I really enjoyed your review. I am from Texas and 16 days after 9/11, I was in Manhattan and around 4:30 in the morning a friend and I decided to walk down to ground zero. We got past all the police/army/etc. They just let us walk by.
When we came up upon that blown up area of buildings and the smoldering ruins... I looked around in dismay and could only think that someone just made a very loud statement: "This is WAR, come and get us!"
Ground Zero is a HUGE calling card...
I remember that day so well.
I was living with a friend of mine at the time. He IM'ed me when the first tower was hit. I ran to a south facing conference room and watched. People began gathering watching the smoke. We all saw the 2nd plane hit and explode. No one spoke for at least a minute. The movie captures that moment perfectly.
I went back to my office, I am a computer tech, and found woman waiting for my assistance with an MS Office problem...she had not heard. I told her it would have to wait. I called my then girlfriend (now wife) to tell her I was ok. They pulled TV into a conference room where we watched the towers fall.
I left my office after the 2nd tower fell with no way to get off Manhattan (bridges, tunnels, trains all closed). I walked down toward Penn Station. I got lunch in Al's Deli on 7th ave, they were giving things away.
I listened to the radio on my walkman where they were interviewing people who had gotten out of the towers. Firemen, office workers, maintainence people etc...I have never seen or heard so many grown men crying. Living through something like that forces your to deal with your own mortality, I supposed.
After a while I wandered back outside and saw the dust cloud over lower Manhattan. It was 50 stories high and reminded me of driving into a low lying area during a dense fog. It was impeneterable. People were in this stunned daze, it was surreal.
The mood brightened considerable when the F16's were flying overhead. We all figured it was ok at that point.
Eventually they reopened Penn. I was the first person on the first train out of Manhattan. I spent the whole ride looking backward at the cloud. I will never forget it.
Steve Dunleavy had a column in the next day's New York Post (a right leaning daily newspaper). It was titled "JUST KILL THE BASTARDS". I cut it out and put it up at the entrance to my office. I have never agreed with a written sentiment more.
Sorry for going on and on...the movie just brought me back to that place today.