In my lifetime, there has been no greater tragedy on American soil than the attack on 9/11. Michael Gier’s documentary, The Heroism and Resiliency of 9/11: From Tragedy to Triumph, shows that tragedy makes heroes.
We sadly know the story. On September 11, 2001, four hijacked planes turned a normal Tuesday morning into the worst attack on American soil in the country’s history. Two planes hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center, one crashed into the Pentagon, and the last crashed at the edge of a field in Pennsylvania.
While we know what happened with the big players, such as the moment President George W. Bush was notified, Gier spotlights the heroes on the ground who put their lives on the line to save others. Through interviews, news footage, and reenactments, we learn their stories. One of the stories brings us beneath the collapsing towers of the World Trade Center, Port Authority Police Officer Will Jimeno was buried under 30 feet of rubble, fighting to stay alive long enough for someone to dig him out. In another, one officer helped remove bodies from the Pentagon and was so determined that he personally removed a third of the victims on his own before someone told him he was severely injured. Then, of course, the passengers aboard Flight 93 realized their plane was being used as a weapon and banded together with singular purpose to fight back before it could reach its likely target, the U.S. Capitol, where Congress was in full session.
Other heroes emerged beyond the first responders. Along the Hudson and East Rivers, hundreds of boats — ferries, tugboats, anything that floats — pulled up to the seawall and started hauling terrified New Yorkers off the island, eventually evacuating close to half a million people in under nine hours. Leon Panetta, Roger Ferguson, Lee Greenwood, and others add their own vantage points from that day and the uncertain weeks that followed.
Andrew H. Card Jr., former White House Chief of Staff, speaks in an interview in The Heroism and Resiliency of 9/11.
“…the passengers aboard Flight 93 realized their plane was being used as a weapon and decided to fight back…”
In the aftermath, grief takes different shapes for different people. Caitlin Leavey grows up carrying the memory of her father, FDNY Lieutenant Joseph Leavey, who ran into the North Tower and never came back out. Jimeno rebuilds a life out of the wreckage that nearly buried him.
Needless to say, The Heroism and Resiliency of 9/11: From Tragedy to Triumph can be a tough watch for many of us across the nation who lived through the events. At the same time, the film also captures the single moment in this millennium when the entire nation came together in a bond of patriotism and unity that crossed political lines. Spotlighted are these stories of normal people who thought beyond themselves and realized we’re all in this together. The best part is that politicians were completely left out of the doc…sorta.
Comprehensive is a word I would use to describe Gier’s documentary. While there are thousands of stories to tell, this doc feels like it covers every one. The doc’s subjects are authentic and honest, from the average person to the decorated first responder. The scope is just as wide, spanning the heroic rescues during the event to the months and years later, as the nation struggles to process what happened.
With this nation at each other’s throats today, The Heroism and Resiliency of 9/11: From Tragedy to Triumph is the documentary we need 25 years after the event. It’s a reminder that we were once a united nation not that long ago, and that unity still lives within us, if only we’d be willing to let it out.
For screening information, visit the The Heroism and Resiliency of 9/11: From Tragedy to Triumph official website.
"…With this nation today at each other's throats…"
