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CBS' 9/11 It was the perhaps the most intense two hours of broadcast television in history, maybe because it was so easy to see (and then feel) the pain and sorrow of those directly involved in the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, perhaps because all of America was affected by the events of that day. CBS-TV's recent (Sunday night) broadcast of 9/11 was shocking only in its ability to provide the brush strokes to the already-seen portrait of what it was like to be there at the World Trade Center when hell broke loose. The two French videomakers who started that morning taping A Day In the LIfe of Firefighters were rewarded with a most untypical day, and with some of the most valuable footage so far of terror at our door. The images were ghostly, ghastly and all too real. One remembers the emphasis given to the loud sound of bodies hitting the pavement while firefighters made plans to rescue all they could from the first tower hit by a hijacked plane. One remembers the deeply concerned Catholic chaplain as he helping make those plans, his body to be found near an elevator just minutes later. One remembers the middle aged, white businessman emerging dazed from the dusty rubble of the first tower's collapse, his tie askew, no coat, his glasses covered with ash -- still carrying his briefcase. But most of all one remembers the young New York City firefighter who lived through it all, saying his only option other than to continue to fight fires is to join the military. He prefers, he said, to save lives rather than take them. But after September 11th, if he's called on to kill -- he would do so. And finally one sees the fortuitous
circumstances that put the French filmmakers on the street at the twin
towers that day. Sad as it may be a commentary on the American memory and
how quickly it fades, it is indeed a blessing for our national psyche that
we will have these tapes to look back on in the future. And just when we
begin to forget the unimaginable horror of that day, we can see it, feel
it, remember those who died and Never Forget. |