Saturday Night Cinema: 9/11

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Tonight's Saturday Night Cinema is 9/11, the day of horror caught by chance by a French film crew documenting the 9-month rite of passage of a newbie firefighter. Instead, we witness firsthand the actions the heroes who gave their lives to save their countrymen in the worst-ever attack on American soil in our nation's history. Jihad had come to America. This is a searing historical document. I have seen it many times. It shakes me still and reminds me how monstrous and evil the enemy is.

Also, please see also the documentary on how the victims trapped in the World Trade Center were forced to choose their method of execution, burning to death or jumping. Watch here: 911 The Falling Man

This film is the "accidental documentary" made by French brothers and film makers, Gedeon and Jules Naudet. The brothers were making a film about a young fire fighter during his 9-month probationary period. With the help of their friend, firefighter James Hanlon, there were given nearly unlimited access to all the goings-on at the firehouse, Engine 7, Ladder 1, on Duane Street in Lower Manhattan, less than ten blocks from the World Trade Center. Little did the brothers know that they would be the witness to history, just three months after they began their project.

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Gedeon is the older brother, and the avid film maker. But, by the time of 9/11, an additional camera had been purchased for Jules for "camera practice." Jules is with the Battalion Chief, Joseph Pfeifer, and 13 other fire fighters from the house, filming as they investigate an odor of gas at 8:46 am on Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001. They are standing in the path of the plane as it flies over and hits Tower 1, and Jules is filming the entire time. His is the only footage of the attack on Tower 1. The reaction of the firefighters is immediate, as they take off for the Trade Center, a place they previously would visit up to five times a day on a shift. They know the Trade Center perhaps better than any other firehouse in Manhattan. But, nothing has prepared them for this.

What transpires is the only known footage of the struggle of the firefighters inside Tower 1 as they try to figure out what to do in the chaos and confusion. They had seen it all, they thought, but this was something they hadn't prepared for. The film is very sensitively edited, so you don't see the blood or the gore or the bodies, you only hear about them. The focus in this film is on the brotherhood of the firemen, what was going on in the towers while the rest of the world looked on, helplessly. How men who make less money than half of the City are the ones who rush into the burning buildings, and who do not hesitate to lay down their lives while saving others. It is the tale of a true brotherhood, of men who are doing jobs handed down to them from generations before. It is more than a story of 9/11, it is the story of the world of New York fire fighters.

Before 9/11 happens, we see the inside of the firehouse, how the young "Probie", Tony Benatanos, is brought into the fold, how the firemen interact and eat together and needle each other. The French brothers did not set out to make a documentary on 9/11, certainly, but fate dealt a hand. This is the most extensive, mind-boggling film, and the DVD contains extended interviews with the firemen, who have seen so much, but still seem to be in shock about what they saw that day.

James Hanlon narrates this film beautifully, and the brothers are interviewed describing that terrible day. The firemen are truly amazing, the footage is incredible, and, if you only see one documentary on this horrible day, this is the one to see. It truly portrays the victims, the heroes, and the survivors sensitively, honestly, and shockingly. It is unforgettable.

President Obama's ban on al qaeda and jihad, Bloomberg's ban on clergy and first responders will not stand. Come to the real 911 ceremony of remembrance at Ground Zero on 911 at 3:00pm on Park Place and West Broadway.

It is incumbent upon every American to remember and honor our war dead. Never forget. Join us as we honor the victims and rededicate ourselves to fighting for freedom on September 11 at West Broadway and Park Place at our 911 Freedom Rally. One 9/11 family member remarked: “I am looking forward to the rally. It is a place we can be free to really remember the who, why, when and where of 9/11. The morning ceremony” – that is, the official ceremony, from which clergy and 9/11 first responders – “is devoid of any meaning.”

AFDI/SIOA 9/11 Freedom Rally Welcomes Clergy, First Responders, 9/11 Family Members Banned From Official Ceremonies Reuters

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lilredbird
lilredbird
12 years ago

This to me is still the most powerful of the 9/11 videos. But do you remember when this was first shown a short time after 9/11 so many people asking, “Are you going to watch it?” as if it would be wrong somehow to witness what these monsters did to our country. As if it was somehow disrespectful to witness what the people at WTC went through and the last minutes of our hero responders. Maybe that was the first sign, along with Bush’s “religion of peace” gaff, that something was going to go terribly wrong in our level of resolve. “Are you going to watch it?” Hell yes. I want it “everlastingly burned into my memory” to quote another witness to cruelty and horror.
To never forget, you must know exactly what you are remembering.

Spiritof1776
Spiritof1776
12 years ago

Thank you Pam for giving us this first hand account. Now we know just a taste
of what these great men went through. God Bless them all!
God bless those who lost family members. We will never forget! And we also
will never forget who did this to us.
God Bless America!

Nat's daughter
Nat's daughter
12 years ago

Every American adult and child should be forced to watch this! Remind them of the barbarism of “the religion of peace”. Call it what is is…WAR!

lilredbird
lilredbird
12 years ago

I’m sitting here with a aching barely healing broken foot fighting the urge to go get back in the car and drive to NY anyway even though I know I can’t stand through a 3-hour rally and drive home safely (having tried driving while asleep smack into a “phone tree” 6 years ago, month-long hospital stay resulting) because I live up in the Boston area and we have NOTHING going on tomorrow. Nothing. A few wreath-layings and flag-lowerings. No rally against sharia on Boston Common, nothing in my town where the men who rowed Washington across the Delaware in 1776 are buried, no protest in front of the huge effing Muslim-Brotherhood financed mosque over in Roxbury. Nothing. And if I see one more story about how we aren’t doing enough to make the ragheads feel loved and welcomed I’m liable to wind up over at the nearest major media outlet throwing bottles through windows. I’m disgusted with these people.

bom
bom
12 years ago

9/11 was a sucker punch on America by Islam. This attack stunned our great country and while we have been climbing back to our feet, it is like the judges at the scorer’s table have been replaced by Muslims and the referee in the ring is an Islam-sympathizing Barack Obama.
We all know that Obama is in on this whole scheme. He desires that America submits to Islam. He wants to see our freedoms extinguished.
Americans – we must FIGHT! We must NOT SUBMIT AT ALL.
Become a member of SIOA, join ACT! for America, do EVERYTHING YOU CAN to push back against these savages!
Before it’s too late.

James
James
12 years ago

Thank you Pamela. This should be shown in every classroom across the country. Maybe then the whole country can realize the horrendous evil we face and MUST DEFEAT!

Jamadagnii
Jamadagnii
12 years ago

The events of that day, as horrific as they were, were also a moment in which an opening occurred in our national consciousness. But after ten years it appears that only those who are willing to accept the real horrors of that day are witnesses to that opening.
The shock that so many lives and life’s normality could be so quickly destroyed, and that we as Americans could be so hated that there are people who could perpetrate such an horrific crime against us are lessons we should not quickly forget. The fact that ten years later there are so many people in positions of power in our own country who choose to ignore those facts is in itself a stark and stunning reminder of the insidious danger of Moral Relativism or the moral ambivalence of multiculturalism. This is the true danger of those who want us to get over 9-11, that we miss the opportunity to rededicate ourselves to American and Universal Rights.

fern
fern
12 years ago

Hope your foot heals soon Lilredbird.

fern
fern
12 years ago

Best wishes from the U.K.
Stay safe everyone x

Barb
Barb
12 years ago

Say what? You wouldn’t be another apologist–like our esteemed leader, would you? Excuse me for a moment, while I throw up…

Nicola Timmerman
Nicola Timmerman
12 years ago

The original version has a scene where the French brothers prepare a meal of lamb for the firemen and woefully underestimate the amount of food needed to feed all those hungry men. There are comic moments like that in the film.
It is so amazing and touching a film, especially at the end when the narrator says he knows that the probie is no longer a boy but a man because after all he had gone through he was not bragging at all about what he did.
By the way there are websites that contest the validity of this film, that it was all faked. Incredible.

Jamadagnii
Jamadagnii
12 years ago

No, on the contrary not an apology, just a poorly expressed idea. What I meant to say is that after having experienced evil first hand, there are many Americans who have gone past the confusion of thinking that all cultures are relatively equal. There is a greater sense of the greatness of our nation and a gratitude for our freedoms and the sacrifices others have made for our benefit.

qatmom
qatmom
12 years ago

I, too, have seen this film many times. It is the most powerful documentary about 9/11 that I have seen. It is straightforward, matter-of-fact, and utterly gut-wrenching every viewing. Highly recommended.

Ksidigarba
Ksidigarba
12 years ago

A day of national humiliation. The humilation won’t be de-humiliated if America remains asleep !!

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