Post by StevePulaski on Sept 11, 2011 15:51:58 GMT -5
Images from September 11, 2011 are firmly etched into our brains as explained in National Geographic: Inside 9/11: Zero Hour.
Rating: ★★★½
Michael Scheuer explains at the end of this riveting documentary that he doesn't believe the American people have any idea what a long and bloody road the recovery of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks is going to be. Sadly, ten years later, its gotten bloodier and there's no sign of ending. We are fighting two wars, in an anomaly of an economic depression, and a severe hike in food prices and gas prices is slowly taking effect. This road is not only bloody and long, but it's also costly to the American people.
Ever watch a horror movie, and minutes before something is about to happen, the creepy music settles in, an eerie silence is present, the characters turn pale and fearful, and then the scene you've been waiting for happens? BOOM. You go from all curled up to a full, whole-body flinch. In horror movies, that happens several times in one film. But that's what Inside 9/11: Zero Hour is like the entire picture. There is nothing but a unsettling feel to this whole documentary. When the planes hit the towers, hundreds of lives are brought to an end that very second. You can't help but just let out some sort of emotion like anger, sobs, devastation, or shock. One emotion consumes your whole body. That's the power of the attacks.
Inside 9/11: Zero Hour is the second part in a three part series called Inside 9/11 with part one being titled War on America and part three being called The War Continues. I chose to watch the second part, since it's solely about the terrorist attacks and what happened that day. The other two parts are pre/post information.
This part of the documentary goes almost minute by minute in explaining what happened the morning of the attacks. It's narrated exquisitely, and most of the scenes showing us how the towers burned, how the steel melted, and so on is captured through beta programs. The reenactment of the plane crashing in the Pennsylvania field is done by a flight simulator program. During the narrations, scenes of normal planes, normal office cubicles, and hallways are shown. Since there is no footage from inside the building, it all had to be painstakingly re-recorded by using just traditional places of business. The result is successful and well-executed.
Released recordings of 911 calls, calls down to the ground on planes, men/women talking to their spouses one last time, and more are all put to use here. Those are the parts where the tears start to flow, and your emotions consume you.
One of my favorite parts was when a Muslim man was running away from the storm of debris the South Tower made when it collapsed. The Muslim man explains he was running when he either tripped in a pothole or just fell over himself. He was picked up and carried by no other than a Jewish man who returned him to safety. It shows that Terrorism is evil, but humanity is beautiful. Would you have done a similar act?
September 11 programs are better when they are documentaries and not Hollywood films. Oliver Stone's World Trade Center was a film that wasn't made perfectly, but I awarded it four stars because it captured everything it had to in a very honest and a very sincere manner. Documentaries can show authentic scenes, images, and recordings to establish the truth. In film, everything has to be recreated - and that can be a hit or miss procedure.
It's rare to find a non-political documentary on an event as monumental as this, but National Geographic manages to keep politics out of the question. It never leans towards Republican or Democratic sides, and that's how I want it to stay. 9/11 was a national tragedy that left New York in ruins, the state in trouble, and the country in despair. A Republican or a Democrat will tell you no different. There's no reason to bog down the events using a political voice. That's not the point.
National Geographic's phenomenal documentary shocks, saddens, but also schools anyone who thinks they know everything there is to know about the attacks. You learn things, and you can't help but reflect on the day and where you were at the time the first tower was hit. To quote Alan Jackson, "Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day?"
Produced by: National Geographic.