9/11 Film Grips N.Y.ers/ HBO documentary all too real for heroes

New York Daily News ^ | 5/27/02 | BILL EGBERT, RICHARD WEIR and BILL HUTCHINSON

[kattracks]

As TV sets across the country crackled last night with the most graphic documentary to date of the Sept. 11 attacks, some New Yorkers cringed and turned away while others applauded it as the closest thing to the truth.

The HBO film "In Memoriam: New York City, 9/11/01" showed people jumping to their deaths from the burning twin towers and firefighters rushing into the buildings, never to be seen alive again.

A group of firefighters sat silently as it watched the hour-long show, narrated by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, at the W. 19th St. firehouse of Engine 3 and Ladder 12, which lost five men in the disaster.

Firefighter Tiernach Cassidy, 29, had to turn away from the TV when he recognized Battalion Chief Orio Palmer and Firefighter Steven Belson donning their gear for the last time to race into 1 World Trade Center.

"As soon as I saw Orio Palmer and Stevey Belson, I couldn't watch it anymore," Cassidy said. "But this was the first time I was able to watch any of it again. I guess the therapy is working."

Firefighter Willie Rivera, 34, said a mix of emotions coursed through his mind as he watched the succession of video and still images taken on the fateful day.

"I get sad and ticked off when I see it again," said Rivera. "I ask, 'Why did it have to happen?'"

'It Should Be Tough'

Firefighter Rich Roccabruna felt a lump in his throat when someone in the documentary held up a photo of his Fire Academy buddy Firefighter Keithroy Maynard, who died at the Trade Center.

"It's tough," Roccabruna said. "You think you can get over something like this, but when you see it, it brings it all back."

Down at Ground Zero, where the recovery effort will wind down this week, seven Port Authority cops gathered around a TV in their command center on the edge of The Pit.

"A lot of the footage was tough to watch," said Ray DeVito, 25, who has been a Port Authority cop for almost three years. "But it does catch what it was like that day, so it should be tough."

But when the film showed people jumping to their deaths, including a still photo of the body on the ground, the cops all cringed.

"They didn't need to show that," DeVito said.

Rather than watch the show, Lt. Bill Keegan — supervisor of the Port Authority police operation at Ground Zero — stayed down in The Pit, where he has been nearly every day for the past eight months.

"I don't have time to watch a TV show," Keegan said. "I'm in the middle of this, and this is real. We're in the final phases of the recovery right now and we want to do this job 100%. That show was about the beginning of all this. We are still trying to finish it."

[kattracks]

Footage of Mayor Rudy Giuliani fighting through dust after Trade Center attack from HBO documentary aired last night.

[patriciaruth]

Sorry I can't afford HBO. I'm finally getting to the point where I can begin to deal with the reality of what people went through that morning. People need to touch bases with that and not the sanitized versions, otherwise natural denial sets in and you lose the edge and the determination we need to continue and eventually finish cleaning out these vipers around the world.

[Cautor]

bump. Never forget what the Moslems did

[ELS]

In Memoriam

For those who missed it yesterday, it re-airs on Tuesday at 10PM EST.

[NerdDad]

"They didn't need to show that," DeVito said.

Can't afford HBO so I do not know the context in which this scene was shown. I do believe that more of the pictures/video of people jumping from these buildings should have been shown at the time and since. Those who might become complacent or bored by all this need to be reminded in the starkest terms that this is about more than 4 jets and 3 buildings. This is about the people who were savagely murdered. This is about the millions who will be murdered if we don't stop the animals who would do this.

[McGavin999]

"They didn't need to show that," DeVito said.

Yes, they did. Americans need to know, they need to see it. Someday they will see the full horror that was captured on that day. We need to remember, we need to know why this fight has to go on. We need to know what we're fighting for, why we have to do the things we are all called upon to do, what we are trying to prevent from happening in the future.

We're not children. Personally, I would like to see all the war protestors rounded up and forced to see all the cuts that have never been shown. Let them look at the body parts being picked up, let them see the results of the people leaping from the buildings to escape the flames. Make them look and then let them try to go back out to protest.

[bootless]

They did need to show it. I watched it with my 10 year old son, and when they were showing the people jumping, and the other most intense scenes, he did say he was scared. So, I hugged him harder and said tha we all need to remember this, and that he will need to tell his children.

I asked him what was the scariest, and he said that when he saw the people jumping, he felt as if it was him. Thank God he's got a heart. But we watched the entire show.

A P.S. to this - our neighbor across the street, a retired USMC veteran, has been turning a scrubby piece of open land into the Twin Towers Memorial Park, planting flowers and putting up a sign. He did an oil painting of the towers, and put it on an easel so the morning sun would shine through it. Someone animal stole it, the flowers, and little fence, and the flags. Just evil. But, he's not giving up.

Last night, after the show, my son and I made a hand-lettered sign that said, "NEVER FORGET", with 9-11-01 and a picture of the Twin Towers with a depiction of God's hands reaching to them. We brought it over this morning, and he attached it to one of his signs.

Don't let the sleeping giant sigh and roll over to sleep on its other side! NEVER FORGET!