I am glad that someone created this thread, as I was going to, but was OBE (Overcome By Events - governmentese for why things become irrelevent). The Juadet (sp?) brothers did a great job in just letting the film run, sometimes zooming to faces of men soon to be dead, of the Battalion Commanders sending them to their death, and of the "fog of war". Even when the first tower collapses, no one knows exactly what has happened, as they scramble to find a way out, bearing the body of their beloved Chaplain. Even as they emerge, they can't grasp what has happened, while the radio blares "Go with the May Day" (meaning "Get out now").

Back in '73, a much smaller skyscraper (28 floors) collapsed in Bailey's Crossroads, VA just south of DC. I was a volunteer EMT, back a couple of years from the Nam, and a member of the second-due unit on the scene. Half the building had collapsed, killing some forty men. It was under construction, and one wing had collapsed straight down, leaving the elevator staft and the other wing intact. The scenes of dust and confusion were very similar. Because I had been in combat, I and another former Marine named Belcher were sent to recover bodies from the bottom of an elevator shaft. After we rappeled into the shaft, they backed a backhoe into the shaft opening and and stuck the arm with a cocked bucket down the shaft, over our heads, to protect us. We pulled out 12 bodies in as many hours, and then fell asleep in the hose bed of one of the wagons. The next morning, when we discovered that no one had gone back into the shaft, Belcher and I went back and cleared four more bodies, before reaching the bottom of the shaft. When we came out of the shaft in the bucket, I was stunned at the devestation around the building, which I had not even noticed, though I had been there two days. To this day I suspect that I was so afraid of thinking any thought that might engender fear, or create a panic in my mind, that I did no real "thinking" at all. I saw the same behavior in the video, and am thankful to put aside one more of the unexplained mysteries of my life.

I believe these Frenchmen have a lock on an Oscar for Best Documentary. They were lucky, insightful and good at what they do. At one point, they have the only light working after the first collapse, and they lead the firemen to safety. When the second tower collapses, the Battalion Chief throws himself over the cameraman, thereby saving him. There are too many great moments in this film to ignore over evoking bad memories. Those of you in Europe have a real treat coming, even if the cost was way too high for any sane man to pay.