Originally a 90-minute 2002 NBC News special aired to commemorate the first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, America Remembers: The September 11th Disaster has been edited into two sections for classroom viewing. The first half explores world events in the decade preceding 9/11, interweaving the rise of Osama bin Laden with the personal stories of four “typical Americans” who were in the World Trade Center on the morning the planes crashed into the towers. The second half presents an excruciating minute-by-minute unfolding of the attack as it affected those four people and their families. Part investigative reporting, part tearjerker, this program is both an indictment of the U.S. government's failure to protect the people, and a melodramatic tribute. Even though this was aired a full year before the 9/11 Commission was even established, the video plays like a Cliff's Notes of its findings: both the Clinton and Bush administrations are shown to be seriously weakened by bureaucratic bumbling, while bin Laden's network of terror grows efficiently and quickly, and more than a few embarrassed or indignant sound bytes from high-ranking government officials cast serious doubt on the current administration's reassurances that the American homeland is truly being secured. While honoring a landmark tragedy in American history, America Remembers also occasionally drifts into emotional manipulation through dramatic music cues, idyllic photo montages, home video footage, and moodily lit interviews (all of which sometimes make it easier to get wrapped up in the individual stories rather than follow the larger story). Though somewhat dated, this is still a powerful revisiting of 9/11, made even more sobering by the daily news of lives that continue to be lost as America grapples with its new global role in the ongoing War on Terror. Recommended. Aud: J, H, P. (E. Gieschen)
America Remembers: The September 11th Disaster
(2004) 74 min. VHS: $139.95 (teacher’s guide included). Human Relations Media (tel: 800-431-2050, web: <a href="http://www.hrmvideo.com/">www.hrmvideo.com</a>). PPR. ISBN: 1-55548-136-1. April 18, 2005
America Remembers: The September 11th Disaster
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