World Trade Center: Two-Disc Commemorative Edition

Paramount, color, 129 min. plus supplements, Dolby Digital 5.1, anamorphic widescreen, Street: Dec. 12, $39.99; First Run: W, Aug. 2006, $70 mil.; Also on HD DVD and Blu-ray ($39.99 each) with the same extras

The massive reconstruction of Ground Zero for Oliver Stone's tribute to the heroes of 9/11 comprises one of the more fascinating DVD extras we've seen in awhile. The film set, which was built in California, had to resemble the actual site and be flexible enough to allow for lighting and shooting in tight spaces—all while being safe for the crew to work on and around. The 25-minute featurette is one of several on this two-disc collector's edition, and kudos must go to DVD producer Charles Kiselyak for the impressive breadth of material. A longer documentary on the real-life rescue and painstaking recovery of Port Authority cops Will Jimeno and John McLoughlin includes interviews with not only the men and their wives and relatives, but their surgeons and rehabilitation therapists too. And the 53-minute making-of documentary is both thorough and heartfelt, featuring poignant interviews with the filmmakers, actors and real-life participants. The set also contains deleted scenes with or without Stone's commentary and two feature commentary tracks. The director's remarks are surprisingly dull—he spends a good minute discussing how cops and other early risers often wake up before their alarms go off—but Stone serves up the occasional peek behind the curtain. The second commentary features Jimeno and three rescuers, who provide amazing insight into the myriad of details World Trade Center captures before and after the collapse. Not surprisingly, McLoughlin, whom we learn is very quiet in real life, is absent. Though the set is a bit pricey for a mere two discs nowadays, there are several hours of material here, and it's mostly of very good quality.