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 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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