National Geographic - Inside 9/11 (Commemorative Edition) (2005) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the first documentary produced for television that links America's 9/11 event to the burgeoning army that defeated the Soviets in Afghanistan in 1980. That army came to be known as Al Quaeda. After defeating the Soviets this group of multinational mercenaires, led financially and spiritually by Osama bin Laden, decided to take on the other remaining world power, the United States. This is the linchpin for events from Sept. 11, 2001 and everything that has happened since that time.
This is a scintillating documentary told in allegorical detail of events around the world. It pinpoints the assassination of New York Rabbi Meir Kahane as the signature event that launched Al Quaeda's campaign in the United States. Kahane had been a Jewish leader in New York that rallied worldwide support and opinion against Soviet and Middle Eastern mistreatment of Jews with great success. His assassination was a new entry in modern history and a great success for Al Quaeda.
There is so much going on in this four-hour epic that it cannot be adequately described in a review. The first two hours authenticate the historic development of Al Quaeda and its plans to destroy the World Trade Center. The back two hours are a blow-by-blow account of events leading to 9/11. This film moves at a rapid pace and is far more engaging than the movie HBO showed in the middle of the night, "The Hamburg Cell", about the conspirators from 9/11 and their plotting in Germany.
I urge anyone that likes documentaries, American history, or good filmmaking to acquire this CD at the earliest possible moment. Until another production comes along that casts these events together in greater detail, with better production values and a beefier script, this will remain the authoriatative television documentary on this subject.
Kudos to the National Geographic Channel for producing this outstanding program and taking up the gauntlet dropped by The Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel, which formerly did this kind of programming well but now seem more interested in televising "reality" programs about police chases and motorcycle mechanics.
The National Geographic Channel, which is currently airing an equally outstanding documentary on the failures of hurricane Katrina, is now the best option on cable for this kind of ex post facto documentary. This film is its best work to date and should be in everyone's library that enjoys knowing what the hell is going on in the world.

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INSIDE 9/11:COMMEMORATIVE EDITION - DVD Movie

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The Power of Forgiveness (2007) Review

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(More customer reviews)What does it mean to forgive someone? How do you go about forgiving? Does it mean that we forgo justice? Is forgiving simply a spiritual experience between an individual and God or does it play out on many different levels? These and other questions are addressed in this look at forgiveness by filmmaker Martin Doblmeier (Bonhoeffer). It looks at real life examples of forgiveness such as the Amish in the wake of the killing of five Amish schoolgirls that ripped their community. It shows the speech Elie Weisel made to the German Bundestadt challenging them to ask forgiveness of the Jewish people and then two months later, the speech made to the Israeli Knesset by the President of Germany asking forgiveness on behalf of Germany. It looks at forgiveness on many different levels including the physical level and how forgiveness (or lack of it) affects us physically and shows examples of forgiveness being taught in elementary schools as well as being offered in colleges. It shows three women who lost loved ones in 9/11 who travel to Lebanon to experience the Garden of Forgiveness established by the Lebanese and wonder why there is so much opposition to establishing a Garden of Forgiveness on the WTC site. While many might want to limit forgiveness to a theological discussion (and it certainly is a major if not THE major theological doctrine), this film shows the power of forgiveness beyond just the theological implications and how our world could be different if forgiveness were taken seriously and practiced by everyone. At the very least, this should be a wonderful conversation starter for those serious about studying forgiveness. Think of the political ramifications if candidates running for office would stand up and ask forgiveness of their opponents when they say something in error or intentionally malign them or if corporate leaders would ask forgiveness of shareholders for the mistakes they made in the name of corporate profits and greed. Perhaps, like most things, it works best if it starts from the individual and community level and works upward. That means it starts with you and me. [...]


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To forgive somone can be simple. But this simple act can have powerul consequences - and may lead to a personal and spiritual transformation. Recently, the study of forgiveness has come into its own. Researchers are examining the psychological and physical effects of forgiveness under an amazingly wide variety of conditions, ranging from petty insults to sexual assault to 9/11. Clinicians now help guide people to forgive transgressions and get on with their lives. From Ground Zero to Northern Ireland to the Amish countryside, THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS explores this important concept, and reveals how forgiveness can transform your life.

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In Memoriam - New York City, 9/11/01 (2002) Review

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(More customer reviews)REMEMBER: This DVD pulls no punches in its graphic depiction of the horrors of 9/11. It shows raw footage of first one, then another plane crashing into the World Trade Center towers. It includes footage taken from an NYPD helicopter that circled the tower but was unable to land on the roof. A man is shown waving a towel from one of the open windows on a very high floor, but there was nothing they could do to rescue him. It has disturbing footage of people jumping to their deaths, as then mayor Rudolph Guiliani and others watch in horror. It shows the first tower collapsing as the person filming it keeps yelling, "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!" It shows the next tower collapsing and the huge cloud of smoke and debris speeding down the street as people run for their lives. The aftermath of the attacks is also included, showing the streets and people covered with soot and choking for air.
REFLECT: The courage of the police, the firefighters, and all emergency workers shines through the dark smoke and rubble, as they rush to the scene to try and save as many lives as they can. The strength of mayor Guiliani and his staff, as they try to restore order to the chaos, is remarkable. The grief and sadness while watching a succession of funerals is heartbreaking. Watching this DVD documentary stirs up many strong emotions, as the wounds from those events have not fully healed.
RESPOND: We can't forget the unjustified terrorist attacks that occurred on American soil on that fateful day. We can respond by donating time and money to September 11 charitable foundations to help America recover from these vicious terrorist attacks. Net proceeds from the sale of this DVD are donated to the Twin Towers fund. More importantly, we can respond by remaining strong and ever vigilant to ensure that these horrors are never repeated.

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THIS POWERFUL, SORROWFUL DOCUMENTARY PRESENTS AN HISTORICAL RECORD OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 AS SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF THEMAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY AT THAT TIME, RUDY GIULIANI.

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The Concert For New York City (2001) Review

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(More customer reviews)Once again, the Who show just why they are the greatest Rock and Roll band to ever walk the earth. There show was simply amazing. To hear the ovation they got at the end was truly shocking. They get it started with Who Are You and Pete is just amazing in his windmilling. Entwistle keeps it all together on bass and Daltrey gets the crowd going, while Starkey does a fine job on drums. Baba O'reilly and the reaction the crowd gives after hearing the first few cords brings goosebumps to everyone. Daltrey shows hes still go it with a killer harmonica solo in the end. Behind Blue Eyes brings everyone down to tears, only to pick us up again at the end of the song. And in Wont Get Fooled Again, Townshend and Entwistle go crazy, while Daltrey wails away at our ear drums. Starkeys drum solo at the end is just fantastic, and Daltrey gives one more screaming "Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" at the end. They were simply amazing. As Billy Crystal said, they "Just blew me away. Absolutely blew me away."

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Studio: Sony MusicRelease Date: 01/29/2002

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9/11 - The Filmmakers' Commemorative Edition (2002) Review

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(More customer reviews)This film is the "accidental documentary" made by French brothers and film makers, Gedeon and Jules Naudet. The brothers were making a film about a young fire fighter during his 9-month probationary period. With the help of their friend, firefighter James Hanlon, there were given nearly unlimited access to all the goings-on at the firehouse, Engine 7, Ladder 1, on Duane Street in Lower Manhattan, less than ten blocks from the World Trade Center. Little did the brothers know that they would be the witness to history, just three months after they began their project.
Gedeon is the older brother, and the avid film maker. But, by the time of 9/11, an additional camera had been purchased for Jules for "camera practice." Jules is with the Battalion Chief, Joseph Pfeifer, and 13 other fire fighters from the house, filming as they investigate an odor of gas at 8:46 am on Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001. They are standing in the path of the plane as it flies over and hits Tower 1, and Jules is filming the entire time. His is the only footage of the attack on Tower 1. The reaction of the firefighters is immediate, as they take off for the Trade Center, a place they previously would visit up to five times a day on a shift. They know the Trade Center perhaps better than any other firehouse in Manhattan. But, nothing has prepared them for this.
What transpires is the only known footage of the struggle of the firefighters inside Tower 1 as they try to figure out what to do in the chaos and confusion. They had seen it all, they thought, but this was something they hadn't prepared for. The film is very sensitively edited, so you don't see the blood or the gore or the bodies, you only hear about them. The focus in this film is on the brotherhood of the firemen, what was going on in the towers while the rest of the world looked on, helplessly. How men who make less money than half of the City are the ones who rush into the burning buildings, and who do not hesitate to lay down their lives while saving others. It is the tale of a true brotherhood, of men who are doing jobs handed down to them from generations before. It is more than a story of 9/11, it is the story of the world of New York fire fighters.
Before 9/11 happens, we see the inside of the firehouse, how the young "Probie", Tony Benatanos, is brought into the fold, how the firemen interact and eat together and needle each other. The French brothers did not set out to make a documentary on 9/11, certainly, but fate dealt a hand. This is the most extensive, mind-boggling film, and the DVD contains extended interviews with the firemen, who have seen so much, but still seem to be in shock about what they saw that day.
James Hanlon narrates this film beautifully, and the brothers are interviewed describing that terrible day. The firemen are truly amazing, the footage is incredible, and, if you only see one documentary on this horrible day, this is the one to see. It truly portrays the victims, the heroes, and the survivors sensitively, honestly, and shockingly. It is unforgettable.

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9/11 THE FILMMAKER COMMEMORATIVE 2002 - DVD Movie

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Cnn Millennium 2000 (2000) Review

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(More customer reviews)I just got finished reading some of the other negative reviews when my copy arrived in the mail. I started watching with a positive attitude saying, "how bad could it really be." We'd all seen at least some of the coverage on TV and it was ok. Well, let me say this... it was THAT bad. (I won't even get into the sound and video quality as other reviewers did) Some of the irrelevant commentary from the live broadcast that you'd surely think they would have edited out... they included. Then left out important footage such as: North America's first (St. John's Newfoundland) and Other noteables like: Miami, Chicago, Toronto, Seattle, etc. One of the most impressive fireworks displays (Paris) got hacked to pieces. The best examples of the lunacy are the arguments of who's party is better Washington or New York, and the part in the NY subway where we witness a millennium milestone - drunk teenagers screaming as some poor girl gets made a fool of by a reporter. I was expecting something more of a documentary type production with narrative commentary and music over the amazing video images, but instead we got bits and pieces of the live video feeds awkwardly spliced together and poorly edited. There isn't even any kind of notes or booklet inside. I really feel embarassed for CNN. This is very unprofessional and quite frankly a waste of money. Let me say in closing that as soon as one of the more reputable TV networks comes out with their own video, this useless piece of plastic will adorn the bottom of my trash can. I'm very disappointed.

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Beginning December31, CNN will present Millennium 2000--onehundred hours of comprehensive global news coverage of millennium-related eventsand turn-of-the-century issues. This two-hour video will highlight the New Year's Eveprogram that covers celebrations and New Year's Day interviews from the world'sgreatest cities--Paris, London, Rome, Sydney, New York, Berlin, Los Angeles, Tokyo,Hong Kong, Madrid, Chicago, Buenos Aires, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, and more! CNN'sMillennium 2000 will draw from the full resources of CNN's 35bureausand its more than 800affiliates and 4,000news professionals.

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Reno 911 - The Complete Third Season (Uncensored) (2003) Review

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(More customer reviews)Comedy Central's Reno 911 is one of those rare shows that shouldn't work, and yet it surprisingly does. As the third season of the show opens, the inept officers of the Reno, Nevada sheriff's department are freed from prison and leading new lives, only to be re-united again and eventually re-instated as cops, much to their dismay. The improvised jokes and gags come as fast and furious as a long time fan of the show would come to expect, yet pretty much everything here still manages to feel fresh. Thomas Lennon (Dangle) and Robert Garant (Junior) are still the funniest attractions of Reno 911, and even when a new recruit (Mary Birdsong) joins the force, the show still keeps rolling along. There's plenty of other hilarity that ensues throughout the season, including Weigel (Kerry Kinney-Silver) planning to wed her serial killer boyfriend; not letting a little thing like him sitting on death row spoil her plans of matrimony. All in all, the third season of Reno 911 only improves everything that the surprising Comedy Central hit has laid out, and while these cops are definitely not the best, you can't deny that they're not the funniest.

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Buckle up for another ride with the officers of Reno Nevada’s Sheriff’s Department in this third season DVD of the hit Comedy Central Series.From a stint in prison to an accidental cat killing to close encounters of the S.A.R.S. kind, you can expect nothing but foolish choices and utter mediocrity from these hapless law enforcers!

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Reno 911 - The Complete Fourth Season (Uncensored) (2003) Review

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(More customer reviews)In the fourth season of "Reno 911!," the cast have perfected the quirky personalities of their characters, and find themselves in increasingly strange situations. In the first episode, Lieutenant Jim Dangle (Thomas Lennon) and Deputy James Garcia (Carlos Alazraqui) are found alive, naked and freezing in their patrol car, while the boyfriend of Deputy Trudy Wiegel (Kerri Kenney-Silver) is executed for being a serial murderer. Six months later, Deputy Wiegel returns to work after being out on personal leave, and is obviously pregnant. At the same time Carrot Top, the prop comedian, blows his top in a hotel room. Apparently, the two incidents are totally unrelated.
Deputy Cherisha Kimball (Mary Birdsong), who joined the show in season 3, really comes into her own in the "Christian Karaoke Singles' Mixer" episode. In another episode, Paul Reubens guest stars as citizen Rick, a guardian angel-vigilante who is always one step ahead of the Reno Sheriff's Department. Of course, they resent his presence at crime scenes. Deputy Travis Junior (Robert Ben Garant): "If it was easy to be good at law enforcement, wouldn't we be?" Terry (Nick Swardson), the roller skating waiter at Tacos! Tacos! Tacos! Tacos!, never fails to amuse in his many appearances. Nobody can lie to the police - I mean improvise - as well as he can. Patton Oswalt also appears as the Dungeon Master at the Renaissance Fair in several episodes. Dungeon Master: "This is my winter fat. I have not had enough jousting to work off my winter fat." Deputy Travis Junior: "It's August!" Paul Reubens, Nick Swardson, and Patton Oswalt all appear in the feature film "Reno 911!: Miami."
In the next-to-last episode, Jim Dangle accepts a wedding proposal from his ex-wife's husband, and a gay commitment ceremony is planned. In the last episode, Trudy pops out of a giant wedding cake, topless, in a desperate attempt to make Jim fall in love with her and call off the ceremony. Unfortunately, being extremely pregnant, Trudy gets stuck halfway out of the cake, and her water breaks. They can't break her out of the cake, and she can't fit in the ambulance. She must be wheeled in the cake, topless and screaming, down the streets of Reno, to the hospital. After giving birth, the gay commitment ceremony commences in Trudy's hospital room. The episode ends with Deputy Garcia throwing a monkey wrench into the ceremony, and Trudy whispering to Jim that she knows who the father of her baby is. I can't wait for the fifth season of "Reno 911!" to begin!

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The officers of the Reno, Nevada Sheriff's department are back with a fourth season of Reno 911!that's full of murder intrigue, and a disturbingly (and mysteriously) pregnant Officer Wiegel.From committing election fraud to donning hot pink uniforms and blowing up various large items, the officers give their all in every episode after gloriously inept episode.

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Sleeper Cell - American Terror - The Complete Second Season (2005) Review

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(More customer reviews)After reading some initially moderate reviews of the first season of "Sleeper Cell", I tuned into Showtime with minimal expectations. However, I was pleasantly surprised by an efficient, nicely acted, and timely thriller. I became a big supporter of the show, and felt that it was much better than a lot of people gave it credit for--and eventually it was recognized with some accolades (an Emmy nomination for best miniseries among others).
So, I went into "Sleeper Cell - American Terror" with greater expectations. While, ultimately, I don't feel as if was as taut and exciting as the first season--it is still an intriguing and serious minded look at the world of terrorism. The show essentially revolves around Michael Ealy as Darwyn, an African-American Muslim who is also an undercover FBI agent. He thwarted an attack on Dodger Stadium in "Sleeper Cell." The show picks up with months after that incident with Darwyn looking to distance himself from field work and live quietly with his girlfriend. As a horrific fate befalls his previous handler, he is called back into action to help stop a current and impending threat. Using his previous connections, he not only joins a new cell--but eventually becomes its leader. With an inexperienced handler, he often has to go rogue in order to maintain his credibility within the cell. In concurrent storylines, we follow two other members of last season's cast--Farik, the mastermind of the Dodger stadium attack and another "soldier."
Farik, a great and believable villain, is a bit underutilized here--but Oded Fehr makes him a powerful presence. The action is filmed around the globe, and the scope of the show is ambitious and impressive. I actually liked the members of the new cell, and thought the characterizations were surprisingly detailed. Far from stereotypes, you learn about them as individuals. This definitely raises the stakes. I did, however, think the show lacked some of the propulsive narrative drive necessary to make this absolutely unmissable entertainment. The interplay between Darwyn and his new handler is pretty forced and not particularly believable. It's conflict added for the sake of conflict. But once again (as in Season one), the character that threatens to derail the show is Darwyn's girlfriend. She is incorporated into the action unnecessarily and tediously (she does work for the FBI to conveniently thwart a custody action from her son's grandparents). It's not credible, nor interesting or well played.
I do recommend "American Terror," however. I do like that the show doesn't shy away from real consequences and real tragedy. An insightful look, the show is further distinguished by an ethically questionable ending and an ambiguous final shot. I admired that the show wasn't wrapped up in nobility--for to give this a tidy ending would have been a compromise not worthy of the serious and complex topic. KGHarris, 12/06.

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In SLEEPER CELL: AMERICAN TERROR, the Muslim undercover FBI agent, Darwyn (Michael Ealy), discovers that another terrorist cell in Southern California is planning a catastrophic attack that will be more successful than the last attempt. Meanwhile, Farik escapes out of the country and directs another terrorist operation, beginning a parallel storyline between Southern California and the Middle East.

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The Hamburg Cell (2005) Review

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(More customer reviews)'The Hamburg Cell' is an excellent film that follows the 9/11 hijackers in the years leading up to the attacks. The film is simple, yet extremely compelling. The acting is superb, and the characters are portrayed not as frothing at the mouth lunatics, but as the rather ordinary-albeit demented-young men that they were. The film succeeds in showing how one can go from a shy, secular, college student, to an angry, brainwashed, religious zealot. From the several books that I have read on the subject, the film seems to be very accurate. Conspiracy theories notwithstanding, this is the true story of the 9/11 hijackers and how they came to be the most infamous men of our generation. I highly recommend this film.

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"If there is a more important, more urgent story to be told than this, I can’t think of it." -The Guardian (U.K.) In this daring dramatization of events leading up to 9/11, director Antonia Bird (Face, Priest) casts her bold, unblinking lens on the roots of extremism. You meet a small band of middle-class students who commit themselves to the unconscionable: Ziad Jarrah (Karim Saleh), the confused and ultimately duplicitous lover and husband; Mohamed Atta (Kamel), the stern, puritanical enforcer, seething with hate; and Ramzi bin al Shibh (Omar Berdouni), the fanatic recruiter for violent martyrdom. Based on exhaustive research, including personal interviews, unpublished correspondence, and the official 9/11 Commission Report, the film offers a coldly detached yet unnervingly intimate study of young men who turned themselves into monsters. What’s more, it reveals the many instances when they might have been stopped.

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Homeland Security (2004) Review

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(More customer reviews)Television pilots that fail to be picked up as series are showing up on the shelves as movies and the transition is all too apparent. HOMELAND SECURITY was supposed to be a series for TV, a form of explaining how the Department of Homeland Security came into being after the tragedy of 911. The 'film' version is mildly instructive, mildly entertaining, and in the end it is a hodge podge of ideas of how a long series might run crammed into 87 minutes.
What begins as a diatribe against the lack of cooperation and interaction among the CIA, FBI, and military intelligence (lower case intended!) suggesting that had their been centralization of information, perhaps 911 could have been prevented, ends up as a sprawling mélange of ill-connected pieces. The problems arise in attempting to explain the intricacies of the schisms in Afghanistan (a lot of pyrotechnique footage for this confusing section) along with the preludes of terrorist sub rosa influx into the country, footage from the 911 events, and personalization of some of the perpetrators and victims - all in compressed time broken by obvious black screen moments where TV commercials were placed.
The cast (Tom Skirett, Scott Glenn, Grant Show, Marisol Nichols, et al) tries hard to make the fuzzy script (written by Christopher Crowe) work, but the direction by Daniel Sackheim is jittery and ultimately seems to sell out to the political Right - probably at the demand of the non-cable TV network. Probably at the inception of the idea of tracing the evolution of Homeland Security as a force more intelligent in centralization of information was a good idea. It just gets too watered down and relies on the repetition of the line 'it was all there in front of us waiting for us to connect the dots'. Still, some food for thought. Grady Harp, August 05

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HOMELAND SECURITY - DVD Movie

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