One criticism that could easily have been levelled at The Blair Witch Project was that it seemed unrealistic that the film-makers would hold onto their cameras and keep filming rather than focus all of their attention on saving their own lives. Clearly though the extraordinary footage recorded in 9/11 proves that this would be an unfair criticism.
Is the documentary film-maker a freak of nature who has an innate desire to record and share his experiences at whatever cost, or a desperate, cynical journalist who will do what it takes to get a scoop? Whatever their motivation, we must be thankful to the two French cameraman who have provided us with this incredible document of the day that changed the world forever. What a shame though, that they handed it over to a production company who have proceeded to sensationalize it to an almost embarrassing extent.
Cliched or not, the statement "it was just like watching a film" was said by virtually everyone who saw the news on September 11th 2001. How ironic then, that this is exactly what this footage has become. The production team have gone to painstaking efforts to provide a narrative, to create drama and evoke emotion. If ever there was an occasion where this manipulation was not necessary then surely the attacks on the World Trade Center was it?
The importance and immediacy of the footage, its very status as a document of an event, is compromised by a variety of external, unnecessary factors : De Niro's narration ("Nothing could have prepared them for what was to happen next!"), obtrusive voiceovers, accompanying music, slo-mos (you never see the real time footage of the first plane hitting the tower) and camera confessions which, particularly in one case, seem scripted and forced. The more the footage is tweaked and fiddled with, the less dramatic and more manipulative it becomes.
The original plan of the French cameramen was to film a rookie fireman through training and his first few months on the job amongst New York's finest. A fairly interesting subject matter, but surely one that should have been scrapped when they eventually recorded unprecedented footage of the most important event in recent history. Yet we still follow Tony the fireman through training, we still hear his hopes and fears about his future, we still see him ingratiating himself with his new unit. Essentially we get to know Tony just so that a cliffhanger can be created - will Tony survive or won't he? We do not see any of his camera confessions until after it is confirmed that he is alive. It's not that I don't care about this (I was of course hoping that he would survive) but more that I shouldn't have had to worry about it. Why did they feel the need to purposely create drama? It really is quite perplexing.
Hence I spent as much time watching 9/11 sighing and shaking my head as I did crying and lamenting the terrible event that was passing before my eyes. I have never seen footage like it and possibly (and hopefully) never will. The terrified eyes of the people in the lobby looking up as human bodies land on the building will send a shiver down my spine until the day I die. I am thankful that I no longer live in ignorance of the true horror that people went through that day.
Is the documentary film-maker a freak of nature who has an innate desire to record and share his experiences at whatever cost, or a desperate, cynical journalist who will do what it takes to get a scoop? Whatever their motivation, we must be thankful to the two French cameraman who have provided us with this incredible document of the day that changed the world forever. What a shame though, that they handed it over to a production company who have proceeded to sensationalize it to an almost embarrassing extent.
Cliched or not, the statement "it was just like watching a film" was said by virtually everyone who saw the news on September 11th 2001. How ironic then, that this is exactly what this footage has become. The production team have gone to painstaking efforts to provide a narrative, to create drama and evoke emotion. If ever there was an occasion where this manipulation was not necessary then surely the attacks on the World Trade Center was it?
The importance and immediacy of the footage, its very status as a document of an event, is compromised by a variety of external, unnecessary factors : De Niro's narration ("Nothing could have prepared them for what was to happen next!"), obtrusive voiceovers, accompanying music, slo-mos (you never see the real time footage of the first plane hitting the tower) and camera confessions which, particularly in one case, seem scripted and forced. The more the footage is tweaked and fiddled with, the less dramatic and more manipulative it becomes.
The original plan of the French cameramen was to film a rookie fireman through training and his first few months on the job amongst New York's finest. A fairly interesting subject matter, but surely one that should have been scrapped when they eventually recorded unprecedented footage of the most important event in recent history. Yet we still follow Tony the fireman through training, we still hear his hopes and fears about his future, we still see him ingratiating himself with his new unit. Essentially we get to know Tony just so that a cliffhanger can be created - will Tony survive or won't he? We do not see any of his camera confessions until after it is confirmed that he is alive. It's not that I don't care about this (I was of course hoping that he would survive) but more that I shouldn't have had to worry about it. Why did they feel the need to purposely create drama? It really is quite perplexing.
Hence I spent as much time watching 9/11 sighing and shaking my head as I did crying and lamenting the terrible event that was passing before my eyes. I have never seen footage like it and possibly (and hopefully) never will. The terrified eyes of the people in the lobby looking up as human bodies land on the building will send a shiver down my spine until the day I die. I am thankful that I no longer live in ignorance of the true horror that people went through that day.