Rating: 
Summary: A Breathtaking Look at the Attacks on 9/11
Review: On September 11, 2001, two planes crashed into the WTC. This is a film that is unlike all the rest. It is an amazing look back every time you watch it. This DVD includes the expandend version of the film, 129 minutes. It includes a whole hour never seen on CBS. 9/11 begins with following a New York firefighter thorough his nine month probitionary period. Jules and Gedeon Naudet are the filmakers. The original plan was to make a documentary on a firefighter, instead of 9/11. Of 99 "probies," the choose Tony Benatadoes. When arriving at his firehouse, engine 7, ladder 1 downtown, he barely fought any fires.They follow him all the way the original plan to 9/10/01. The next day, the firefighters are called out. Jules takes his camera for camera practice. The firefighters went to the odor of gas in the street a few minutes away from the WTC. At 8:46 A.M, a plane engine was heard. Jules tilts his camera up just in time to film the only existing footage of the plane hitting tower 1. They got in the car and rode down to the WTC. Jules asks Batallion Chief Joseph Pfiefer if he could come into the lobby. He let him. You see the inside of the lobby after the plane hit. All the windows were blown out. The elevators were blocked out, so they had to climb 80 stories to get to the fire. Then, a second plane hit. This time, it was tower 2. Chunks of the plane engine landed blocks away. Gedeon was at the firehouse with Tony. He wondered where his brother was. Soon, in the lobby of twoer 1, the second tower fell. They were in the lobby and ran. They had to get out. When they got out, they plotted their next move. But next, the first tower fell. They saw it collapse, and ran. Soon Gedeon realizes, where's my brother? They get back to the firehouse, and he asks if anybody has seen Jules? He showed up behind him. Gedeon was happy. But then they realized, Where is Tony? Tony went with the retired chief and returned safely. The next day, they had to go back to dig for surviviors. Barely any were found. At the end of the program, there is a tribute to all of the firefighters that lost their lives on September 11. That ends the show. Also on this disk, there are interviews. These 16 minute interviews explore more in depth of what happens. That ends this filmaker's commerative edition. I rate this show five stars. This is the best 9/11 documentary I have seen. SO I urge you to get it.
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps the best documentary on 9/11
Review: 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. 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.
Rating:
Summary: Support A Good Cause Too
Review: According to Paramount Home Video: "A portion of the proceeds from the sale of '9/11 : the Filmmakers' Commemorative Edition' will be donated to the Uniformed Firefighters Association Scholarship Fund."
Rating:
Summary: ONLY DOCUMENTARY ON 9/11
Review: Of course, when the Naudet brothers visited the United States from their native France, they did not expect to make a film about the terrorist attack on New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. Rather, they simply had planned to film the journey of Antonio "Tony" Benetatos from being a probationary firefighter (or "probie") to a full-fledged firefighter. The first 25 minutes of "9/11" are rather uneventful as one would expect for Benetatos's first weeks on the job. It didn't involve any major disasters. As the Naudets say during the film, most of the footage that they had involved watching the firefighters cooking and eating and cleaning the firehouse. On the morning ofSept. 11, Jules Naudet followed a couple of crew chiefs on a routine inspection of gas outlets in the streets of NYC. Unusually loud airplane engines, signaling their low-altitude presence, caught Jules' attenetion while he happened to look up through his video camera. Thus he captured the only known footage of the first airplane crashing into the World Trade Tower. Meanwhile, his brother Gedeon, who was still at the firehouse, began making his way towards the WTC on foot. Accompanied by their firefighter friends, both brothers captured extraordinary footage of what was to become "Ground Zero." One brother was in the lobby of WTC Tower 1 just as the firefighters began planning their rescue operations. When the towers collapsed, one of the Naudets was actually trapped inside the lobby of one of the towers, while the other brother was right outside of the 1st tower when it collapsed. He was almost buried by the falling debris, as a thick cloud of dust and smoke engulfs him and his camera. Some of "9/11" is difficult to watch. The awful sound of bodies slamming into the ground, falling from above the 85th floor. The area around the WTC looks like nuclear winter had descended upon Earth, mixed with heart-wrenching shots of fallen heroes who had just given their lives to save others. There's the devastating story of how the Naudet brothers think that the other one may have died under the fallen buildings. When it turns out that miraculously no one from Battalion One was missing, one of the Naudets remembers how a firefighter told him, "Yesterday, you had 1 brother. Today, you have 50."
Rating:
Summary: Simply Unbelievable
Review: I've always been a visual person.. in school, at work, I always have to see things in order to make sense of them. 9/11 was no different. I, like most people around the world, was glued to the TV for days after 9/11, watching stories of survivors and of those lost, piecing together what had happened in an attempt to fully understand what happened. Unlike most media coverage of 9/11, this DVD focuses on one of the many families in NYC - that of a firehouse 7 blocks from what was once the WTC. The brothers who made this had been invited in pre-9/11 to make a documentary of the 'coming-of-age' of a junior firefighter who joins the department as a "proby" .. but as with everything else in the world on 9/11, took a completely different form after the first plane hit Tower 1 of the WTC. It is heartbreaking, inspiring, horrifying and even uplifting all at the same time. The company documented was indeed rare - all of its fighters lived to tell their stories (often as voice-overs for amazing footage taken from inside Tower 1 as everything was going on) and through the sights and sounds captured, 9/11 makes a bit more sense. The word "hero" has been thrown around a lot in the last year, describing everyone from firefighters to postal workers and volunteers. But to see these guys go into the buildings and selflessy go about doing their work is the most inspiring thing I've seen since 9/11. While it's sometimes hard to watch, it puts the horrible events in NYC on that day into perspective, and makes you realize that if people who barely escaped with their lives - in spite of losing so many others - can go on, so can the rest of us.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent DVD
Review: This was a fantastic programme. It has been one of the fewer programmes that made me cry watching it. We got to know the workers at the firehouse before the attacks so I felt I knew them personally and we got to see them working at ground zero afterwards. This is an amazing piece of work by everyone involved.
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps the best documentary on 9/11
Review: 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. 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.
Rating:
Summary: A fitting tribute to the FDNY
Review: I managed to get hold of this DVD recently. It took me a few days to get up the courage to watch it as I was worried about reliving so many of the horrible memories of that day. Although this DVD is upsetting, it is an incredible documentary (all the more so as it captured the only image of the first plane crashing into the WTC) and in my view probably the best documentary to show future generations when they ask "What happened on September 11th?" It is a look at that tragic day's events as they unfolded, with all the sense of chaos, fear, panic and confusion that people in the towers and in the direct vicinity of the WTC must have felt. What started out as a documentary on a NYC fire crew turned into an "accidental" documentary on the world's worst terrorist attack. We are, fortunately, spared the graphic images of people dying, although the sound of bodies hitting the ground is very disturbing and the footage of the second plane hitting tower 2 was the most shocking I had seen (it graphically conveys how fast that plane was going when it hit). This DVD is above all a fitting and respectful tribute to the FDNY without being overly sentimental or deliberately pulling at the heart strings. The tragedy is left to speak for itself.
Rating:
Summary: Danny Boy
Review: I read every review for this DVD and agree with a passionate heart that it is truely mind numbing. I am amazed that no one mentioned Ronan Tynan (who sang Danny Boy at the end of the movie) That song opened the flood gates for me, I was already so emotional from watching the movie but when I heard Danny Boy I became a blubbering mess. Where can I get a copy of Ronan's version of this song....Watching this movie is a moment in my life that I will never forget. Please contact me if you have a copy.
Rating:
Summary: Support A Good Cause Too
Review: According to Paramount Home Video: "A portion of the proceeds from the sale of '9/11 : the Filmmakers' Commemorative Edition' will be donated to the Uniformed Firefighters Association Scholarship Fund."
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