Until today, I spent an afternoon watching the documentary "CNN Tribute: America Remembers", which I found only through the wall the day before yesterday, and I felt the intense sadness of Americans. But what is more divisive is that before watching this documentary on the first anniversary of 9/11 in 2002, I also watched the famous film that, in the eyes of some people, exposed the truth, but in the eyes of others, it was full of absurdities. Or the infamous 2004 documentary Fahrenheit 9/11—the two films are arguably diametrically opposed—and without a common theme, you'd think it happened in two universes.
"America Remembers" is a very typical disaster commemorative film. It tells us: the reality makes people sad, but the reality is also touching, awakening, and full of positive energy. The first 1/3 of the film tells the story of the disaster: how tragedy strikes suddenly and without warning. When a CNN reporter was interviewing nearby, the first plane flew low, and the camera just caught the moment when the plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center-witnesses reacted in shock, they couldn't believe their eyes (did I just see what I just saw?!) - Next, people in the far block stood there blankly, slapping their foreheads and staring at the twin towers in the distance. At this moment, the North Tower of the World Trade Center stands tall like a burning match. People did not expect that this is a man-made disaster, and the disaster has only just begun.
Seventeen minutes later, before people could understand the situation and were completely in shock, a second plane flew low and then, with everyone watching and in front of several cameras, crashed into the South Tower. At this time, the sound of OH MY GOD of various timbres came out of the camera - people were panicked, and everyone exclaimed: they did this on purpose! There was chaos in the arena. That picture was deeply touched even by me who was sitting in front of the computer after being separated by oceans and more than ten years - it was a live broadcast of historical events! (The same is true for the Tianjin explosion half a month ago. After the first explosion, people watched the second explosion.)
What touched me again was that when the camera zoomed in, you could see Those trapped in the Twin Towers waved their clothes desperately by the windows - until the smoke engulfed them, or they jumped in desperation from hundreds of meters high. Streaming these is brutal. The cruelty isn't that it's part of the disaster, it's that you just sit/stand there and watch them make desperate choices in desperation - the disaster scene is full of heartbreakers The cry of the lungs.
Just as those who escaped or were not nearby were staring at the burning building with grief, or were glad that they were safe, the situation suddenly changed again: the World Trade Center, which had been burning for nearly 2 hours, was finally overwhelmed, and within a few seconds, it was overwhelmed. The inner collapse - that is, in the blink of an eye, the 417-meter-high behemoth disappeared from people's sight and turned into ruins. What followed was a thick plume of gray, white, yellow, and black smoke, roaring through the high-rise buildings and arriving a few blocks away in an instant. Everyone started fleeing as fast as they could, but the smoke quickly engulfed everything and obscured the sky—a scene more real than any disaster movie: it was the end. After the monster turned into smoke whizzed by, the scene was dead silent, there was no police car, ambulance whistle, and people's screams... Everything was "painted" white by dust, as white as snow. It's the color of death.
The shock that the scene gave me is really indescribable—because in the face of reality, everything is so powerless, and even expressing my feelings seems so artificial. You will believe that if the end is coming, if the earth has reached its end, that is the reality, and you will be like the people in the camera: silent or screaming.
Back to the movie itself. The subsequent filming and editing of the film is similar to that of a Chinese disaster documentary: the stories of survivors, the massive rescue operation, the official "pale" explanation of Afghanistan, the timely condolences and uplifting speeches (including the White House's lasting night) from all over Bush. lights), the anxiety and grief of the families of the victims, the solemn public ceremonies, and America’s determination to swear revenge—if beyond the disaster itself, that seems to be the point to someone who has seen Fahrenheit 9/11.
The United States quickly targeted the Taliban in Afghanistan and its leader Osama bin Laden. In Bush's "resolute" speech after speech, the American people quickly turned their grief into strength (and hatred), and the US military began to send troops to Afghanistan. Dramatically, the next picture shows the Taliban's flight, and the "better" and freer life that their disappearance has brought to the locals, and the latter's subsequent "germ letter" revenge against the United States.
The film was shot in 2002. Considering the situation, purpose and information available at the time, it was quite good to shoot like this. However, if you look at it objectively, what the documentary presents is fact, but it is a fact that has been selected because it has a background, a theme, and a purpose. It "legitimized" the U.S. war against Afghanistan. Like most American movies, it preached justice and revenge, punishing evil and promoting goodness. It used the truth of its choice to bring a kind of "steadiness" to people's psychology, making people feel I don't think 9.11 is the end of the world...
But as time goes by, all kinds of doubtful facts begin to appear in front of the public, and little by little pieces gradually piece together the panorama of the picture. Under the organic movement of journalism, it was discovered that what this documentary recorded seemed to be only the tip of the truth.
In 2004, "Fahrenheit 911", a conspiracy theory explaining the 9/11 incident, came out. It told people that the Bush family and the bin Laden family had extremely complicated interests (whether before or after 9/11); the United States had to send troops as a last resort. Afghanistan, and 11,000 troops can't match the police in downtown Manhattan; the Bush administration makes people feel that they are threatened by terrorist attacks at any time, but its real plot is Iraq, although the latter has nothing to do with 9/11... …to sum up, denying and suspecting that everything the Bush administration did before and after 9/11 had very bad motives and had very bad results. In the following years (until now), many foreign and rigorous papers (esp. architecture) have discussed the impossibility of the free fall of the World Trade Center Twin Towers and the fact that the Pentagon was actually hit by missiles, making it difficult to convince everyone. Conspiracy theories The explanation is convincing. [See various answers on Zhihu]
I don't want to say that the reasons explored in Fahrenheit 9/11 are entirely correct—especially given the director's very impure motives: to bring down the Bush administration and lose the election. However, it does give us an alternative perspective on the facts. This perspective may not change our cognition (in fact, we are reluctant to accept this fact in our hearts), but it is enough to make us doubt what we have always believed (doubt does not necessarily make our belief collapse, Sometimes it also makes it stronger). What I'm trying to say is that there's no absolute right or wrong in either movie, and while they're at polar opposites of reality, they together make up the facts themselves: America Remembers tells us what happened on 9/11, Let us put aside our old and new grievances with the United States, and stand in the position of all mankind to sympathize with all those who have experienced this disaster, and hate war and hatred itself; and "Fahrenheit 911" Let us at least start to think, Why would the Taliban (or any other terrorist organization) do this.
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