BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video

Subject: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: SharonA
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 12:09 PM

Did anyone else watch the 2-hour television special last night (March 10th), hosted by Robert DeNiro, showing video footage from "Ground Zero" (the World Trade Center in New York City) during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001?

The video was shot by two French brothers who had been making a documentary since June 2001 following a rookie firefighter's progress starting on his first day on the job and continuing for the next 9 months. One of these brothers was the one who recorded the first collision of the airliner with Tower 1 while taping firefighters investigating a gas leak in the street below.

The special included some amazing – and shocking – images. Kudos to CBS for not "bleeping" out the foul language in the video footage, but instead letting it stand as part of the testament to the high emotions of the people whose lives were on the line during this tragedy.

Subject: RE: BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: Wesley S
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 01:40 PM

I saw it too. I was also pleased by the fact that it had limited commercial breaks. Three of them - and they were short. I'm glad I saw it - but I can't say I "enjoyed" it. There were some very disturbing images.

Subject: RE: BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: PeteBoom
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 01:56 PM

I saw it, too.

The amazing thing was the courage of those going into harm's way. The dismay and concern of the chiefs at the command center was obvious as things got progressively worse - not for themselves directly, but for their crews. The automatic recall issued by the battalion chief to his crews to withdraw from tower 1 after tower 2 collapsed, even though he did not know what was going on.

There were disturbing images - and sounds. The juxtaposition between what was going on inside the lobby and what was going on outside was really well done.

Pete

Subject: RE: BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: SharonA
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 02:12 PM

Yes, indeed, the sounds.... particularly the loud sounds of the people who had jumped from the building, as they landed. The startled, shocked expression on the firefighters' faces each time that happened, and the comment from the one firefighter who recalled his thoughts then: "How bad must it be up there that the better option is to jump?"

Subject: RE: BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: GUEST,Chip A.
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 02:23 PM

Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I cried over it all over again. Kinda' helps keep things in perspective. It really did happen, didn't it!? I'm very glad that this was aired. Very hard to watch but very important that we see and remember.

Chip A.

Subject: RE: BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: Desdemona
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 03:57 PM

I did see part of it, but 2 of my kids were still up, and I didn't want them seeing it so I switched off.

In so many ways the whole thing is surreal---it seems like it was 100 years ago, because it's become so much a part of our contemporary vocabulary & frame of reference now; some wise person once said you can get used to anything, and I guess we've come to assimilate what was absolutely unthinkable 6 months ago into our collective consciousness.

And yet at the same time, it seems like yesterday, like today; with the news on this morning as I got ready for another "normal" day, it all came back in a very immediate way: the fear, the disbelief, the sense of "oh my god what will happen NEXT?!" I literally ran out of my office & got my kids out of school; sitting in front of the television open-mouthed....unbelievable.

I remember what I wore that day, & walking out the door--it was a beautiful day, one of those mornings when everything's running like clockwork, and you never see it coming. It really happened, and not so long ago, either.

Subject: RE: BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: Ebbie
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 04:36 PM

I saw it too, and taped it. And Chip, I too cried, all over again. And I agree- I didn't 'enjoy' the documentary but it's one of those events that need to be absorbed, I think.

I won't forget the pops as human beings landed from far above and the visible cringe of the firefighters at each one. Or the embraces of the firefighters as each one returned to the fire house that day.

Subject: RE: BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 04:51 PM

I avoided it and from what you've all posted, I am glad I did. I can remember without having any more horrible images in my mind. I wonder how the survivors and the families of those who died felt about it? Seems it would be almost like tearing a scab off of a wound and digging it.

Sorry, just the way I see it.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: Skipper Jack
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 05:05 PM

I think that this video is being shown in the UK later this year.

It is strange to recall that I went to my local garage to collect my car (here in the UK) on the afternoon of the terrorist attack. I really thought that I was watching a disaster movie until the garage receptionist told me what was happening.

Naturally, when I got home I switched on the television and the real horror of it struck home.

I don't think that I would want to watch it all over again.

Subject: RE: BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: Ebbie
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 05:16 PM

Keep in mind that graphic images were not shown. The horror was in what was implied. There was a story within the story of the evils of which mankind is capable, and that story showed the love and connection of people one to another.

Ebbie

Subject: RE: BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 05:27 PM

I don't think it was valuable so much as a reminder of the horror, as it was a humanizing of the firefighters who were involved in the event. You came to know and identify with these guys as human beings caught in incredible circumstances. It brought home the camaraderie, loyalty and humor of these men who have been placed on pedestals as "heroes". Heroes they are, but of the type that lives next door.

Subject: RE: BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: SharonA
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 05:59 PM

Well put, LEJ. The first part of the program mirrored the first part of the intended documentary, and we were introduced to and familiarized with the firefighters of one station and their daily routine. They fought a few minor fires, they attended the funeral of a rookie fireman from another station who died on duty in late summer, they cooked meals and cleaned the barracks and joked with one another.

All the while, the videographers followed them around, and that's what happened on the 11th. One of the French brothers followed the chief into Tower 1, the other was filming on the street and in the firehouse. One part of the drama of this story was that, while the firefighters became separated and wondered whether their comrades were alive, each of the Frenchmen was unsure whether his brother survived (fortunately, no one from that particular fire station was lost, though the rookie was unaccounted for for some 6 hours). This was also the story of the French brothers becoming accepted into the group of firefighters, as brothers of them all.

Subject: RE: BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: Nancy King
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 07:55 PM

I was absolutely riveted. It was different from watching yet again the same news footage we've all seen a hundred times. There were, of course, shots of the buildings burning and collapsing, and the only known video of the first plane strike, but by far the greatest emphasis was on the people--the firefighters who were trying to deal with the unthinkable. First the routine life in the station before 9/11, then the chaos and horror of that morning, then the suspense and relief as each of the men from the station came back in, one by one, and then the letdown in the next few days when they realized there were virtually no survivors in the rubble.

No pictures of bodies or other gore, though some of the firemen described what they saw. One of the filmmakers said he made a conscious decision on the spot not to film bodies. "There are some things people should not see," he said. I give them great marks for good taste and for a terrific film. I'm glad I watched.

Nancy

Subject: RE: BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: Bobert
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 08:30 PM

I'm kinda feeling like Kat. If going back to this horrible event will help people put it behind them and move on, fine. But I think there are alot of people, other than folks who lost loved ones, who have become locked onto this tragedy, and are not going to get on with their lives, which is also tragic.

Subject: RE: BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 08:36 PM

Well, I am glad to hear they did not film bodies, but just the two descriptions of the sounds, written here, of bodies hitting the pavement, sickened me enough I know I could not have watched it. Sometimes leaving much to the imagination can be worse than the real thing, esp. if one is sensitive to sound as I would expect we all are, as musicians.

Subject: RE: BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 09:16 PM

I enjoyed the documentary in the same way as I enjoy a shot of penicillin. You don't look forward to it and it may not be easy to take but the results are important. Like penicillin, it isn't for everybody.

I didn't plan to watch the show for the very reasons that Kat mentioned above. However I decided to take a peek and I was astounded. I really think that the value of this show will be in how it plays to future generations. It is impossible to describe the feelings of what happened to America on the day of the Kennedy or King asassinations to people who didn't live throught it. I will never know what it felt like to live through WWII or the depression. However with this documentary I really believe future audiences WILL feel a part of what happened on 9/11. The camera and microphones captured the heroics, the fears, and the mood of this nation on that day. This will be recognized as one of the most important documentaries of the 20th century.

I live in NJ and felt the tragedy with eveyone else. My wife could see the towers engulfed in smoke from her office. My brother-in-law lives a couple of blocks away and was among those who had to run to safety. These are all incidental touches. All the stories I've heard could not put this tragedy into focus as well as the documentary was able to.

I agree that some people probably aren't ready to watch something like this and I respect that. I think the comments of those that watched the documentary support how important this was. Witnessing the heroes in the fire department will forever be a example to the rest of us.

Subject: RE: BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: GUEST,Claymore
Date: 12 Mar 02 - 05:32 PM

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.

Subject: RE: BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: Peg
Date: 12 Mar 02 - 11:51 PM

I was unable to watch and my remote is not working to tape. I am glad to hear it was so powerful. I think about this event in some way evey single day.

If anyone who viewed it and taped it could make me a copy please PM me.

Peg

Subject: RE: BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: Pseudolus
Date: 21 Mar 02 - 01:50 PM

I've been trying to find someone who saw and taped this that would be willing to make me a copy as well. If someone did, could you PM me? thanks.....

Frank

Subject: RE: BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: Mrrzy
Date: 21 Mar 02 - 02:03 PM

Yes, me too. I missed it (other horrors intervened) but I would like to see it.

Subject: RE: BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: SharonA
Date: 21 Mar 02 - 02:18 PM

My co-worker's father taped it, but she's not sure whether he has already taped over it or not...

Subject: RE: BS: CBS TV show 3/10: Ground Zero video
From: SINSULL
Date: 21 Mar 02 - 02:36 PM

They also had the only footage of the first plane hitting the tower. I had not seen that before.

I needed to watch this just to try to put some sense of order and sequence of events to that day. I found it oddly reassuring to be able to see events unfold from beginning to end. I came away with a feeling of comprehension and control.
I don't cry anymore. It took me a week to cry when the towers first fell. And several days to stop.