Preview: 'World Trade Center' Opens Soon

"World Trade Center" opens on Aug. 9, and now that I live in New York, there's a decidedly different vibe about 9/11 among those I'm surrounded by now than those I ran with previously in my native midwest. The few co-workers here with whom I've talked about it all agree that they don't want to see the movie.

But I will definitely see it. As tragic as it was and continues to be for so many families, there's no denying that Sept. 11 will forever figure prominently in American history. Saying that folks shouldn't see the movie is like saying we shouldn't include 9/11 in our children's history texts.

Sure there's a laughable disparity between school books and an Oliver Stone movie, but part of the complaint from 9/11 families is that "World Trade Center" is too real and too raw. This is indeed new criticism for Stone, known largely for departing reality and overdramatizing things just a touch. But it's probably welcome criticism as well, because something as sensitive as this needs to be told as accurately as possible.

And once that promise is made, I think seeing the movie becomes less of a choice and more of a requirement that every American must fulfill.

The prevailing anti-movie line is that there are thousands of still-grieving wives and husbands and children and parents, and such a project invades their privacy and hinders their efforts to try to move on and recover.

But this movie isn't about blame or government or oil or terrorism; it's about heroism and courage and survival, and I look forward to seeing if Stone can pull it off.

Will You See The Movie?