If you somehow haven’t heard, the 10th anniversary of the September 11 is next Sunday. Already, there have been a ton of great media efforts to commemorate the occasion. Nat Geo, Discovery and MSNBC have done particularly commendable jobs in trying to bring such perspective and hindsight to what Rachel Maddow’s weekly series has called a “Day of Destruction, Decade of War.” I watched for two hours last night and there was excellent coverage on everything from torture to private contractors in Iraq.
The George W. Bush 9/11 interview on Nat Geo is enlightening. The channel’s “9/11 Zero Hour” is a haunting play-by-play of that morning’s events, “Science and Conspiracy” is a must-watch for all nutjobs and “9/11 Mastermind” isn’t bad. Over on Discovery, definitely check out “Killing bin Laden” for an account of how SEAL Team 6 got the job done. (Better yet, read the New Yorker story about it.) And while this one is only related in the sense that they discuss the changes that the Secret Service has made since 9/11 (likely installing anti-aircraft weaponry and this really cool sniper-locating technology called Boomerang at the White House), “Secrets of the Secret Service” is stellar. It reminded me about that loon in a Cessna that crashed into the White House in an attempt to kill President Bill Clinton. Neither him nor his family were home, but it’s kind of strange how this became so forgettable.
All combined, these networks have essentially turned this 9/11 anniversary week into the new Shark Week. Both feature in-depth, scary tales about horrible monsters and it’s great programming so I’m all for it.
Even cooler is an online World Trade Center montage created by Dan Meth. He has stitched together all the most memorable apparences of the Twin Towers in Hollywood.
Here’s Dan’s description:
From 1969 to 2001, the Twin Towers made countless cameos in Hollywood films. Sometimes featured prominently in the foreground, sometimes lurking in the distance. This montage celebrates the towers’ all-too-short film career with songs that capture the passing decades. Man, I miss them.
(Special thanks to Donna Grunewald for her extensive list)
wtcinmovies.tripod.com/chrono.html
He even includes the Frank Sinatra/Frank White (aka Biggie Smalls) mashup of “Juicy” and “New York, New York.” Nice touch.
