Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
An on-the-scene documentary following the events of September 11, 2001 from an insider's view, through the lens of two French filmmakers who simply set out to make a movie about a rookie NYC fireman and ended up filming the tragic event that changed our lives forever.
This documentary carries extraordinary weight because the Naudet brothers were simply in the right—or wrong—place at the right time, capturing the only known footage of the first plane striking the North Tower from ground level. The film's plot is effectively written by history itself, giving it an unmatched immediacy and narrative power (4). As a documentary, traditional 'acting' is replaced by the raw, unscripted behavior of real firefighters and civilians; the subjects are authentic and compelling but uneven in screen presence (3). The cinematography earns a high mark not for polish but for its singular, visceral vérité quality—handheld, chaotic, and irreplaceable footage that no studio could replicate (4). Novelty is exceptional: the film is a one-of-a-kind artifact, an accidental front-row document of one of history's most consequential events, impossible to recreate (4). The ending, while emotionally resonant in its reflections on survival and grief, is somewhat conventional in its documentary wrap-up structure compared to the extraordinary material that precedes it (3).