10 years
ago, the entire world was in shock after what happened in Manhattan. It may
sounds like a cliché, but it seemed to be just like another day, until it
happened. On the 9th of
September 2001 Manhattan turned into a war zone. Two planes were hi-jacked by
Al Qaeda activists and crashed into the World Trade Center, also known as “the
twin towers”, in New York. A total of 2986 died as a direct result of the
terror attacks, included were 343 firefighters. I think that it is quite
incredible that so many firefighters fought to get survivors to safety, knowing
that their lives could be the price of it.
To get to
see the firefighters’ view of it, we saw a movie about 9/11 in class. The
French filmmaking brothers, Jules and Gedeon Naudet, came to New York in the
fall of 2001 to make a movie about the rookie firefighter, Tony Benetatos, in
New York City Fire Department. On the morning of September 11, the Naudet
brothers experienced an unexpected twist on their filming. They got to capture
the firefighters’ valiant effort to save those who were trapped in the Twin
Towers.
I like
the fact that I got a whole new outlook/perspective on the incident. First
i only thought of the victims in the towers, but after seeing this movie, I
think of all the volunteers and firefighters who gave up their lives to save
others. Even though this led to a higher death rate among the ones who helped,
it increased the number of survivors.
I think that it was a well-made movie, which captured the real moments.
For me the worst part of the movie and the part that gave me the most
impression was when people desperately started to jump out of the towers. To
see them fall through the sky and smash into the ground, it was horrible. And
the sound of them hitting the ground, I first thought it was parts of the
buildings, but later realized that it were actually humans. I got the same
feeling when I saw the first videotapes of the incident at Utøya, July 22. I
can’t imagine what drives human beings to do such terrible, unforgivable and
cruel acts.
I agree with you, luckily they didn't show us the bodies falling from the building. But as you say hearing the smashing sound knowing that it was an actual person, it is awful to think about. And I agree with you no wonder people thought about the fire-fighters as heroes after the incident. What a heroic act to walk up all those stairs to help people. And the same with Utøya, how can anyone be so cruel?
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