9/11 [VHS] [2002]

The first 25 minutes of "9/11" are rather uneventful as one would expect for Benetatos's first weeks on the job. It didn't involve any major disasters. As the Naudets say during the film, most of the footage that they had involved watching the firefighters cooking and eating and cleaning the firehouse.

On the morning ofSept. 11, Jules Naudet followed a couple of crew chiefs on a routine inspection of gas outlets in the streets of NYC. Unusually loud airplane engines, signaling their low-altitude presence, caught Jules' attenetion while he happened to look up through his video camera. Thus he captured the only known footage of the first airplane crashing into the World Trade Tower. Meanwhile, his brother Gedeon, who was still at the firehouse, began making his way towards the WTC on foot. Accompanied by their firefighter friends, both brothers captured extraordinary footage of what was to become "Ground Zero."

One brother was in the lobby of WTC Tower 1 just as the firefighters began planning their rescue operations. When the towers collapsed, one of the Naudets was actually trapped inside the lobby of one of the towers, while the other brother was right outside of the 1st tower when it collapsed. He was almost buried by the falling debris, as a thick cloud of dust and smoke engulfs him and his camera.

Some of "9/11" is difficult to watch. The awful sound of bodies slamming into the ground, falling from above the 85th floor. The area around the WTC looks like nuclear winter had descended upon Earth, mixed with heart-wrenching shots of fallen heroes who had just given their lives to save others.

There's the devastating story of how the Naudet brothers think that the other one may have died under the fallen buildings. When it turns out that miraculously no one from Battalion One was missing, one of the Naudets remembers how a firefighter told him, "Yesterday, you had 1 brother. Today, you have 50."

Brothers Jules and Gedeon Naudet were filming a piece about Firefighters in New York City and had picked one rookie Tony, who they were going to follow through his 9 month probationary period from fresh-faced applicant right through to his becoming a Fireperson in his own right, so for the first 20 minutes or so it's a regular film about Fire station life. Then everything changes.....

The firefighters get called out to a routine gas check and it's then that you hear what sounds like a low-flying plane directly overhead. One of the firefighters remarks on it because you don't normally get planes flying over Manhattan and by the time the camera is turned in the direction of the plane, you see it slicing into one of the Twin Towers. Then you get to see the firefighters as they are racing through the City and towards Tower 1 and already the sky is thick with smoke and people are rushing out onto the streets to see what is going on.

One of the brothers films from INSIDE Tower 1 (the only footage anywhere of what was happening from inside the WTC) while the other brother takes his camera out onto the streets where you get to see firsthand reactions from the New Yorkers who are gathered there. Inside the Tower you see debris strewn everywhere and people running about trying to get out. It's harrowing to watch and especially because every minute or so, you hear very loud thuds echoing across the lobby of the WTC and these are people's bodies as they hit the building, having either jumped from or fallen out from the top 20 storeys or so.

It's not only a film about the tragedy that befell NYC on that day but also about the bravery of the Firefighters who risked life and limb to go in there to get people out. James Hanlon (a firefighter with the company that Jules and Gedeon were filming for) supplies a voiceover for parts of the documentary and interspliced with this are clips of the Fire Station itself and of other Firepersons whose lives were impacted and affected on that fateful day.

I would recommend anyone to watch this because it's something that I believe everyone should see. You also get to hear the sound of Tower 2 coming down from inside Tower 1 and then you see as they battle to find an exit from where they find themselves. You are then taken through the lobby of the building and outside where you are confronted by the full horror of the scene, there are what looks like bodies strewn on the ground and even more debris and white dust. You then walk out and can see the remaining Tower still standing but on fire. Several minutes later, this too comes down and you see the cameraman running with all of the Firepersons and then laying down in front of a truck for protection as yet more debris rains down on the stricken City.

It's a brilliant documentary that gives you the inside track on what happened that day. You see NYC just hours before and there's an almost idyllic calm as the sun comes up over Manhattan, you are then shown the fire crews as they busy themselves for the approaching day, you see them as they realise the full horror of what is transpiring as soon as the first plane hits the WTC and you see the people of NYC attempting to make some sense of what is happening as it's happening. This is essential viewing and cannot come more highly recommended.