As part of my protest towards the ABC airing of a biased, fictionalized account of 9/11, I watched an actual documentary on CBS. Annotated later, the film follows the activities of the men from a New York City Fire Station: Engine 7, Ladder 1. Filmmakers Jules and Gedeon Naudet and James Hanlon did a phenomenal job and the team that did the 2006 update created a wonderful addition that integrated perfectly with the original. The Naudet brothers were part of the piece themselves, and their courage was evident as they documented what was happening in real time.
The original idea was to follow a probationary firefighter over the course of his nine-month probation period. Instead they were there on the scene when history intervened. The bravery, the fear, the joy was all there as the firefighters discovered that the members of their company had survived the horror of that day--this is such a beautiful story, exquisitely told.
Even though I've lived in California for over 20 years, I felt tremendous pride at being a New Yorker as I listened to their familiar accents. New Yorkers are survivors and the dominant images were of regular people helping each other, as well as the firefighters and policemen. The narration described how a handful of firefighters saved 20,000 people that day, a number often lost in the climate of fear our administration has created. These rough, tough men cried, hugged, and kissed their comrades as they straggled back in to the firehouse one by one. Covered in that heavy grey dust, bleeding, sometimes dazed, they supported each other as brothers.
As they described how everything was pulverized and how fruitless the search for bodies was, much less living people who survived, I cried. These brave men rushed to the scene to try to save people as they are trained to do and the filmmakers captured their frustration, sadness and disappointment on 9/11 and later as they failed to find more than one person alive that first day after the attack.
Robert DeNiro opened the follow up segment that comments on the current view of the events of that day and the subsequent rebuilding interviewing the filmmakers, the firefighters, and showing scenes of visitors to the site. The original subject, Tony has joined the haz mat unit and has clearly matured as a person five years later. The men in this company suffer from survivors' guilt and severe health and psychological problems. We haven't as a country supported these men, as we should medically, financially, or emotionally. They shouldn't have to beg to get treatment.
On September 11, 2001 they didn't worry about themselves and their families. They were firefighters who worried about others. These are true heroes (that word is so often misused) and we owe them big time for showing what is best about America and human nature.
CBS should be commended for choosing to air THIS remembrance of that day.