Raw reactions without the rhetoric. You sense from the early footage that the intended documentary would have been forgettable. Though, with that bypassed and the events unfolding this becomes riveting. The narration is quite good, but also a little intrusive. The parade of disbelieving and bewildered faces speak for themselves and that footage, rather than some of the wow moments, is what truly lingers.

Forget the dramatizations. This is all real.

Using footage shot while the 9/11 attacks were unfolding, this documentary overcomes its medium to deliver a moving, frightening, and altogether powerful look into the events of that day.

Pretty moving when I watched this when it first aired. Some really harrowing footage.

It's impossible that with all the amazing inside coverage, a bad documentary could come from it. This isn't bad but those brothers certainly tried hard to ruin it. It was nice having a more personal view of the events, but the obvious manipulative editing and dull as dirt bookends keep this from having as strong as emotional reaction on me as it could have. Not the best documentary on the subject.

Boring documentary.

It's hard to critick this. The documentary on its own is almost based on 'luck' so for artistic and journalisting input only the editing counts. Also the intro by De Niro was not really necessary. ... But still, this is one of the documentaries that doens't try to be a tearjerker and gives an objective and closer look of what happened on 9/11. (I hope I'm not being too cold in this review)

Two things stand out in this remarkable record of events of that infamous day: first, the immediate reaction of bystanders and spectators that what they were witnessing was like something out of a movie; second, the horrifying sound of the impact of the bodies of those trapped by fire and forced to jump from the upper floors. See also my attempt to deal with these issues, available here: https://www.academia.edu/12685564/Passages_to_Immortality_Arakawa_and_Gins_Stiegler_and_September_11_2011_.