World Famous Comics: New York - The Center of the World (Part 8)
New York - The Center of the World (Part 8)
Starring: Joan Allen, Janeane Garofalo, Ron Silver, Frank McCourt, Martin Scorsese Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC Label: Pbs Home Video Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: September 09, 2003 Running Time: 180 minutes Theatrical Release Date: November 14, 1999
Description: In this final chapter of Ric Burns's acclaimed series New York: A Documentary Film, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE presents a powerful portrait of the events leading up to and away from the fall of 2001. It chronicles the construction of the towers and explores the astonishing expansion of American economic power during the second half of the twentieth century.
2003 Release Why does Amazon indicate that this came out in 1999 when it's a 2003 release?
New York - Center of the World This documentary is nearly 3 hours long and chronicles the rise & fall of the World Trade Center. The final 45 minutes is downright gut-wrenching and may be difficult for some viewers. You'll see both planes hitting both towers, spectators standing in the streets crying out in horror & disbelief as people jump from the upper floors of the buildings, and finally, the collapse of the two large skyscrapers. You'll see many different camera angles of the collapse, so that's a good thing. To me, the most shocking video clip was the one where it shows 7 people jumping from one of the buildings at the same time, almost like they were jumping in a group. That was quite disturbing as well as seeing the spectators reactions. Parents should not allow their kids to watch this. The final 45 minutes contains graphic material of the attacks and the carnage. The good news is that this DVD is very educational. I learned a lot about the history of the WTC. I've never even been to New York City, but I plan on visiting Manhatten before I die. I'm 21 years old now, so I think I have plenty of time. The bottomline is, this DVD rocks!
From Rise to Fall Although I was only a few miles away from the WTC on that dreadful day, I was spared watching the disaster unfold. Like many New Yorkers, it took me a couple of years to even begin to look at the videos surrounding the event. The first thing I watched was Ric Burns' final episode to his NEW YORK documentary. Because I had seen the previous seven parts, and had loved them, I knew this subject would be in good hands, and it was.
What makes this documentary unique is the amount of time it spends on the political, economic, and architectural wrangling that went on before the towers went up. The story of its construction is an amazing tale all its own. Burns uses aerialist Philippe Petit's stunt back in the 70s as a kind of humanizing effect to the buildings' superhuman size. Of course, this makes the inevitable outcome even more devestating.
Mr. Burns has adroitly used an extraordinary amount of photos and footage, and the interviews bridging them are all expertly selected. Some of them were astonishingly moving. I never before thought that former Mayor Koch could be so feeling. In any event, this is a documentary that will probably make all other documentaries superfluous, with the exception of WORLD TRADE CENTER-ANATOMY OF A COLLAPSE which handles the more technical details. This is a terrific and befitting conclusion to Ric Burns' astounding documentary.
There Is None Other There is none other than Ric Burns to tell this tale. This documentary is devestating. The footage, combined with Mr. Burns' use of silence to let the pictures tell the tale, make for a staggering monument. Mr Burns also realized that as the towers came down that morning, a new story sprung up. It is not the story of death and destruction, but of people coming together to heal a scar on the face of Mother Nature, a scar in the heart of a city, a state, a country, and its people. As enormous the event of the Twin Towers collapsing is, the story of the clean-up is an even greater story.
I think that now, years after the event, and the nation "healing" by falling back in to the old ways of bitter bipartisanship and political bickering, we need this film to remember what happned on that terrible morning.
The forces of evil pricked a sleeping giant, but boy was that a miscalculation their part!
An extraordinary film I was there. Half a mile away. Saw the whole damn thing.
I was on the street within 2 or 3 minutes of the first plane hitting. I saw the second plane hit tower 2.
No matter what you saw on TV, you can't imagine.
It was a day of extraordinary power and emotion, fear, sorrow and loss, surreal - the knowledge that you'd seen something as profound as the JFK assination, the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Epic in scale, gobal in impact, yet inherently intimate. Your own personal disaster movie.
Even still,
This Ric Burns film is an amazing thing. It's just great. I've watched it a dozen times and I don't get tired of it - the writing, the music, the history, the wisdom - the personal feelings of a diverse and meaningful group of New Yorkers. It's historic, epic, emotional - up to the task of documenting the impact of 9/11 on New York.
It represents all the things that make New York great: ambition, literacy, reflection, humanity, wonder, perspective. The use of Philippe Petit - the French high wire man - as a linking device...was inspired.
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