Just two months before the film's release date, Paramount Pictures said it has softened the graphic death scene of a Port Authority police officer in Oliver Stone's “World Trade Center,” following criticism from the officer's widow.
Jeanette Pezzulo, whose husband, Dominick, was crushed by falling debris on Sept. 11, 2001, said a top Paramount official has told her the film studio decided to reduce the length of the scene and blur the moment her husband is struck by concrete.
Pezzulo has accused Paramount of exploiting her husband's death to dramatize the movie and increase box-office revenues. She said she will be grateful if the scene has been changed, but is skeptical.
“I appreciate the fact that (Paramount) did do that . . . if in fact that's what they truly did,” said Pezzulo, who lives in the Bronx.
She said she doesn't trust Paramount and still feels that a movie about the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center comes too soon after the event.
“We still weren't ready for it. We still don't want it,” she said, referring to her family's opposition to the film.
Paramount acknowledges that it has changed Dominick Pezzulo's death scene and that Jeanette Pezzulo was called to discuss her concerns, but a publicist for the studio denied the adjustments were made to placate the widow.
“We cut the scene the way it needed to be cut,” said publicist Jessica Rovins, who declined to detail the modifications. She said only that changes are routine in the editing process.
The movie – set for release on Aug. 9 – focuses on the survival of members of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's Police Department whom Dominick Pezzulo was trying to free from rubble when he was killed. They are Officer Will Jimeno and Sgt. John McLoughlin, who were the last people pulled alive from the Twin Towers' wreckage. The trio had formed an impromptu rescue team with two other officers, Christopher Amoroso and Antonio Rodrigues, who died in the collapse.
Jeanette Pezzulo and Amoroso's widow, Jamie, first criticized the movie in April when they accused Jimeno and McLoughlin of cashing in on the tragedy by working as paid consultants for Paramount, earning more than $200,000 each. They mostly blamed Jimeno, contending he befriended them after Sept. 11, sought information about their husbands, and failed to tell them for two years he had been working on the project. Jimeno said at the time that he did nothing wrong and was making the film to honor his fallen comrades.
