9/11: The Falling Man Greg Hassall, reviewer August 30, 2006
This horrifying, yet mesmerising film captures 9/11 as no other.
The Falling Man: Richard Drew's photograph.
TypeDocumentaryChannelABCDateThursday August 31Time9:20 PM The next few days are to be a season of horror revisited. For on 9/11, now an infamous date in history, it will be the fifth anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Centre.
Has the passing of time softened the impact? Shall we now more easily be able to watch images of that terrible day in New York when nearly 2800 people lost their lives in an unprecedented attack by two aircraft, the first into the North Tower at 8.46am and the second into the South Tower some 40 minutes later?
This horrifying, yet mesmerising film captures 9/11 as no other. The now-calmed detail offered by relatives is graphically presented. There is Jack Gentle, working across the water in New Jersey, who learnt of the first crash into the North Tower and immediately called his wife in the South Tower to see if she was all right. "Not really," was the reply. Elaine Gentle did not know that a second plane had hit her building, just that there had been another explosion. Jack and Elaine talked together until the end.
But this film's focus is the image taken by photographer Richard Drew of a man falling from the North Tower. Drew, accustomed to the filter that the camera places between him and the horror of any given moment, had just kept working. Two hours later, sorting the images at the offices of Associated Press, he called his editor over. "I really like this one," he said.
Next morning several newspapers published his picture, none more boldly than The Morning Call, in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It brought howls of protest and would not be seen again. But who was the falling man, dressed it seemed in a waiter's uniform? Esquire journalist Tom Junod decided to try to find out. This is film is ultimately a dispassionate account of his quest.