9/11 Life Under Attack - ITV last night. Sensitive content

[MydogWillow]

I'm unsure where to post this as it's to off-load really.

I sometimes watch programmes on 9/11 but found last night's ITV one so incredibly harrowing. It's stuck with me moreso than the others possibly because it was mostly personal footage.

It was a superbly put together programme but has affected me so much last night and today. I just wanted to see if anyone else has been particularly affected by this one?

The footage which has particularly stayed with me are the things I haven't seen before: the thuds on the canopy, the eery piped music in the plaza/complex still playing in the aftermath, the lady speaking to the emergency service telephone operator and the students reactions.

The whole thing is still incomprehensible. I guess the personal footage brings home the impact that day had on ordinary people's lives and how they have coped since.

Haven't RTFT yet (dons hard hat immediately) but I can see where others are coming from regarding our fascination with 9/11 over other atrocities. I do wonder if the fact that it happened "to the west" is precisely why we focus on it over other attacks so much. I also think the scale of three separate yet linked and orchestrated events happening on the same day makes it feel different. But it must be more than that and I don't know what it is.

I'm 46 now and I still can't talk to DD properly about it or watch football for long before I have a limo in my throat. Why is that? And I say all this as as army brat who saw and heard some pretty shocking stuff in N Ireland as a kid.

Ahh bugger - that should clearly say footage not football. So sorry.

Devastating.

One thing that did surprise me, out of so many eye witnesses, that you don’t hear them say ‘oh those poor people in the towers’ given the sheer numbers that were there.

And lump not limo.

@SouthernFashionista

Devastating.

One thing that did surprise me, out of so many eye witnesses, that you don’t hear them say ‘oh those poor people in the towers’ given the sheer numbers that were there.

They probably didn’t feel the need to state the obvious during a moment of intense shock.

You don’t need to be facetious. It’s not about ‘stating the obvious’. It was certainly my first instinct at the time when watching the coverage. Perhaps it was the shock.

@SouthernFashionista

Devastating.

One thing that did surprise me, out of so many eye witnesses, that you don’t hear them say ‘oh those poor people in the towers’ given the sheer numbers that were there.

Focusing on the building rather than the people within is a way of coping with the horror . (I've seen a suddenly bereaved person do just the same.)

Phrases like 'those poor people in the towers' - all we humans can muster in a moment - probably wouldn't quite cut it.

I notice that the whole program tended to avoid emotive comment.

I watched the documentary last night following this thread.

The music still playing was very eerie, and the huge cloud of dust after each tower collapse was like something out of a sci-fi movie.

As I said earlier on the thread, the 5 part documentary on the discovery channel from some of the people who were there showed things I never knew had happened.

For me, the reason I have watched these is because it was an historic even that unfolded in front of me on live television. I don't think it would have had such an effect if every news channel wasn't showing it in real life time, the second plane hitting and the towers coming down are images that will remain with me forever.

I was in my early twenties when 9-11 happened. I was working overseas at the time, and my colleagues and I watched the news coverage on CNN for about 24 hours straight, stopping only to sleep and get takeaway pizza. We were glued to the screen in horror.

One thing I remember seeing, that I haven't seen since is some footage filmed by a man when one of the towers collapsed. He is heard muttering 'I hope I don't die, I hope I don't die' as the cloud of dust rolls towards him. Then it passes and he wanders about in a daze, and then you can hear all the whistles from the fire fighters. It's such a haunting sound. The commentator explained about them in more detail - apparently they are not necessarily to indicate a fire fighter is in trouble, but rather to indicate their position, when there is low visibility due to smoke.

Also just to add, my work has taken me to places where terrible things have happened, including some of those listed by other posters. I believe it is entirely possible feel horror about what has happened in other places, whilst also empathising for those affected by 9-11.

@3GreenPullups

The thing i thought was so odd was the mother who was annoyed and resentful that she had to go in to collect her child. The teacher saying 'I was wondering when I would hear from you' In a fairly frustrated tone. Then they were okay about sharing that with the world. It was so odd, as I would think I'd be rushing to get my child back to me. But, you never CAN predict how you would react in what is essentially a massive national crisis like that, so maybe I would have been paralysed with a sort of shock also.

You're right, that was a really odd moment. The teacher's first words to them and her body language towards the parents was very interesting. I wouldn't have shared that particular moment of parenting with the world, the mother was only going to fetch her son because she'd been told to and did come across as being annoyed. Combined with the reaction of the teacher, it was a really strange interaction.

And there were other children there.

The itv one really affected me too. I've watched more footage than ever this year due to the anniversary productions but it was the insight into ordinary lives in that one which was so affecting. The terror which just came out of nowhere.

We had visited the wtc just months before on a similarly sunny morning and had coffee at the windows on the world restaurant. I vividly remember the speed of the lift, the little theatre which showed a film on how it was built and commenting to dh afterwards that I thought it was the coolest place to work.