths are STILL very fresh in the hearts and minds of the loved ones they left behind. I just see this as another attempt to exploit the tragedies of our world for mass consumption and entertainment.

I know this is completely off topic, but is the world really going to hell in a hand basket? These are complex times, but that is true about any period in history. The number of people throughout the world dying in wars has been trending down for years. There is no worldwide economic depression. There are some obvious problems in the world, but I do not know why so many people subscribe to this gloom and doom rhetoric.

As for the movie, it is a free country. Stone can make whatever movie he wants, and if people are offended and do not want to see the movie they have a right not to see it.

Box office receipts will tell. I doubt it will do well, as people are rather sick of watching the events over and over again in the media. Why pay to be tortured?

Hey Billie Jean, good to see you’re back and good luck with the independent movie gig!

Is this appropriate?

Tough question. There was a day when things like this were given time but to Nemov’s point in this society they’re free to pursue the movie. Still doesn’t necessarily make it right but certainly their prerogative, consumers will determine if it’s too early. They made WW II movies before the war had ended.

Is someone like Oliver Stone, who gave us Platoon, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors, JFK, Nixon and Natural Born Killers going to give "World Trade Center" the type of reverence it deserves?

I like Stone’s movies, he’s a pretty crafty film maker and story teller. With Cage as the lead I’d speculate the movie might edge towards the darker side of the story (I read where he was playing a policeman).

This tragedy means so many different things to so many different people. Since there are multiple angles and perspectives that can be presented with this story it will be interesting to see how Stone handles it. But that also means he won’t be able to please everyone no matter what he does.

I like Stone also, he's a great director and I enjoy his films. But, I know that he also likes to push buttons and make people "think" outside the box. My only concern, as I mentioned before hand, is that I thinks it's just poor taste to make a "profit" and commercialize those 3,000 deaths when the families of the victims still are in the relatively early stages of mourning.


I know this is completely off topic, but is the world really going to hell in a hand basket? .....There are some obvious problems in the world, but I do not know why so many people subscribe to this gloom and doom rhetoric.

Yeah, a little off topic. To me, yes, the world is going to hell in a hand basket and all parties involved are suspect, imo.

Obvious problems? That's an understatement.

maybe someone could start this as a debate. when were things not “going to hell in a hand basket?”

:: Insert “we didn’t start the fire” by Billy Joel here ::

Was it during the Cold War, Vietnam, Korea, Segregation, WW2, Great Depression, WWI… I could go on and on. That’s not even mentioning the threat of disease and infant mortality that has decreased over the past few decades. If I had to pick a period of American history or world history to live in, it would be now. Perhaps it is not so perceptionally obvious as I thought. If things are bad now, I’m thankful I didn’t live then.

Perhaps I’m too optimistic.