Perfect cast and a good story

Great Film overall

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

I remember 9/11, in the UK I just finished college and was getting the bus when some people were saying they got text messages from other friends telling them someone attacked the twin towers. When i got home I found my younger brother glued to the TV telling me one of the towers were burning away, I saw it and I was in disbelief.In the same way this is how the documentary starts with a surprise on seeing the tower on fire, nobody knowing of yet how it hit at the time. That was at 8:46am people just got up to leave home, and on the other side of the Atlantic I was on my way back home.The style of the program is cameras from camermen on the ground as well as civilian footage, the reactions of anger, fear and more all seen and absorbed to this footage. Then you see the fires, the jumpers, the second crash, the fall of the tower, the dust, the second collapse and a final dust sweeping over new york.What was perhaps the greatest shock was seeing the full devastation the dust brought, covering all streets in dirty brown dust, water is dirty, windows smashed and an entire scenery which bears no resemblance to the New York we all know and love. To be there at time must had been terrifying, and no Hollywood film could replicate the fear the events brought as shown from eyes of ordinary people.This film serves just as much an educational purpose as it does retelling the events.

I am literally in awe of this film. The dynamics are so extreme, the images not only heartbreaking and historic, but the definition of a tragic day that defines a generation. While difficult to take it all in, you can not take away from the heroes, the struggle people went through and the sheer collective overwhelming sense of panic and loss. It is as though you are there, but witnessing it from afar. I can see why this won all four of it's Emmy Awards, especially for the editing and sound editing and mixing - all of which are nothing less than top notch. One of the best made films of the year. This film captures the humanity as well as the force and power of science. When it tells you to move, you move. The pace of this is a phenomenal display of the events it shows. Bravo!

Channel 4 has absolutely surpassed itself in screening this moving and extremely challenging documentary. For two hours, image after image took one's breath away as we saw real (but mostly very high quality) video footage of the twin towers collapse from 8.45 am until 10 29 am. Played sequentially with views from all angles including actually inside the towers it was heart stopping television.I think one thing that made it so powerful was its lack of commentary and opinion. It was not a political film, simply an unfolding of an event in something like real time. Some might say it was the extremest form of voyeuristic television but I thought it was a work of true skill and, indeed, art. I should make special mention of the constant but very subtle musical underscore, by Brendon Anderegg, which was quite beautiful. Someone call the BAFTAs. (And the Academy, and the Emmys.) Truly magnificent TV.

There have been many documentary about 9/11 since the attack. This one took the idea of the TV show "24" and showed the events from seconds after the 1st plane hit up to about 100 min thereafter in real time. The footage used were mostly from personal camcorders, and some from TV. The audios were either directly from the camcorders, from the media coverage or phone conversations sound bites at the moment. What was interesting about the documentary is that the point of view is not at the Twin Towers, but away from the Twin Towers. You see people in Time Square watched it on the outdoor large screen. You see students watching the event from Stevens Institute across the river in Hoboken, NJ. You see how people reacted in their apartments far away from the Twin Tower. In a way, the documentary is not just about 9/11, but an anthropological view of the people's reaction upon crisis. The editing job of putting all these material together was superb.