FOR SEVERAL WEEKS, anticipation has been building over “9/11,” the documentary film of the World Trade Center disaster scheduled to air this Sunday on CBS at 9 P.M. (Eastern). The movie is the work of Jules and Gideon Naudet, two young French filmmakers who happened to be making a documentary about a rookie New York City fireman when they found themselves caught in the middle of history. “9/11” is an altogether different form of reality television from the kind CBS made notorious with the contrived and titillating “reality” of its series “Survivor.” The network reportedly paid the Naudets about $1 million for the film, though it won’t confirm the figure. And while it’s all too tempting to slam CBS or the Naudets for exploiting a horrific catastrophe for ratings or money, they seem to be going out of their way to avoid such criticism. The network asked permission of every family before showing the face of a fallen fireman on air. The Naudets, meanwhile, are donating all their money from the film (beyond expenses) to a scholarship fund for the firemen’s families. Nevertheless, there has been grumbling from some victims’ families and others (including New Jersey senators Bob Torricelli and Jon Corzine) about whether showing “9/11” now is appropriate. Some aspects of the film may indeed bother the squeamish–including the sound of jumpers from the top floors hitting the ground outside the building–but for the most part, the Naudets’ movie is said to lack anything truly grisly. This is not the result of sanitizing by CBS; instead, it’s mostly due to the admirable restraint of the filmmakers themselves, who chose on the spot not to film truly terrible images, such as people being burned alive. (CBS has said repeatedly that the original, unedited film contained nothing inappropriate for network television, other than the firemen’s rough language, which has mostly been retained.) Despite the scattered misgivings, “9/11” will almost certainly attract a huge audience–my guess is that the Nielsen ratings will be in Super Bowl territory at least, if not higher. And the film deserves every viewer it gets. It’s airing on the eve of the six-month anniversary of the attacks, which seems to be an appropriate moment–not too soon, but soon enough to fulfill several important purposes. Even a mere six months after that terrible day, it is surprising to be reminded just how brazen the attack was. And in light of that, it is even more surprising to recognize just how quickly our lives have returned more or less to normal. Other than a little extra inconvenience during air travel, our economy having its wind knocked out temporarily, and stiffer, more visible security around high-profile targets like tourist attractions and major sporting events, the patterns of our daily existence really haven’t changed much. The innumerable American flags are starting gradually to come down. And stories as frivolous as figure-skating controversies and Tonya Harding/Paula Jones boxing matches are creeping back onto the front pages of newspapers and the covers of magazines. To a certain extent, a return to normalcy is necessary and welcome. But normalcy cannot be allowed to become complacency, and before the recent renewal of serious fighting in Afghanistan reminded us of the dangers we still face, one began to sense that at least a little complacency was starting to set in. (President Bush’s “axis of evil” speech was clearly intended to counteract this.) So, if “9/11” can once again make immediate for us the astonishing blow our country took last September, and reinvigorate our rightful sense of outrage and resolve, it’s welcome programming. There is another reason to watch “9/11” on Sunday: Sometimes pictures really are worth a thousand words. As useful and entertaining as the “Idiocy Watch” features of various publications have been since the attacks, the stark images of September 11 rebut the Susan Sontags and Lewis Laphams of the world in a way that mere words, no matter how eloquent, cannot. Finally, watching “9/11” should also remind us that only one task truly matters: doing everything within our power to prevent such an assault from succeeding again. Everything else–prescription drugs for seniors, campaign finance reform, Enron, whatever–pales in comparison, and the true measure of the seriousness, or lack thereof, of our political and intellectual leaders (and ourselves) should be whether or not they have grasped this fundamental lesson. For those who haven’t, or those who did but have since forgotten, “9/11” is must-viewing. Lee Bockhorn is associate editor at The Weekly Standard.
