9/11 BY THE NAUDET BROTHERS 2 OF 6

9/11 BY THE NAUDET BROTHERS PART 2 OF 6

Narrated by Robert DeNiro

On 9/11/01 Engine 7 is responding to an “order of gas” call. (To emphasize how ordinary this call is we see a shot of an arcane fire bell.) Jules rides with Battalion Chief Joseph Pfeifer. The narrator explains that Jules is the one videotaping despite having only “weeks” of experience. We cut to Chief Pfeifer in the street checking a storm drain. Suddenly, we hear an arriving noise overhead. Jules then makes a phenomenal pan left. In the far distance we see a very blurry Flight 11 striking the more-focused and discernible North Tower.

After the camera zooms in several times we can see the damage to the building. Remember how in The Road Runner cartoons the wily coyote would leave an impression when entering impenetrable objects like massive boulders? In this case, the hole in the North Tower suggests that a winged plane banked inside it without any piece of it tearing off. Since planes are made largely of aluminum and the exterior of the North Tower was reinforced with steel that’s quite a trick.

If this miraculous shot wasn’t enough, the Naudets include on their DVD a shot purportedly of a man witnessing the North Tower hit. In other words, from another setup there actually was a video camera trained on a man watching a plane hit the North Tower. The Academy of Motion Pictures should have recognized how extremely rare these two shots are.

As the Naudets reveal their amazing footage from 9/11/01 they continue to bring the story back to comfortable footing with their narration. One example is The Separation Anxiety subplot which arises after the North Tower is attacked and the two lose track of each other. (Apparently they are the only NYC-based filmmakers who work without cell phones.) Another subplot is the one they started with: Tony the Rookie Firefighter.