9/11 shows, movies, and documentaries-- do you watch?

[GwinnettNole]

I feel like this time of year has turned into a time period where I watch shows that will recap the events of 9/11. Unlike the holiday season, whose ritual is filled with family & fun, this time of year is one that obviously doesn't bring the same feelings. But its one that I do 'enjoy' watching, reading and remembering. Trust me, I get that its painful but I feel personally like I cannot and should not ignore it. If you take a complete 180 that is perfectly fine in my book. I get why you would.

Last night was actually the first one-- and when I saw it I said-- "why is this on now?". Then I look at the date and realize we are a week away from the 'anniversary'. It was on the History Channel and was doing an in-depth look at Bin Laden, how he grew up and what led to the events of 9/11 from his perspective. I haven't seen that one before. What was really interesting to me was just how western the family looked 30/40 years ago as a lot of them admittedly from a family biographer said the Bin Laden loved western culture. I'm talking jeans, sunglasses, t-shirts and Michael Jackson.

Some of the best (again I should say best with quotes) ones that I like to watch are:
1. Flight 93 (note not the A&E version United 93)- yes it's dreadful, but when I watch it, for whatever reason I always hope for a different ending at the end. ("If the passengers only had done...")
2. There was an ABC documentary years ago on "The Path to 9/11" that stared Donnie Whalberg. It was really good IMO

There are also a host of time event documentaries on A&E, History, etc.

Do you watch anything? As I said its perfectly fine if you do not-- I get it.

 

[fsu1jreed]

I watch the ones I hadn't seen before, but thanks for reminding me that I need to stay away from facebook for the next couple of weeks.

 

[LesClaypool]

No way.

 

[GoNolesTX]

Honestly, and I hope this isn't taken the wrong way, I'm more intrigued by the so-called conspiracy documentaries surrounding the before and the after. The warnings that had been relayed up the chain that something grand scale would be happening, the document trail that disappeared, the involved parties in the bureaucratic food chain disappearing, etc. Really hoping this doesn't steer the thread the wrong way as I know Gwinnett intended this to be a surreal, reflective commentary.

 

[fsu1jreed]

Honestly, and I hope this isn't taken the wrong way, I'm more intrigued by the so-called conspiracy documentaries surrounding the before and the after. The warnings that had been relayed up the chain that something grand scale would be happening, the document trail that disappeared, the involved parties in the bureaucratic food chain disappearing, etc. Really hoping this doesn't steer the thread the wrong way as I know Gwinnett intended this to be a surreal, reflective commentary.

Exhibit A...........and that wasn't meant as a knock on you.

 

[GwinnettNole]

Honestly, and I hope this isn't taken the wrong way, I'm more intrigued by the so-called conspiracy documentaries surrounding the before and the after. The warnings that had been relayed up the chain that something grand scale would be happening, the document trail that disappeared, the involved parties in the bureaucratic food chain disappearing, etc. Really hoping this doesn't steer the thread the wrong way as I know Gwinnett intended this to be a surreal, reflective commentary.

Interesting take

 

[GoNolesTX]

Exhibit A

Oh, no, the actual events and the coming together as a community and nation during/following is what I wish EVERYONE would take away from it. Don't get my statement twisted. Like I said, interesting to see where people go with their interpretation of information.

It'll be safe to social media, buddy.

 

[fsu1jreed]

Oh, no, the actual events and the coming together as a community and nation during/following is what I wish EVERYONE would take away from it. Don't get my statement twisted. Like I said, interesting to see where people go with their interpretation of information.

It'll be safe to social media, buddy.

You quoted me before my edit............and interesting is one of the last words I would use describing said people.

 

[LikeaG5]

I watch the documentary 9/11 every time I can. Its with the French brothers who were making a documentary on a rookie fire fighter and happened to be there. I believe its still the only footage of inside the towers when they fell.

 

[seminole97]

I watch the documentary 9/11 every time I can. Its with the French brothers who were making a documentary on a rookie fire fighter and happened to be there. I believe its still the only footage of inside the towers when they fell.

That documentary is definitely the most powerful one I've seen. The reaction of the firefighters trying to coordinate at the ground floor entrance as they hear jumpers keep landing...

 

[Nolomite]

The documentaries are usually well-done, and many of them are targeted at people like me (and GoNolesTX), those that love a good conspiracy tale, whether we personally believe it or not.

Like the Kennedy assassination(s) we have all the official information we are ever going to get, but "researchers" will keep associating "new" extraneous data and anecdotes with the event for decades to come.

 

[FSUTribe76]

I feel like this time of year has turned into a time period where I watch shows that will recap the events of 9/11. Unlike the holiday season, whose ritual is filled with family & fun, this time of year is one that obviously doesn't bring the same feelings. But its one that I do 'enjoy' watching, reading and remembering. Trust me, I get that its painful but I feel personally like I cannot and should not ignore it. If you take a complete 180 that is perfectly fine in my book. I get why you would.

Last night was actually the first one-- and when I saw it I said-- "why is this on now?". Then I look at the date and realize we are a week away from the 'anniversary'. It was on the History Channel and was doing an in-depth look at Bin Laden, how he grew up and what led to the events of 9/11 from his perspective. I haven't seen that one before. What was really interesting to me was just how western the family looked 30/40 years ago as a lot of them admittedly from a family biographer said the Bin Laden loved western culture. I'm talking jeans, sunglasses, t-shirts and Michael Jackson.

Some of the best (again I should say best with quotes) ones that I do not miss are:
1. Flight 93 (note not the A&E version United 93)- yes it's dreadful, but when I watch it, for whatever reason I always hope for a different ending at the end. ("If the passengers only had done...")
2. There was an ABC documentary years ago on "The Path to 9/11" that stared Donnie Whalberg. It was really good IMO

There are also a host of time event documentaries on A&E, History, etc.

Do you watch anything? As I said its perfectly fine if you do not-- I get it.

I don't intentionally watch documentaries about it as they're frequently wrong. For example, last night while my wife was making some okonomiyaki for dinner I watched a little bit of some 9/11 documentary "with the real calls" but it had patently false information about how the Air Force was going to "shoot down the planes" but the order from the Vice President arrived too late. 1) The planes were completely out of position for the first three because the FAA was not set up to directly contact the military so NONE of the plans or tracking was remotely integrated, in fact the military was inappropriately sending the planes out into the sea because that was the original plan for an attack and they also were chasing the wrong planes. 2) For Flight 93 there WERE two F-16s in the area but they had been launched with no bullets or missiles and were completely unarmed. The two pilots (one a woman who has an awesome story to tell) make a pact to ram the plane instead but fortunately the passengers overpower the terrorists and inadvertently crash the plane before they follow through with the sacrifice.

That's just two major things wrong with the show I watched for about 15 minutes. I'm sure if I'd stuck around there would have been far more.

 

[FSUTribe76]

That documentary is definitely the most powerful one I've seen. The reaction of the firefighters trying to coordinate at the ground floor entrance as they hear jumpers keep landing...

That I'm sure (the jumpers falling around the entrances) would have been scarring for life. Apparently at least one if not more first responders died by being hit by falling people.

 

[F4Gary]

I don't watch them.

 

[mwfudge]

None of them. My dad was flying that day and I don't want to be reminded of it. While he wasn't on any of the hijacked planes it was still a scary day for me. He was on a Continental flight from Newark to Rio and I didn't hear from him for several days because he was unable to make a phone call from Brazil back to America.

 

[NoleFan2U]

I watch them all. I own the DVD with the French Brothers and watch every so often. I am intrigued by all the stories of survivors, rescuers and even the terrorists. I found it interesting how they grounded all the flights in "Grounded" and how there may have been more cells that day. Just something about that horrible day has always piqued my interest.

 

[Nole Lou]

Nope, not a single one.

I don't know if it makes a difference whether you were an adult and around for it and all the aftermath, or if you were a little kid or not born, so it's filling in details you didn't understand at the time.

For me, having it happen as an adult...just not interested in more. There have definitely been details and stories that have come out in the years since which I'm sure I'm not aware of and are quite compelling, but I just don't need to relive any of it. I just don't get anything out of dwelling on it at all.

 

[CC0492]

I watch some. I still can't believe sometimes the shock and awe factor of the whole tragedy. Especially watching the impact of the planes hitting the towers in slow motion is just mind blowing to me, and then watching the towers collapse.

 

[FSUTribe76]

Nope, not a single one.

I don't know if it makes a difference whether you were an adult and around for it and all the aftermath, or if you were a little kid or not born, so it's filling in details you didn't understand at the time.

For me, having it happen as an adult...just not interested in more. There have definitely been details and stories that have come out in the years since which I'm sure I'm not aware of and are quite compelling, but I just don't need to relive any of it. I just don't get anything out of dwelling on it at all.

I do wish "we" (and by we I mean others, I already do) treated it as just any other tragedy i.e. Put up some monuments and forget about it and had treated Bin Laden as a common criminal rather than have his capture celebrated. It's become some perverse national holiday by some and I can't say I like it.

 

[F4Gary]

Bin Laden wasn't "captured".

 

[FSUTribe76]

Bin Laden wasn't "captured".

Yeah, I meant his body captured and dumped at sea to remove it from being a shrine. I wrote poorly. I'm aware he was killed, in fact unless I'm misremembering something the Seals mutilated his body according to one of them.

 

[travnole]

I watch, very interesting indeed.

My FSU roommates' best friend, who I had met a few times, was in one of the towers that day. Always think about him when this stuff comes up.

My old roomie is a poster here and may chime in.

RIP Marty.

 

[Nole Lou]

I do wish "we" (and by we I mean others, I already do) treated it as just any other tragedy i.e. Put up some monuments and forget about it and had treated Bin Laden as a common criminal rather than have his capture celebrated. It's become some perverse national holiday by some and I can't say I like it.

This is kind of how I feel. I'm not saying that EVERYONE should move on, but I have a long time ago. I lived through a couple years of 24 hour coverage. It doesn't have anything else for me. To me, it's not like a war or something, we didn't DO anything, it just happened to us. It obviously had profound effects on everything from war policy to personal privacy, etc and changed the world in very fundamental ways. However, in terms of day to day living or culture or how we interact with each other...it didn't change permanently much for me, and probably most people.

Like I said though, that's for ME, I'm not telling someone else how to feel about it. Most importantly, I didn't lose anyone that day. It's going to have a much different impact for those that did.

 

[FSUTribe76]

This is kind of how I feel. I'm not saying that EVERYONE should move on, but I have a long time ago. I lived through a couple years of 24 hour coverage. It doesn't have anything else for me. To me, it's not like a war or something, we didn't DO anything, it just happened to us. It obviously had profound effects on everything from war policy to personal privacy, etc and changed the world in very fundamental ways. However, in terms of day to day living or culture or how we interact with each other...it didn't change permanently much for me, and probably most people.

Like I said though, that's for ME, I'm not telling someone else how to feel about it. Most importantly, I didn't lose anyone that day. It's going to have a much different impact for those that did.

Yeah, obviously people who had loved ones involved need to go through the full grieving process including a lasting memorial for them to visit. But 99+% of Americans were not directly traumatised beyond secondhand circumstances like mine (I was in court in Vero Beach and kept seeing the bailiff running back and forth to the judge throughout the trial and then the judge finally cleared the court room and told us America was under attack. By the time I was back the first tower had already fallen but I did watch the second fall.). For the rest of us, the big majority, it shouldn't be made into this odd holiday it has become.

I don't know, I guess I didn't live through it. But even Pearl Harbor didn't seem to be made into this recurring morbid holiday.

 

[BelemNole]

Nope, not a single one.

I don't know if it makes a difference whether you were an adult and around for it and all the aftermath, or if you were a little kid or not born, so it's filling in details you didn't understand at the time.

For me, having it happen as an adult...just not interested in more. There have definitely been details and stories that have come out in the years since which I'm sure I'm not aware of and are quite compelling, but I just don't need to relive any of it. I just don't get anything out of dwelling on it at all.

Yup. I get into arguments with my brother about this. He watches every one. I haven't seen one. I watched TV for 2 days solid while it happened, then had enough, turned off the TV and went fishing for 2 days.
I don't need to see video of people jumping anymore to remember what happened. I don't get anything from conspiracy theories except the urge to smack the filmmaker.

 

[fsu1jreed]

I don't get anything from conspiracy theories except the urge to smack the filmmaker.

The filmmaker is just trying to make a buck........that's the American way. I want to smack the idiots that suspend all logic and buy them lock, stock, & two smoking barrels.

 

[BelemNole]

The filmmaker is just trying to make a buck........that's the American way. I want to smack the idiots that suspend all logic and buy them lock, stock, & two smoking barrels.

Make a buck off of others pain? Yeah, now I want to smack them harder.

 

[seminole97]

It doesn't have anything else for me. To me, it's not like a war or something, we didn't DO anything, it just happened to us.

And yet it wasn't some bolt from the blue.
In this critical regard it was a failure, as I think the hope from the outset was to focus America on her Empire and its costs.
But I think very, very few think of it in those terms.
Getting more specific surely crosses the line.
I personally don't mark the day anymore than I would notice 12/7.
“You and I know that this continuous putting pins in rattlesnakes finally got this country bit.” - Herbert Hoover

 

[FSUTribe76]

The filmmaker is just trying to make a buck........that's the American way. I want to smack the idiots that suspend all logic and buy them lock, stock, & two smoking barrels.

It's easy to buy into it IF you believe the American government, spycraft and military are as competent as they would want you to believe and how Hollywood demonstrates. The problem is none of that is true.

As I mentioned the military and FAA were completely caught flat-footed and incapable of responding properly. The Air Force literally sent unarmed planes to go cruising hundreds of miles out in the sea rather than either 1) have them armed or 2) wait to get them armed and 3) send them after real targets. They CLAIM they've fixed this inability to properly track domestic flights since then....but you would have assumed they would have the FAA and military synced up from the get go.

And the spycraft wasn't 100% off, they gave the appropriate warnings but not really specific enough to be actionable. I just watched a great documentary called The Spymasters on Showtime (I watched it this week so it's still probably up and worth the watch) where they interviewed all of the living CIA directors mainly about the global terrorism issue more than anything else and it was clear that the CIA reports had been calling "Wolf" too many times in the past that it was basically ignored. They hadn't been appropriately focused on the issue at hand. And I actually do have a little first hand info on that because when I was a 3L at Bill and Mary I was an assistant to Mitchell Reiss, Colin Powell's Director of Policy Planning at DOS as well as on the NSC and we went to a NATO conference. As a "reward" I got to ask one and only one question of the admirals and generals assembled for the conference. There was some connections in the Tampa area of Sami AlAryan (spelling? I'm not going to look it up) to Bin Laden, so I specifically asked them "Would the US and NATO military actively intervene in Afghanistan and Pakistan to break up Bin Laden's network?" They all basically laughed and said "Hahaha the intern is so dumb. Of COURSE we wouldn't intervene. It's an Interpol and security agency thing, we don't worry about stupid terrorist groups." About a year later we invaded. So it shows where our heads were just a year before.

 

[fsu1jreed]

It's easy to buy into it IF you believe the American government, spycraft and military are as competent as they would want you to believe and how Hollywood demonstrates. The problem is none of that is true.

Exactly........and what's even crazier is that I see posts saying the very thing from these people, till it comes to conspiracy theory's. And what's worse is that they don't care about their faults in logic when I call them out on this.

I just watched a great documentary called The Spymasters on Showtime (I watched it this week so it's still probably up and worth the watch) where they interviewed all of the living CIA directors mainly about the global terrorism issue more than anything else and it was clear that the CIA reports had been calling "Wolf" too many times in the past that it was basically ignored

I caught that ~couple of years ago..........that's a great documentary. IIRC, I posted a thread about it on here, but got no replies.

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

I use to travel a lot and actually thought about 9/11 fairly often. These days, I think about it every now and then, and it just reminds me that life is short and you never know what the day may bring.

Don't think I ever saw the documentaries. The conspiracy theorists are ridiculous, IMO.

 

[GwinnettNole]

Just for the record the conspiracy theorists shows are not what are on History and A&E for the most part. Tonight has part II of the Bin Laden history (on History) and the other shows I'm referring to usually are a time lapse of that day.

The conspiracy shows are rarely seen on these channels on primetime during 9/11 week. These shows are not exactly what I was referring to as part of watching the events of 9/11 and remembering/reflecting.