Report from Ground Zero

As the 9/11 anniversary nears, most memorials are trotting out the plane crash footage and other horrible video from the day’s events. For Report From Ground Zero—based on the book of the same name by Dennis Smith—the focus falls on the people who took on the impossible job of trying to create calm amidst the chaos: firefighters and policemen. One-on-one interviews with some of New York’s finest are used as narration over filmed scenes and still photos of the devastating leftovers at ground zero. Simple scenes, like a pan over the shocked faces of people as they watched events unfold on the Times Square Jumbotron, are just as effective as seeing flying debris and crumbling buildings. Some interesting facts are thrown around during the brief recounting of the history of the Trade Center—the most eye-opening being the pre-disaster talk about how the makeup of the building could lead to serious problems in the case of fire. The interviews are incredibly personal; chills are guaranteed from watching a grown man—who’s 10 times braver than you could ever dream of being—break down crying while talking about losing his buddies. Either way, the deliberate pace of the special adds to the sense of dread the event still evokes, like a horror movie that you already know the ending to—one to keep watching and learning from, regardless.