Take a closer look at some of Hollywood's top-tier talent at the beginning of their careers.

Child Stars, Then and Now

Take a closer look at some of Hollywood&#39;s top-tier talent at the beginning of their careers.

Get a closer look at the most searched stars on IMDb right now.

These Stars Are on the Rise

Beginning with the World Trade Center's North Tower afire and billowing dense smoke, and ending on the vast expanse of ash-brown debris the following morning, The First 24 Hours documents "ground zero" in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Shot independently over a 24-hour period, the film is first a witness to the fall of the twin towers, as a line of fire and a buckle in the armature signal imminent collapse. It is then an intimate view of the smoldering monochromatic site and the surrounding solitary streets, the ashen outskirts of New York's financial center, desolate and strewn with debris, the epicenter, a steel moonscape of Dresdenesque remains. People on the site work monotonously, in a fervor, then dazed, trance-like. The images speak for themselves, intentionally devoid of commentary and music.

An Inhuman Event from an Non-Human Perspective

For the record, I witnessed the events of 9/11 with my OWN EYES and EARS. I photographed the second plane, the impact, and the subsequent collapse of both towers (readers may email me for links to where some of my pictures can be found). I can see anticipate the detractors complaining about this film; the lack of dialog, music, narration, captioning etc. However I don&#39;t share their opinion. This was one of the BEST `documentaries&#39; I&#39;ve seen. I say this specifically because of the lack of voiceovers, and the general toning-down of footage common in the aftermath of 9/11. As a witness it&#39;s important to me to see the events unfold in the same way they unfolded that day; without narration, without music, without handholding. I wanted to re-experience the feeling of staring at the building(s) focusing on MY OWN thoughts and listening to the sounds as they actually happened. I realize that narration is important to some people who aren&#39;t from New York and want a more `fact-based&#39; kind of documentary. Those documentaries have already been done. This was a refreshing and excellent chance to meander through that day and imagine what would be going through your own mind instead of having a viewpoint imposed. Bravo!

tt0304919

WTC the First 24 Hours

Numerous short clips that are repeated over and over through the whole disc. Very bad.  It&#39;s like they forgot they already used a clip and got confused so they added it again.  Poorly mastered DVD. I have better footage I got from MSNBC and CNN.

One can say that this is an impressionist view of the 24-hour period after the towers fell. There is no human expression in this documentary, either from a narrative perspective or from people expressing their feelings. In a way it&#39;s good that the filmmakers decided to let the images speak for themselves because often times, narration over-exaggerates and music exploits the situation even more. But there is something sorely missing from the impressionist viewpoint that this film offers any glimpse of any kind of human expression at all. It&#39;s as if the casualties of 9/11 were nothing more than the buildings and cars that we see smoldering in ashes for 48 minutes. There are plenty of shots of firemen and other emergency teams, but we are never close enough to see the expressions on their faces or even hear anything of their conversations (other than the occasional barking of orders). Yes, we can use our imaginations to try to make sense of the loss of life in those ruins, but the most profound moments of that day were the moments of human contact when we reached out to one another for strength. Nobody witnessed this event alone. People raged and cried with others and hugged total strangers. I feel miserable that the generations to come will miss the reality of human suffering that day by seeing this &#39;&#39;document&#39; that omits humans from human tragedy. Hopefully, they&#39;ll have the opportunity to see many other much better documentaries.

User reviews

WTC the First 24 Hours

Excellent

Deja vu

An Inhuman Event from an Non-Human Perspective

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