ConjuringTraumaThe Naudet Brothersrsquo911DocumentaryStef Craps

Abstract The events of 11 September 2001 caused a rupture not only inthe normal order of things but also and perhaps especially in thesignifying systems underwriting that order The Naudet brothersrsquoremarkable 911 documentary which aired on CBS on 10 March 2002and on TV stations around the world on the first anniversary of theattacks seeks to reinstitute the authority of the conventions and con-structions of a culture whose limits the events of 11 September hadpainfully exposed The filmmdashentitled 911mdashis marked by a fundamentaltension between the revelation of an abysmal crisis of meaning on theone hand and the desire to bring this crisis under control on the otherThe filmmakers attempt to mitigate the traumatic potential of their uniqueatrocity footage by sanitizing it and integrating it into a Hollywood-stylecoming-of-age drama tracing a probationary fire-fighterrsquos perilous journeyfrom innocence to experience Thus the focus shifts from a disorientingand overwhelming sense of loss to comforting ideologically chargednotions of heroism and community that perpetuate an idealized nationalself-image and come to function as a moral justification for retaliationIn its drive to obtain mastery over trauma by rendering it legible in termsof existing cultural codes 911 appears to disregard what Cathy Caruthcalls lsquolsquothe eventrsquos essential incomprehensibility the force of its affrontto understandingrsquorsquo (154) Yet for all its investment in a classical realistaesthetic the film remains haunted by a traumatic history that exceedsand breaks down accustomed habits of thought narration andvisualization

Keywords 911 Naudet documentary trauma denial heroismcommunity

Resume Les evenements du 11 septembre 2001 ont provoque unerupture non seulement dans lrsquoordre naturel des choses mais egalementet peut-etre tout particulierement dans les systemes de signifies quisous-tendent cet ordre des choses Le remarquable documentaire sur le

Canadian Reviewof American StudiesRevuecanadienne drsquoecurren tudesamecurren ricaines 37 no 2 2007

11 septembre realise par les freres Naudet presente par le reseau CBSle 10 mars 2002 puis par de nombreuses chaınes de television du mondeentier pour souligner le premier anniversaire des attentats tente deretablir lrsquoautorite des conventions et constructions drsquoune culture dont leslimites ont ete douloureusement mises a jour par les attentats du11 septembre Le film mdash intitule 911 mdash se caracterise par une tensionfondamentale entre la revelation une grave crise de signification drsquounepart et le desir de dominer cette crise drsquoautre part Les realisateurstentent drsquoattenuer le potentiel traumatisant des scenes atroces qursquoilspresentent en les expurgeant de leurs contenus les plus crus et en lesintegrant dans un scenario de style hollywoodien dans lequel un jeunepompier a ses premieres armes effectue un dangereux parcours qui va delrsquoinnocence a lrsquoexperience Ainsi lrsquoaccent passe drsquoun sentiment drsquoenormeperte a un sentiment drsquoheroısme et de sens communautaire reconfortantcharge sur le plan ideologique qui perpetuant une image nationaleidealisee et qui finit par servir de justification a drsquoeventuellesrepresailles Dans son intention de maıtriser le traumatisme en le rendantintelligible en termes des codes culturels existants 911 semble ignorercompletement ce que Cathy Caruth a appele uml lrsquoincomprehensibilitefondamentale des evenements la force de lrsquoaffront fait a la comprehension[the eventrsquos essential incomprehensibility the force of its affront tounderstanding] pound (154) Pourtant malgre son parti pris pour une esthetiquerealiste classique le film reste marque par une histoire traumatisantequi depasse et brise les modes de pensee de narration et de visionhabituels

Mots cles 11 septembre Naudet documentaire traumatisme deniheroısme communaute

The events of 11 September 2001 caused a rupture not only in thenormal order of things but also and perhaps especially in thesignifying systems underwriting that order According to JacquesDerrida the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and thePentagon radically unsettled lsquolsquothe conceptual semantic and onecould even say hermeneutic apparatus that might have allowedone to see coming to comprehend interpret describe speak of andname lsquoSeptember 11rsquomdashand in so doing to neutralize the traumatismand come to terms with it through a lsquowork of mourningrsquorsquorsquo (qtd inBorradori 93) The Naudet brothersrsquo remarkable 911 documentarywhich aired on CBS on 10 March 2002 and on TV stations aroundthe world on the first anniversary of the attacks seeks to reinstitutethe authority of the conventions and constructions of a culturewhose limits the events of 11 September had painfully exposed1

The filmmdashentitled 911mdashis marked by a fundamental tensionbetween the revelation of an abysmal crisis of meaning on the

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one hand and the desire to bring this crisis under controlon the other The filmmakers attempt to mitigate the traumaticpotential of their unique atrocity footage by sanitizing it andintegrating it into a Hollywood-style coming-of-age drama tracinga probationary fire-fighterrsquos perilous journey from innocence toexperience Thus the focus shifts from a disorienting and over-whelming sense of loss to comforting ideologically charged notionsof heroism and community that perpetuate an idealized nationalself-image and come to function as a moral justification for retalia-tion In its drive to obtain mastery over trauma by rendering itlegible in terms of existing cultural codes 911 appears to disregardwhat Cathy Caruth calls lsquolsquothe eventrsquos essential incomprehensibilitythe force of its affront to understandingrsquorsquo (154) Yet for all itsinvestment in a classical realist aesthetic the film remains hauntedby a traumatic history that exceeds and breaks down accustomedhabits of thought narration and visualization

Before becoming accidental witnesses to history with 911 theFrench-born Jules and Gedeon Naudet who moved to the UnitedStates in 1989 and graduated from the New York Film School in1995 had already made another documentary film about an Amer-ican subject Hope Gloves and Redemption The Story of Mickey andNegra Rosario which enjoyed a DVD release in the wake of thesuccess of 911 follows an ex-gang member from Spanish Harlemand his wife who turned their lives around and set up a commu-nity boxing studio to help other urban youth avoid the temptationsof gang life Prior to its DVD release this uplifting documentaryframed as a validation of the American dream had picked up theGrand Jury Prize for Documentary and the award for Best Cine-matography at the 2001 New York International Independent Filmand Video Festival The Naudet brothers set out to duplicate thesuccess formula of this documentary in their next film the one thatwound up as 911 Their intention was to follow a rookie New Yorkfire-fighter Tony Benetatos through his first year on the job tocapture the process they describe in the film as lsquolsquoa kid becom[ing]a man in nine monthsrsquorsquo The first part of the documentary showsBenetatos going through the usual work of a probationary fire-fighter (or lsquolsquoprobiersquorsquo) including cleaning dishes and washinga fire truck as he anxiously awaits his first major firemdashwhichturns out to be a long time coming ironically there were nomajor fires handled by his company (Engine 7 Ladder 1) in themonths leading up to the 11 September attacks at least not whilehe was on duty

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In one of the amazing turns of circumstances shown in the filmJules Naudet is out with some of the companyrsquos fire-fighterswhen they respond at about 830 am on the day of the disasterto a routine call to investigate a suspected gas leak at an intersectionless than a mile north of the World Trade Center While there hehears the roar of a low-flying jet and turns his camera upwardsthus shooting the only known video of the first plane hittingTower 1 Accompanying the fire-fighters the two French brothersmanage to capture extraordinary footage of the World Trade Centerdisaster Jules from inside the lobby of Tower 1 where the battalionchiefs are planning their rescue operations Gedeon from outside ashe makes his way from the firehouse to the World Trade Center onfoot and by pick-up truck While Jules films the fire-fightersrsquo franticattempts to get a handle on the situation Gedeon records thereaction of the watching crowds in the streets of ManhattanWe are shown how the men in the Tower 1 lobby are thrown intodarkness as Tower 2 collapses how they struggle to escape thebuilding while avoiding debris and people jumping to their deathsand how they run for cover after the collapse of Tower 1 We seedowntown streets full of people pointing at the towers and talkingwith one another Later the streets are full of people trying to getaway from the site of the disaster Later still they are empty ofpeople but full of dust and ash

The footage shot by the Naudet brothers on 11 September which isat the heart of the documentary is powerful frightening andoverwhelming Their harrowing images drive home the traumaticimpact of events in excess of our conceptual categories and framesof reference Besides filming the horrific events themselves from upclose the camera also captures the look of bewilderment disbeliefincomprehension fear and powerlessness on the faces of peoplecaught in the most appalling disaster The retrospective interviewswith the filmmakers and the fire-fighters that are interspersed withthis footage confirm these responses Gedeon and Jules recallinability of the passers-by and the fire-fighters to believe whatwas happening before their eyes lsquolsquo[w]alking to the World TradeCenter passing by these people filming their astonishment Eyessaying this is not happeningrsquorsquo (Gedeon) lsquolsquoI was seeing the lookon the fire-fighters [sic] It was not fear it was whatrsquos going onDisbelief That made me panic a little bit That made me panicrsquorsquo(Jules) Several fire-fighters stress the complete unexpectednessof what took place (lsquolsquowersquod never experienced something like thisbeforersquorsquo) and the impossibility of bringing the situation under

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control (lsquolsquowhat do we do what do we do for thisrsquorsquo) These reactionsare clearly symptomatic of trauma understood as a suddenunexpected and overwhelming experience that escapes onersquosgraspmdashwhether conceptual or physicalmdashand as a result keepshaunting one The haunting power of the events of 11 September isapparent from the following comment made by Jules lsquolsquo[e]very nowand then I still wonder is it really true you know I know ithappened but I donrsquot know how do you deal with somethinglike this Itrsquos the eleventh every day for me when I wake uprsquorsquo

The question of how to cope with trauma is right at the forefrontof the documentary The filmmakers deploy various strategies todefuse their explosive footage and thus to contain control andmanage the trauma it conveys In fact their efforts to lsquolsquodetrau-matizersquorsquo 11 September started well before they got to the editingroom Amid concerns prior to its first CBS broadcast over thepossibly graphic content of the documentary Jules Naudet toldreporters and critics at a small press screening that lsquolsquo[t]here wasnever any graphic footage We did self-censorshiprsquorsquo (qtd in Ander-son and Swanson) In the program Jules says that as he enteredthe lobby of Tower 1 with the fire-fighters he saw people engulfedin flames By his own account he chose not to film them thinkinglsquolsquono one should see thisrsquorsquo Indeed despite the carnage that took thelives of nearly 3000 people there is nothing grisly in the footagewe are shown2 While the scenes of devastation are unrelentingno gore no mutilated bodies or body parts and no one jumpingfrom the towers are ever visible The only injury seen in the film isa small cut on the upper cheek of a fire-fighter who is shown restingafter the second collapse3 The filmmakersrsquo self-censorship waswidely seen as a commendable decision to stay within the boundsof good taste Good taste however is hardly the self-evident andinnocent concept it appears to be Rather it functions as a cover forideological motives As Slavoj Zizek has argued with reference tothe television coverage of the World Trade Center disaster theabsence on-screen of graphic depictions of deathmdashwhich standsin stark contrast with the in-your-face gore of reporting onThird-World calamitiesmdasheffects a lsquolsquoderealizationrsquorsquo of the horrorthat ultimately serves to restore First-World complacency

while the number of victimsmdash3000mdashis repeated all the time itis surprising how little of the actual carnage we seemdashnodismembered bodies no blood no desperate faces of dyingpeople in clear contrast to reporting on Third World

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catastrophies where the whole point is to produce a scoop ofsome gruesome detail Somalis dying of hunger raped Bosnianwomen men with their throats cut Is this not yet furtherproof of how even in this tragic moment the distance whichseparates Us from Them from their reality is maintained thereal horror happens there not here (13)4

If this ideological (self-)censorship reduces the traumatic impact ofthe events of 11 September their incorporation into a familiarnarrative form only reinforces this effect At the beginning of thedocumentary James Hanlon the Naudet brothersrsquo fire-fighterfriend who acts as the filmrsquos narrator and co-director suggeststhat the events of 11 September caused the filmmakers to abandontheir original plan of making lsquolsquoa documentary about a fire-fighterrsquorsquoThe film they ended up making so Hanlon asserts is lsquolsquoa documen-tary about 911rsquorsquo Remarkably however the radical shift of focusimplied here does not take place Though the unique footage shotby the Naudet brothers at and near the World Trade Center on11 September obviously forms the centrepiece of the documentarythe filmmakers have actually produced the all-American coming-of-age drama they intended to make all along The documentarytakes the form of a rite-of-passage narrative in which Tony Bene-tatos proves himself as a fire-fighter on 11 September thus realizinghis self-declared desire to become a hero5 Nothing it seems isallowed to stand in the way of the fulfilment of this quintessentialAmerican dream The World Trade Center disaster is presented asa test of the probiersquos manhood an obstacle to be overcome Hanlonannounces as much early on in the film when he says about hiscolleagues at the firehouse lsquolsquoSoon theyrsquod face the unthinkableThe question was would Tony be readyrsquorsquo At the end of the filmhe proclaims Benetatos to have passed the test lsquolsquoIt turns out Tonybecame a man [not in nine monthsmdashie the duration of hisprobationary periodmdashbut] in about nine hours trying to help outon 911rsquorsquo

In the spirit of the originally planned documentary the programtakes on the structure of a classical Hollywood film complete withan omniscient narrator a protagonist a carefully crafted storylinea dramatic soundtrack and the obligatory happy ending6 indeednot only does Tony emerge from the scene of the disaster a herobut all the companyrsquos other fire-fighters turn out to have survivedthe ordeal as well7 While it is striking how the events lentthemselves to this formulaic Hollywood treatment it has to besaid that the filmmakers spared no effort in exploiting their

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materialrsquos Hollywood potential This is particularly clear in thebuild-up of suspense in the film which relies partly on brief flash-forwards and foreboding comments by the narrator during the longwait for a real fire and partly also on the absence of the protagonistfrom the interview segments filmed after 11 September an absencemaintained until the finale Unlike the other fire-fighters formost of the film Benetatos only appears in footage from before11 September Thus a further element of tension is added thecentral question becomes whether or not our young unseasonedhero has survived the catastrophe This mystery is not resolveduntil all the other fire-fighters have returned alive and well to thestation where they sit worrying about the probie who is stillunaccounted for suddenly in walks Benetatos lsquolsquolike an urbancowboy appearing alone from the cloudy dust-covered horizonrsquorsquo(Lubin 126) Only now do we get to see the protagonist in after-the-fact interview footage

The filmmakersrsquo decision to frame their documentary as a Holly-wood-style rite-of-passage drama drew mixed responses MarcPeyser a writer for Newsweek notes

At its best lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo is as close to a feel-good movie as it can beconsidering the tragic cloth from which it is made At its bestlsquolsquo911rsquorsquo is much more than a mere document of one of thedeadliest days in American history With its richly drawncharacters its plot twists and its raw emotion lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo oftenplays out like a three-act Hollywood movie The only problemis itrsquos all real

Peyser himself does not seem overly troubled by this problemin fact reading his articlemdashappropriately titled lsquolsquoIf Only It Were Justa Moviersquorsquomdashone gets the impression that the author is more thanhappy to take his wishes for reality8 A very different note issounded by Chris Rylant of TeeVee who in an article that recallsTheodor Adornorsquos famous injunction against writing poetry afterAuschwitz and Elie Wieselrsquos critique of the television miniseriesHolocaust angrily denounces what he sees as lsquolsquothe ridiculouslymanipulative filmmaking of 911rsquorsquo calling it lsquolsquoshamelessrsquorsquo In hisview the documentaryrsquos systematic and exclusive focus on the birthof a hero amounts to a betrayal of the victims whose suffering issmoothed over and ignored

As if we needed to be thinking about the fate of this onehandsome young hero-with-a-capital-H because we couldnrsquot

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really feel the violent deaths of tens of hundreds of namelessoffice workers Just like the sinking of the Titanic and thebombing of Pearl Harbor needed romantic triangles tomake them worthwhile and interesting we needed to wonderif this one Probie fire-fighter would make it out alive Nevermind the destruction of two office buildings and thousandsof people

The Hollywoodization of the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary isunderlined by the inclusion of narration by long-time Tribecaresident Robert De Niro who appears briefly in three segmentsas host His film-star status makes De Niro a paradoxical guarantorof the authenticity of the footage his assurances that the film inwhich he features is a truthful record of reality inevitably producea derealization effect In fact from the other remarks the actormakes it becomes evident that his services have been enlisted forjust this purpose De Niro Hollywoodrsquos archetypal tough guyintroduces the documentary as an epic tale of courage strengthand triumph lsquolsquoThis is the story of how the cityrsquos bravest roseto their greatest challenge on September 11rsquorsquo Just before thesecond act featuring the World Trade Center scenes he returns toannounce that lsquolsquo[w]hat yoursquore about to see is how brave men workunder stress surrounded by chaosrsquorsquo Clearly De Nirorsquos framingremarks are meant to guide the viewerrsquos interpretation of theNaudet brothersrsquo atrocity footage in such a way as to counteractits traumatizing potential Rather than presenting these disturbingimages as testimony to the murderous nightmare of terrorismhe attempts to strip them of their essential horror (however miti-gated) by integrating them into an edifying story of grace underpressure That this is the intention becomes crystal clear when inhis final appearance at the end of the film De Niro claims thatlsquolsquothe moment in historyrsquorsquo that the viewer has just witnessed is lsquolsquo[n]ota moment of terror but one of strength when good men did greatthings Tens of thousands were saved by simple acts of courageWe hope that will be the true legacy of the men from Engine 7Ladder 1rsquorsquo9 In substituting heroism for terror this passage effec-tively dramatizes the lsquolsquostrange movement of languagersquorsquo observed byJames Berger in the aftermath of 11 September lsquolsquothe transformationof overwhelming loss into a kind of victory The media soon spokemore about the heroes of September 11 than of the deadrsquorsquo (55)10

A tropological movement takes place in which the traumatic excessof a deathly disaster is domesticated through anthropomorphiza-tion and reversal into life-saving heroism

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Interestingly De Nirorsquos representation of the fire-fighters as for-midable heroes performing extraordinary feats is radically at oddswith the menrsquos self-representation and with their own experience ofthe events of 11 September as they describe it in the retrospectiveinterview segments One of them evokes an overwhelming sense ofloss and powerlessness lsquolsquoWe lost so much in that two-hour periodWe felt like we got the hell kicked out of usrsquorsquo James Hanlonmentions his surprise at being treated like a hero by people in thestreets lsquolsquoIt was weird in a way walking back to the firehousePeople were cheering us but we sure didnrsquot feel like heroesrsquorsquo In theadditional interviews on the DVD which did not make the finalcut of the film other men of Engine 7 Ladder 1 speak of feelinglsquolsquohelplessrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoterrifiedrsquorsquo and admit that lsquolsquoThere was not muchyou could dorsquorsquo This is also the impression one gets from watchingthe footage shot by Jules inside the lobby of Tower 1 which showsscenes of chaos and indecision and captures the look of utterdisbelief and confusion on the fire-fightersrsquo faces Apparentlymaking heroes of the fire-fighters is demanded not so much bythe facts of the case as by the conventional narrative form intowhich those facts have been inserted11

Another way in which De Niro seeks to soften the impact of thedocumentary materials has to do with the numerous expletivesused by the witnesses At the beginning of the program he warnsthe viewer that although what he or she is about to see has beenlsquolsquoedited with great carersquorsquo still lsquolsquosome of the language is roughrsquorsquoAfter all he explains lsquolsquo[T]hese men had never been tested likethis beforersquorsquo In the course of the documentary we do indeedfrequently hear people curse lsquolsquoHoly shitrsquorsquo lsquolsquoTherersquos another fuck-ing planersquorsquo lsquolsquoAnd you know the fucking Pentagon is burningnowrsquorsquo and so on In fact it has been claimed that the amount ofunderstandable profanity spoken by the fire-fighters in 911 wasunprecedented for American network television which is notor-iously squeamish about this issue (Erickson) Trauma pushes peo-ple beyond the boundaries of normal socially acceptable speechan excessive event it seems can only be matched by excessivelanguage The filmmakers apparently felt that editing out swearwords would have been too intrusive an intervention howeverto cushion the supposed shock to the viewer they decided to haveDe Niro give him or her advance warning of what was aboutto assail his or her ears Thus the confrontation with foul languageis prevented from having anything even remotely resembling atraumatic effectmdashafter all for something to be traumatic it has to

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catch one off-guard and unprepared Still the decision not to tonedown the language used by the fire-fighters managed to attract agreat deal of media attention a fact which as Claudia Rosettobserves can only be accounted for by the extreme care withwhich the genuinely shocking aspects of the project had beenhandled

While De Nirorsquos narration is mostly concerned with the creation ofheroism the greatest good resulting from the World Trade Centerdisaster according to the documentary is the strengthening ofcommunity ties The focus in this film made by two brothers isnot only on heroism but also on brotherhood An important sub-plot with strong mythological overtones12 recounts the story of theNaudet brothersrsquo separation by the events their agonizing overeach otherrsquos fate (both of them fear that the other one may be dead)and their emotional reunion at the fire station (which curiously isfilmed by a third person) Gedeon tells us how when the secondtower came down lsquolsquothe only thing I could think about was Julesrsquorsquoand how he vowed to himself that lsquolsquo[i]f I would survive thatI would be a better brother [sic]rsquorsquo The documentary also highlightsthe bonds of brotherhood between the fire-fighters The men ofEngine 7 Ladder 1 are pictured as forming a tight-knit communitywhich closely resembles a family The film not only documents theprobiersquos integration into the firemenrsquos community but also showshow the filmmakers themselves gradually become accepted asmembers of this fraternity While reminiscing about the eveningof 10 September when he and his brother had cooked a meal for theother men Gedeon points out that lsquolsquowe were getting acceptedrsquorsquoThis process is completed when back at the firehouse after thetraumatic events they have lived through together one of the fire-men tells Jules lsquolsquoYesterday you had one brother Today youhave 50rsquorsquo At the end of the program the viewer is invited toshare in the community experience by donating money to a fire-fighterndashrelated charity the Uniformed Firefighters AssociationScholarship Fund The documentary thus shifts attention awayfrom the traumatic events to focus on the sense of caring andkinship forged in the shared disaster Community as Orly Lubinpoints out becomes lsquolsquothe tool of the containment of the traumarsquorsquo(124) The emphasis placed on the sense of community andtogetherness born at the moment of the traumatic event amountsto a form of denialmdashlsquolsquodenialrsquorsquo as Berger explains lsquolsquoin a specificallypsychoanalytic sense not a repression of the trauma or a claim thatit didnrsquot happen but a claim that the traumarsquos consequences will

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not be traumatic that it will not have symptoms but ratheronly beneficial lessons and varieties of redemptionrsquorsquo (55)

The community rhetoric mobilized in 911 is highly ideologicallycharged Though Jules Naudet told reporters that lsquolsquothe film is meantto be seen solely as a tribute to the firemen not as an argumentfor warrsquorsquo (Dreher) the documentary confirms preconceptions andassumptions that enabled a discourse of revenge and militaryaction to take root13 Indeed the film taps into the rhetoric offoundational innocence on which Americans have traditionallyestablished their public identity (but which has always hiddena more rapacious reality) the belief that they are the chosen peoplea nation founded in innocence and godliness The story recountedin the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary purports to represent thenational experience of the events of 11 September In fact the filmcan be seen to claim wider validity for the experience it documentsthrough its title which promises to tell us not a particular story butthe whole story of 11 September The viewer is led to interpret theprobiersquos journey from innocence to experience as an allegory of thefate of the entire nation The fire-fightersrsquo community in generaland Benetatos in particular metonymically and metaphoricallyrepresent the United States a nation that sees itself as a forcefor good the worldrsquos fireman14 The probiersquos self-description aslsquolsquoa person who tries to do good just like every other person in thefire departmentrsquorsquo is entirely consistent with this benign nationalself-image As a fire-fighter adds James Hanlon lsquolsquoYou do your jobyou risk your life to help peoplersquorsquo This notion is echoed by RobertDe Niro lsquolsquoFiremen live to help others live itrsquos that simplersquorsquo15

With the premise of US benevolence firmly in place the film canonly present the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center as an actof pure and inexplicable evil In an apparent effort to avoid politicalcontroversy the filmmakers provide little or no context for whattranspired that day The documentary does not reach beyond thestory of the men of Engine 7 Ladder 1 it refrains from placingthe disaster in a broader political or social context In so doingit effectively buys into the myth of American exceptionalismAfter all the viewer is given no way of framing the attack asanything other than a completely irrational and totally undeservedact of aggression We learn from one of the fire-fighters thatthat day made him realize lsquolsquohow evil evil can bersquorsquo no furtherexplanation is offered The appropriate response to 11 Septemberis voiced by the probie whomdashlsquolsquoexpressing what we all feltrsquorsquo

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(Gedeon)mdashimmediately defines the events as a declaration of waras he watches them unfold on TV Hearing that a plane has crashedinto the Pentagon he exclaims lsquolsquoThe Pentagonrsquos on fucking fireWar This is warrsquorsquo In a postndash11 September interview fragmentBenetatos wise from experience reflects lsquolsquoI know itrsquos either this orthe army now And I like saving lives I donrsquot like taking themBut after what I saw if my country decides to send me to go kill Irsquolldo it nowrsquorsquo This view expressed by a confirmed hero is in no waychallenged in the film which leaves little or no room for alternativeinterpretations Throughout the documentary maintains the inno-cence of the victim-nation suffering an unjust injury inflicted on itfor reasons that are left entirely unclear From this perspective themilitary responsemdashthe only one conceivablemdashappears as a legit-imate act of self-defence16

In Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence Judith Butleraddresses the passage from the experience of vulnerability and lossto military violence and retribution in a way that helps to shedfurther light on the ideological underpinnings of 911 Discussingthe aftermath of the 11 September attacks Butler points out that lsquolsquoitis one matter to suffer violence and quite another to use that fact toground a framework in which onersquos injury authorizes limitlessaggression against targets that may or may not be related to thesources of onersquos own sufferingrsquorsquo (4) This explanatory frameworkwhich has emerged in tandem with the experience of violenceworks lsquolsquoboth to preclude certain kinds of questions certain kinds ofhistorical inquiries and to function as a moral justification forretaliationrsquorsquo (4) Moreover it is said to have a narrative dimensionIn the United States Butler observes the story is typically told froma first-person narrative point of view and begins with the events of11 September events that have no relevant prehistorymdashafter all totell the story another way to ask how things came to such a pass islsquolsquoto complicate the question of agencyrsquorsquo which leads to lsquolsquothe fear ofmoral equivocationrsquorsquo lsquolsquoIn order to condemn these acts as inexcu-sable absolutely wrong in order to sustain the affective structure inwhich we are on the one hand victimized and on the otherengaged in a righteous cause of rooting out terror we have tobegin the story with the experience of violence we sufferedrsquorsquo (6)There is a strong desire to shore up the first-person point of viewand to preclude from the telling accounts that might involve adecentring of the narrative lsquolsquoIrsquorsquo within the international politicaldomain lsquolsquoThis decentering is precisely what we seek to rectifythrough a recentering A narrative form emerges to compensate

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for the enormous narcissistic wound opened up by the publicdisplay of our physical vulnerabilityrsquorsquo (7) This is of course exactlythe form taken by the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary as it attemptsto convert a lsquolsquodecentringrsquorsquo tale of terror into a lsquolsquore-centringrsquorsquo story ofheroism and community spirit Butler insists on the urgent needto decentre this first-person narrative if the world is to be sparedstill worse disasters She sees the temporary dislocation fromFirst World privilege caused by the 11 September attacks as offeringa chance to begin to imagine a world in which such violence mightbe minimized a world in which lsquolsquoan inevitable interdependencybecomes acknowledged as the basis for global political communityrsquorsquo(xiindashxiii) For this vision to become reality she writes lsquolsquowe will needto emerge from the narrative perspective of US unilateralism andas it were its defensive structures to consider the ways in whichour lives are profoundly implicated in the lives of othersrsquorsquo (7)

Butlerrsquos ideal of narrative decentring is strikingly realized in AlainBrigandrsquos 11rsquo0901 another 11 September film produced by aFrenchman that came out in 2002 However this is where thesimilarities between 911 and 11rsquo0901 stop Commissioned byBrigand as a response to the terrorist attacks 11rsquo0901 bringstogether eleven directors from as many countries each contributinga film lasting eleven minutes nine seconds and one frame The titlerefers to this duration as well as to the date of the attacks as itwould appear on a European calendar Hence the decentring of thecustomary first-person point of view that Brigandrsquos omnibus filmenacts is already signalled by its title which suggests foreignness17

The Naudetsrsquo film by contrast is content to use the Americannotation of the date for its title Varying enormously in style scopeand content the eleven segments of 11rsquo0901 testify to the reso-nance of the 11 September attacks around the world Unlike 911which places the events in a political and historical vacuum andthus ends up echoing the official discourse many of the filmsmaking up 11rsquo0901 insist on the interconnectedness of 11 Septem-ber with tragedies taking place elsewhere for which the UnitedStates is seen to be at least partially responsible British director KenLoach for example links 11 September 2001 with 11 September1973 when Chilean president Salvador Allende was killed duringa CIA-backed coup drsquoetat that put dictator Augusto Pinochet inpower In the episode contributed by Egyptian director YoussefChahine the ghost of a US marine is lectured on various interna-tional atrocities carried out in the name of American foreign policyHowever while it clearly distances itself from the American

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patriotic narrative of innocence under siege 11rsquo09rsquorsquo01 at no pointrefuses empathy with or denigrates the suffering of the victims ofthe World Trade Center attacks Rather than playing the who-suffered-most game or getting involved in lsquolsquothe moralizing mathe-matics of guilt and horrorrsquorsquo the film adopts what Zizek callslsquolsquothe only appropriate stancersquorsquo namely lsquolsquounconditional solidaritywith all victimsrsquorsquo (51)18

In contrast with 11rsquo0901 911 carefully avoids the subject of USresponsibility for Third-World poverty and political repressionIn fact the New York Fire Department is a highly appropriatesubject for this film as the make-up of its workforce reveals asimilar kind of blindness to issues of equality inclusion andsolidarity It is a matter of public record that the fire departmentof the multicultural melange that is New York has a serious mino-rities problem lsquolsquoThere are approximately 11500 firefighters andofficers in the FDNY of whom about 300 are black thatrsquos about 3per cent The department which is 92 per cent white has beenhistorically dominated by the cityrsquos Irish and Italian communitiesand is the least diverse fire department of any big city in Americarsquorsquo(Knight) Like African Americans Hispanics make up only3 per cent of New York City fire-fighters and women even lessthan 03 per cent (Latour) In May 2001 the cityrsquos Equal Employ-ment Practices Commission found that the severe under-representation of these groups far from being accidental couldbe attributed to the fire departmentrsquos having lsquolsquocreated barriers tothe hiring of minorities women and the poorrsquorsquo (Latour)19 Thisdramatic lack of diversitymdasha long-standing problem for which theNew York Fire Department has been much criticizedmdashis reflectedin 911 which shows only one African American and not a singleHispanic or woman employed at the Engine 7 Ladder 1 firehouseOnly a handful of African American and Hispanic fire-fighters andno women fire-fighters are shown working in or near the WorldTrade Center on 11 September and the dead fire-fighters whosepictures are displayed at the end of the film are overwhelminglywhite and without exception male The fire-fighting communitythat is held up in the Naudetsrsquo documentary as a model for the USas a nation thus turns out to be a privileged and exclusionary whitebrotherhood Not only then does 911 turn a blind eye to issues ofsocial justice at the international level by maintaining an overlysimplistic good (us) versus evil (them) philosophy but it alsowilfully ignores the demands of social justice closer to home bysinging the praises of an insular defensive and intransigent

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type of community Evidently we are a long way here from theideal of an inclusive and equitable global community as envisagedby Butler an ideal that appears to underlie Brigandrsquos 11rsquo090120

Remarkably in tune with the dominant political discourse of itstime 911 provides us with an example of what Eric Santner hascalled lsquolsquonarrative fetishismrsquorsquo lsquolsquothe construction and deployment ofa narrative consciously or unconsciously designed to expunge thetraces of the trauma that called that narrative into being in the firstplacersquorsquo (144) The film superimposes a linear narrative of heroismand community upon the traumatic reality of the attacks in order todeprive it of its potential significance As we have seen 911 doesnot shirk from suppressing evidence of trauma by excluding orsanitizing graphic footage nor from undermining the authority ofeye-witness testimony by frequently contradicting the fire-fightersrsquoown experience and by adopting an attitude of patronizing toler-ance towards linguistic excesses Viewed from a different anglehowever 911 offers a critique rather than an instantiation of theway in which 11 September is officially remembered In its veryattempt to marginalize trauma and testimony the film actuallyshows how trauma overflows the limits of the memorializingstrategies deployed to contain it thereby demonstrating theirinadequacy and tenuousness Its attempted portrayal of traumaas a discrete past event locatable representable and curable isbelied by traces of trauma seeping through the manifest narrativeresisting processes of identification comprehension and facileredemption

One of these traces is the moment in the film when Tower 2collapses covering the lobby of Tower 1 with debris As JulesNaudet runs up an escalator for shelter not knowing what hashappened his camera keeps rolling We hear a deafening rumblewhich drowns out all other sounds to the point of doing actualdamage to the soundtrack the lens is covered with grit and theneverything becomes pitch black Something similar happens afterthe collapse of Tower 1 which both Jules and Gedeon were filmingfrom nearby streets As the streets fill up with dust and debris theystart running for their lives but eventually fall to the ground Againthe cameras keep rolling recording the loud noise and the onset ofdarkness as the lenses turn brown and gritty Together with thesound of people falling to their deaths these three scenes representthe most direct intrusions of reality in the documentary As ifcaught in a repetition compulsion the film keeps returning to

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these extraordinary images which stand out by their indexicalquality reality physically imprints itself upon the camera insteadof merely being recorded by it in much the same way as atraumatic event falls directly into the psyche bypassing perceptionand consciousness While the filmrsquos apparent objective is to maketrauma visible and narratable in these haunting scenes traumareveals itself as an impossibility of seeing hearing and knowing

That the truth of trauma resides in its resistance to perception andunderstanding is borne out by the testimony of the survivors fromwhich we learn that the fire-fighters on the scene were almosttotally oblivious to the reality of what was going on For examplewhile the whole world had seen Tower 2 collapse on live televisionthe people trapped inside the lobby of Tower 1 did not have a clueas to what had happenedmdashwhich explains why having finallymade their way out they kept standing in the immediate vicinityof the doomed tower In an interview recently made public as partof the 911 records Joseph Pfeifer the battalion chief whom Juleshad found himself shadowing for most of the day recalls lsquolsquoWe gotout there and then we were standing under the bridge trying to seewhat was going on I couldnrsquot see what was going on Everythingwas covered with smoke I couldnrsquot see what collapsed Our eyeswere full of garbage Wersquore standing on the street and still notknowing the full implication of what took place because youcouldnrsquot seersquorsquo The film shows how the fire-fighters only beganto realize what they had lived through after they had got back tothe firehouse The emphasis placed by various eye-witnesses onthe eventsrsquo defiance of sight and comprehension challenges theassumptions structuring the filmrsquos conventional narrative in parti-cular the view that there is an intact history out there waiting to belured into vision and spoken as pure meaning In fact no soonerdoes 911 assert its claim to total visual mastery over the events of11 September than this claim is rebutted by the very footageintended to substantiate it James Hanlonrsquos promise at the begin-ning of the film that the viewer lsquolsquowill see all of itrsquorsquo lsquolsquobeginning toendrsquorsquo is immediately followed by a flash-forward to the dust- anddebris-filled images shot by Jules during the collapse of Tower 2With the picture going black it becomes impossible for the viewerto see anything at all

It is precisely this tension between the desire to know the subjectbeing represented and themdashimplicitmdashrecognition of the limits ofthat knowing that makes 911 so compelling With one hand the

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film offers the familiar gesture of memory as forgettingmdashtheincorporation of trauma into a reassuring narrative of nationalgreatnessmdashand with the other hand it takes away the comfort ofresting in this narrative Whatever ethical value the documentarycan be said to possess lies in the tension between these twogestures which if nothing more at least complicates the returnto the lsquolsquodogmatic slumberrsquorsquo (Derrida qtd in Borradori 100) fromwhich 11 September had awakened us

Notes

1 This is especially true of the televised version of the documentarywhich differs in several respects from the DVD edition released byParamount Pictures in 2002 under the title 911 The FilmmakersrsquoCommemorative Edition Most notably Robert De Niro who hosted theCBS program does not appear on the DVD edition Yet with a runningtime of 129 minutes the DVD edition is about a quarter of an hourlonger than the CBS broadcast Some footage has been added thatexpands on the original material for example scenes from the trainingof new recruits scenes from within the firehouse and scenes from therecovery effort As a result the tight narrative structure undergirdingthe TV version is loosened somewhat By way of bonus materialthe DVD features a 53-minute interview section containing furthercommentary from the fire-fighters

2 In fact the only visual evidence of death in the documentary comes inthe form of two still images of the intact body of Father Mychal Judgethe fire departmentrsquos chaplain being carried to a nearby church Hisdeathmdashdistanced as it is through the use of still rather than movingimagesmdashcan hardly be called representative as the vast majority of thevictims of 11 September were denied such dignity their bodies beingall but obliterated and therefore hard (if not impossible) to identify Asone of the fire-fighters testifies in the additional interview section onthe DVD lsquolsquoThere were many there were many eh it wasnrsquot manybodies but it was many pieces body parts There was I saw one ortwo whole bodies but not it wasnrsquot many I imagine thepeople were the same as the building nothing leftrsquorsquo Moreover thechaplainrsquos death is rescued from meaninglessness by the uncannyresemblance between the scene captured in the two photographs andtraditional pictorial representations of the descent from the crosswhich has the effect of turning the clergyman into a Christ-likesacrificial victim (I owe this point to my colleague Kristiaan Versluys)

3 One might argue as many have that the noise of the impact of thebodies on the glass and metal awning outside Tower 1 is disturbingenough While these sounds are definitely chilling as are the screamswe hear of terrified burn victims inside the lobby it should be pointedout that the original soundtrack recorded by Julesrsquos on-camera

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microphone was manipulated so as to soften the shock effectAppearances notwithstanding what we get to hear is a diluted andsanitized version of the original soundtrack as executive producerSusan Zirinsky explained at the press screening most of the crasheswere edited out on the grounds that lsquolsquo[t]o have that incredible crushof sound every 20 or 30 seconds would have been very tough for theaudiencersquorsquo (qtd in Laurence)

4 A similar point is made by Susan Sontag in Regarding the Pain of Others

Staying within the bounds of good taste was the primary reasongiven for not showing any of the horrific pictures of the deadtaken at the site of the World Trade Center in the immediateaftermath of the attack on September 11 2001 This novelinsistence on good taste in a culture saturated with commercialincentives to lower standards of taste may be puzzling But itmakes sense if understood as obscuring a host of concerns andanxieties about public order and public morale that cannotbe named as well as pointing to the inability otherwise toformulate or defend traditional conventions of how to mourn(68ndash9)

5 In an interview segment filmed at the Fire Academy in June 2001 andshown at the beginning of the documentary Benetatos says lsquolsquoIt soundskind of cheesy but I always kind of wanted to be a hero and this isreally the only thing you can do that you can do that [sic]rsquorsquo

6 See also Orly Lubinrsquos discussion of the documentaryrsquos compliancewith Hollywood conventions (125ndash7)

7 In view of the documentaryrsquos own affinity with mainstream disasterfilms the Hollywood comparisons invoked by some of the witnessesto convey the magnitude of the events take on an ironic ring A newscorrespondent reports from on the ground that lsquolsquo[t]he scene here is justone right out of one of those movies you would see in Hollywoodrsquorsquoand in the DVD version a passer-by is heard saying lsquolsquoLike somethingout of The Towering Inferno like a moviersquorsquo

8 Not only does Peyser speak of lsquolsquorichly drawn charactersrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoplottwistsrsquorsquo in the above passage but he also uses film vocabulary todescribe the thumps of bodies hitting the roof of the lobby callingthem lsquolsquothe most chilling sound effects ever heard on televisionrsquorsquo

9 De Nirorsquos words were echoed by Susan Zirinsky at the pre-screeningpress meeting Responding to Zirinskyrsquos claim in an article titledlsquolsquoShield Us on Sunday Night No Just Show Us Airing the Cultureof Denial on CBSrsquorsquo Claudia Rosett puts her finger on the problemlsquolsquoMoment of strength Well yes unquestionably there was valorBut given that the overwhelming event this bravery sought to addresswas actually terror this amounts to a cleaned up version of therealities of that dayrsquorsquo

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10 lsquolsquoOrrsquorsquo Berger continues lsquolsquothe dead were spoken of now as heroesrsquorsquo (55)Extending the creation of heroes to include the dead is also noticeablein the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary By way of an epilogue photo-graphs of the 344 fire-fighters who lost their lives on 11 September aredisplayed four by four against the background of the Stars and StripesThey are commemorated as national heroes who made the ultimatesacrifice in the service of their country By conceiving the catastropheas a purposive and meaningful sacrificial operation the documentaryeffectively softens its traumatic core

11 As a cinematic tribute to fire-fighters 911 stands in a long traditionof adulatory films about the fire-fighting profession stretching fromLife of an American Fireman (1903) to The Towering Inferno (1974) andfrom Backdraft (1991) to The Guys (2002) and Ladder 49 (2004)

12 While there are numerous myths featuring two brothers one isparticularly reminded of the legendary love of Castor and Polluxthe twin sons of Jupiter and Leda

13 That the documentary promotes a pro-war political agenda wasrecognized at the press meeting by Susan Zirinsky who defended thetiming of the broadcast as follows lsquolsquoThis is the right time We canrsquotforget what drove this country to be at war It is really important to notforget what happenedrsquorsquo (qtd in Long) Appearing on Foxrsquos The OrsquoReillyFactor later that week Zirinsky again invoked the war being fought inAfghanistan and stressed the supposed need lsquolsquoto keep that missionaliversquorsquo As Chris Fitzpatrick points out Zirinskyrsquos attitude lsquolsquoborrowedfrom John Ashcroftrsquorsquo suggests that lsquolsquothe true function of 911 may begetting Americarsquos jingoistic blood boilingrsquorsquo The Naudetsrsquo andZirinskyrsquos apparent disagreement about the purpose of thedocumentary is a rare breach of Franco-American unity judging frominterviews with directors and producers there was a completeconsensus among the different parties involved on just about everyother aspect of the film

14 A similar observation is made by Andre Habib in lsquolsquoAutour de 911 mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelle ou dommages au reelrsquorsquo one ofthe most insightful articles on the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary that Ihave come across Habib also regards the probie as lsquolsquoune metonymie desEtats-Unis en entierrsquorsquo (lsquolsquoa metonymy of the United States as a wholersquorsquo)

Tony crsquoest les Etats-Unis jusque la menages par lrsquoHistoireassoiffes drsquoheroısme mais maintenus a lrsquoecart de toute epreuveveritable Crsquoest comme si tout le pays avait ete jusqursquoa cette datefatidique en probation et que apres le 11 septembre elle avaitsubi son initiation devenant du coup mure pour lrsquoHistoire

(Tony is the United States until then spared by History thirstyfor heroism but kept away from any real challenge It is as if thewhole country had until that fateful date been on probation

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and as if after September 11 it had undergone its initiation andthereby become ripe for History)

15 Compare Zizek lsquolsquo[i]s not the surprise at why are they not loved [sic] forwhat they are doing to the world the most fundamental Americanreaction (at least) since the Vietnam war We just try to be good to helpothers to bring peace and prosperity and look what we get in returnrsquorsquo(145ndash6)

16 In this respect the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary is of a piece withother postndash11 September mass-audience films As Wheeler WinstonDixon observes lsquolsquo[T]he bulk of mainstream American cinema since911 whether the films were in production before or not seemscentered on a desire to replicate the idea of the lsquojust warrsquo in whichmilitary reprisals and the concomitant escalation of warfare seemsimultaneously inevitable and justifiedrsquorsquo (1)

17 In the United States however Brigandrsquos film was released(belatedly in 2003) under the name September 11 in an apparenteffort to counteract this disorienting effect

18 However this did not stop Variety from calling the film lsquolsquostridentlyanti-Americanrsquorsquo (Godard 1) Dixon correctly points out that 11rsquo0901lsquolsquofar from being anti-American is more accurately critical of Americanpolicy in the wake of 911 a very different matterrsquorsquo (5) In his viewthe contested episodes of Brigandrsquos film lsquolsquobring a welcome breath ofdissenting opinion to current cinematic discourse on the attacks of911rsquorsquo (5)

19 Efforts to get the department to comply with the commissionrsquosrecommendations were suspended indefinitely in the wake of the11 September attacks (Latour)

20 In 11rsquo0901 the reality of racism and xenophobia in New York ispoignantly evoked by the Indian director Mira Nair whose segmentdeals with the chilling effects of 11 September on the American Muslimcommunity Set in New York City Nairrsquos film recounts the story (basedon actual events) of a Pakistani American family whose eldest son goesmissing on the morning of 11 September For several months the FBIand the media keep claiming that he was a terrorist causing his familyto be shunned and ostracized by their initially supportive neighboursEventually however it emerges that the young man a medic waskilled while attempting to rescue people at the World Trade CenterOnce the truth is known he is hailed as a hero

Works Cited

Adorno Theodor lsquolsquoCultural Criticism and Societyrsquorsquo Prisms Trans SamuelWeber and Shierry Weber Cambridge MA MIT Press 1984 17ndash34

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Anderson Lisa and Stevenson Swanson lsquolsquoFilm Goes inside World TradeCenter Gripping Sept 11 Footage Followed NYC Firefightersrsquorsquo ChicagoTribune 5 Mar 2002 Advocate 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwstamfordadvo-catecomclassifiedjobssns-worldtrade-filmfootage-ctstorygt

Berger James lsquolsquolsquoTherersquos No Backhand to Thisrsquorsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911Ed Judith Greenberg Lincoln U of Nebraska P 2003 52ndash9

Borradori Giovanna Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with JurgenHabermas and Jacques Derrida Chicago U of Chicago P 2003

Butler Judith Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence LondonVerso 2004

Caruth Cathy lsquolsquoRecapturing the Pastrsquorsquo Introduction Trauma Explorations inMemory Ed Cathy Caruth Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP 1995 151ndash7

Dixon Wheeler Winston lsquolsquoSomething LostmdashFilm after 911rsquorsquo IntroductionFilm and Television after 911 Ed Wheeler Winston Dixon CarbondaleSouthern Illinois UP 2004 1ndash28

Dreher Rod lsquolsquoInside the Inferno The 911 Documentaryrsquorsquo National ReviewOnline 7 Mar 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwnationalreviewcomdreherdreher030702shtmlgt

11rsquo0901 Dir Youssef Chahine et al Prod Alain Brigand DVD GalateeFilms Studio Canal 2002

Erickson Hal lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo All-Movie Guide 22 Sept 2005 lthttpallmoviecomcgavgdllpfrac14avgampsqlfrac141265838gt

Fitzpatrick Chris lsquolsquo911 Happy Anniversaryrsquorsquo PopMatterscom 23 July 2005lthttpwwwpopmatterscomtvreviewsn9ndash11shtmlgt

Godard Francois lsquolsquoCanal Plus 911 Pic Courts Controversyrsquorsquo Daily Variety21 Aug 2002 1 20

Habib Andre lsquolsquoAutour de 911mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelleou dommages au reelrsquorsquo Hors Champs June 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwhorschampqccaarticlephp3id_articlefrac1481gt

Hope Gloves and Redemption Dir Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet 1999DVD Pathfinder 2003

Knight Sam lsquolsquoNew Yorkrsquos Whitestrsquorsquo Slices of New York Times Online 21Feb 2005 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwtimesonlinecoukarticle018391ndash149383700htmlgt

Latour Jane lsquolsquoLooking for a Fire Department That Looks like New YorkrsquorsquoGotham Gazette 3 Dec 2001 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwgothamgazettecomiotwfiredepartmentdoc1shtmlgt

Laurence Robert P lsquolsquoTwo-Hour Special 911 Conveys Horror withoutBeing Graphicrsquorsquo San Diego Union-Tribune 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwsignonsandiegocomtvradiocbs911htmlgt

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11 septembre realise par les freres Naudet presente par le reseau CBSle 10 mars 2002 puis par de nombreuses chaınes de television du mondeentier pour souligner le premier anniversaire des attentats tente deretablir lrsquoautorite des conventions et constructions drsquoune culture dont leslimites ont ete douloureusement mises a jour par les attentats du11 septembre Le film mdash intitule 911 mdash se caracterise par une tensionfondamentale entre la revelation une grave crise de signification drsquounepart et le desir de dominer cette crise drsquoautre part Les realisateurstentent drsquoattenuer le potentiel traumatisant des scenes atroces qursquoilspresentent en les expurgeant de leurs contenus les plus crus et en lesintegrant dans un scenario de style hollywoodien dans lequel un jeunepompier a ses premieres armes effectue un dangereux parcours qui va delrsquoinnocence a lrsquoexperience Ainsi lrsquoaccent passe drsquoun sentiment drsquoenormeperte a un sentiment drsquoheroısme et de sens communautaire reconfortantcharge sur le plan ideologique qui perpetuant une image nationaleidealisee et qui finit par servir de justification a drsquoeventuellesrepresailles Dans son intention de maıtriser le traumatisme en le rendantintelligible en termes des codes culturels existants 911 semble ignorercompletement ce que Cathy Caruth a appele uml lrsquoincomprehensibilitefondamentale des evenements la force de lrsquoaffront fait a la comprehension[the eventrsquos essential incomprehensibility the force of its affront tounderstanding] pound (154) Pourtant malgre son parti pris pour une esthetiquerealiste classique le film reste marque par une histoire traumatisantequi depasse et brise les modes de pensee de narration et de visionhabituels

Mots cles 11 septembre Naudet documentaire traumatisme deniheroısme communaute

The events of 11 September 2001 caused a rupture not only in thenormal order of things but also and perhaps especially in thesignifying systems underwriting that order According to JacquesDerrida the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and thePentagon radically unsettled lsquolsquothe conceptual semantic and onecould even say hermeneutic apparatus that might have allowedone to see coming to comprehend interpret describe speak of andname lsquoSeptember 11rsquomdashand in so doing to neutralize the traumatismand come to terms with it through a lsquowork of mourningrsquorsquorsquo (qtd inBorradori 93) The Naudet brothersrsquo remarkable 911 documentarywhich aired on CBS on 10 March 2002 and on TV stations aroundthe world on the first anniversary of the attacks seeks to reinstitutethe authority of the conventions and constructions of a culturewhose limits the events of 11 September had painfully exposed1

The filmmdashentitled 911mdashis marked by a fundamental tensionbetween the revelation of an abysmal crisis of meaning on the

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one hand and the desire to bring this crisis under controlon the other The filmmakers attempt to mitigate the traumaticpotential of their unique atrocity footage by sanitizing it andintegrating it into a Hollywood-style coming-of-age drama tracinga probationary fire-fighterrsquos perilous journey from innocence toexperience Thus the focus shifts from a disorienting and over-whelming sense of loss to comforting ideologically charged notionsof heroism and community that perpetuate an idealized nationalself-image and come to function as a moral justification for retalia-tion In its drive to obtain mastery over trauma by rendering itlegible in terms of existing cultural codes 911 appears to disregardwhat Cathy Caruth calls lsquolsquothe eventrsquos essential incomprehensibilitythe force of its affront to understandingrsquorsquo (154) Yet for all itsinvestment in a classical realist aesthetic the film remains hauntedby a traumatic history that exceeds and breaks down accustomedhabits of thought narration and visualization

Before becoming accidental witnesses to history with 911 theFrench-born Jules and Gedeon Naudet who moved to the UnitedStates in 1989 and graduated from the New York Film School in1995 had already made another documentary film about an Amer-ican subject Hope Gloves and Redemption The Story of Mickey andNegra Rosario which enjoyed a DVD release in the wake of thesuccess of 911 follows an ex-gang member from Spanish Harlemand his wife who turned their lives around and set up a commu-nity boxing studio to help other urban youth avoid the temptationsof gang life Prior to its DVD release this uplifting documentaryframed as a validation of the American dream had picked up theGrand Jury Prize for Documentary and the award for Best Cine-matography at the 2001 New York International Independent Filmand Video Festival The Naudet brothers set out to duplicate thesuccess formula of this documentary in their next film the one thatwound up as 911 Their intention was to follow a rookie New Yorkfire-fighter Tony Benetatos through his first year on the job tocapture the process they describe in the film as lsquolsquoa kid becom[ing]a man in nine monthsrsquorsquo The first part of the documentary showsBenetatos going through the usual work of a probationary fire-fighter (or lsquolsquoprobiersquorsquo) including cleaning dishes and washinga fire truck as he anxiously awaits his first major firemdashwhichturns out to be a long time coming ironically there were nomajor fires handled by his company (Engine 7 Ladder 1) in themonths leading up to the 11 September attacks at least not whilehe was on duty

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In one of the amazing turns of circumstances shown in the filmJules Naudet is out with some of the companyrsquos fire-fighterswhen they respond at about 830 am on the day of the disasterto a routine call to investigate a suspected gas leak at an intersectionless than a mile north of the World Trade Center While there hehears the roar of a low-flying jet and turns his camera upwardsthus shooting the only known video of the first plane hittingTower 1 Accompanying the fire-fighters the two French brothersmanage to capture extraordinary footage of the World Trade Centerdisaster Jules from inside the lobby of Tower 1 where the battalionchiefs are planning their rescue operations Gedeon from outside ashe makes his way from the firehouse to the World Trade Center onfoot and by pick-up truck While Jules films the fire-fightersrsquo franticattempts to get a handle on the situation Gedeon records thereaction of the watching crowds in the streets of ManhattanWe are shown how the men in the Tower 1 lobby are thrown intodarkness as Tower 2 collapses how they struggle to escape thebuilding while avoiding debris and people jumping to their deathsand how they run for cover after the collapse of Tower 1 We seedowntown streets full of people pointing at the towers and talkingwith one another Later the streets are full of people trying to getaway from the site of the disaster Later still they are empty ofpeople but full of dust and ash

The footage shot by the Naudet brothers on 11 September which isat the heart of the documentary is powerful frightening andoverwhelming Their harrowing images drive home the traumaticimpact of events in excess of our conceptual categories and framesof reference Besides filming the horrific events themselves from upclose the camera also captures the look of bewilderment disbeliefincomprehension fear and powerlessness on the faces of peoplecaught in the most appalling disaster The retrospective interviewswith the filmmakers and the fire-fighters that are interspersed withthis footage confirm these responses Gedeon and Jules recallinability of the passers-by and the fire-fighters to believe whatwas happening before their eyes lsquolsquo[w]alking to the World TradeCenter passing by these people filming their astonishment Eyessaying this is not happeningrsquorsquo (Gedeon) lsquolsquoI was seeing the lookon the fire-fighters [sic] It was not fear it was whatrsquos going onDisbelief That made me panic a little bit That made me panicrsquorsquo(Jules) Several fire-fighters stress the complete unexpectednessof what took place (lsquolsquowersquod never experienced something like thisbeforersquorsquo) and the impossibility of bringing the situation under

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control (lsquolsquowhat do we do what do we do for thisrsquorsquo) These reactionsare clearly symptomatic of trauma understood as a suddenunexpected and overwhelming experience that escapes onersquosgraspmdashwhether conceptual or physicalmdashand as a result keepshaunting one The haunting power of the events of 11 September isapparent from the following comment made by Jules lsquolsquo[e]very nowand then I still wonder is it really true you know I know ithappened but I donrsquot know how do you deal with somethinglike this Itrsquos the eleventh every day for me when I wake uprsquorsquo

The question of how to cope with trauma is right at the forefrontof the documentary The filmmakers deploy various strategies todefuse their explosive footage and thus to contain control andmanage the trauma it conveys In fact their efforts to lsquolsquodetrau-matizersquorsquo 11 September started well before they got to the editingroom Amid concerns prior to its first CBS broadcast over thepossibly graphic content of the documentary Jules Naudet toldreporters and critics at a small press screening that lsquolsquo[t]here wasnever any graphic footage We did self-censorshiprsquorsquo (qtd in Ander-son and Swanson) In the program Jules says that as he enteredthe lobby of Tower 1 with the fire-fighters he saw people engulfedin flames By his own account he chose not to film them thinkinglsquolsquono one should see thisrsquorsquo Indeed despite the carnage that took thelives of nearly 3000 people there is nothing grisly in the footagewe are shown2 While the scenes of devastation are unrelentingno gore no mutilated bodies or body parts and no one jumpingfrom the towers are ever visible The only injury seen in the film isa small cut on the upper cheek of a fire-fighter who is shown restingafter the second collapse3 The filmmakersrsquo self-censorship waswidely seen as a commendable decision to stay within the boundsof good taste Good taste however is hardly the self-evident andinnocent concept it appears to be Rather it functions as a cover forideological motives As Slavoj Zizek has argued with reference tothe television coverage of the World Trade Center disaster theabsence on-screen of graphic depictions of deathmdashwhich standsin stark contrast with the in-your-face gore of reporting onThird-World calamitiesmdasheffects a lsquolsquoderealizationrsquorsquo of the horrorthat ultimately serves to restore First-World complacency

while the number of victimsmdash3000mdashis repeated all the time itis surprising how little of the actual carnage we seemdashnodismembered bodies no blood no desperate faces of dyingpeople in clear contrast to reporting on Third World

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187

catastrophies where the whole point is to produce a scoop ofsome gruesome detail Somalis dying of hunger raped Bosnianwomen men with their throats cut Is this not yet furtherproof of how even in this tragic moment the distance whichseparates Us from Them from their reality is maintained thereal horror happens there not here (13)4

If this ideological (self-)censorship reduces the traumatic impact ofthe events of 11 September their incorporation into a familiarnarrative form only reinforces this effect At the beginning of thedocumentary James Hanlon the Naudet brothersrsquo fire-fighterfriend who acts as the filmrsquos narrator and co-director suggeststhat the events of 11 September caused the filmmakers to abandontheir original plan of making lsquolsquoa documentary about a fire-fighterrsquorsquoThe film they ended up making so Hanlon asserts is lsquolsquoa documen-tary about 911rsquorsquo Remarkably however the radical shift of focusimplied here does not take place Though the unique footage shotby the Naudet brothers at and near the World Trade Center on11 September obviously forms the centrepiece of the documentarythe filmmakers have actually produced the all-American coming-of-age drama they intended to make all along The documentarytakes the form of a rite-of-passage narrative in which Tony Bene-tatos proves himself as a fire-fighter on 11 September thus realizinghis self-declared desire to become a hero5 Nothing it seems isallowed to stand in the way of the fulfilment of this quintessentialAmerican dream The World Trade Center disaster is presented asa test of the probiersquos manhood an obstacle to be overcome Hanlonannounces as much early on in the film when he says about hiscolleagues at the firehouse lsquolsquoSoon theyrsquod face the unthinkableThe question was would Tony be readyrsquorsquo At the end of the filmhe proclaims Benetatos to have passed the test lsquolsquoIt turns out Tonybecame a man [not in nine monthsmdashie the duration of hisprobationary periodmdashbut] in about nine hours trying to help outon 911rsquorsquo

In the spirit of the originally planned documentary the programtakes on the structure of a classical Hollywood film complete withan omniscient narrator a protagonist a carefully crafted storylinea dramatic soundtrack and the obligatory happy ending6 indeednot only does Tony emerge from the scene of the disaster a herobut all the companyrsquos other fire-fighters turn out to have survivedthe ordeal as well7 While it is striking how the events lentthemselves to this formulaic Hollywood treatment it has to besaid that the filmmakers spared no effort in exploiting their

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materialrsquos Hollywood potential This is particularly clear in thebuild-up of suspense in the film which relies partly on brief flash-forwards and foreboding comments by the narrator during the longwait for a real fire and partly also on the absence of the protagonistfrom the interview segments filmed after 11 September an absencemaintained until the finale Unlike the other fire-fighters formost of the film Benetatos only appears in footage from before11 September Thus a further element of tension is added thecentral question becomes whether or not our young unseasonedhero has survived the catastrophe This mystery is not resolveduntil all the other fire-fighters have returned alive and well to thestation where they sit worrying about the probie who is stillunaccounted for suddenly in walks Benetatos lsquolsquolike an urbancowboy appearing alone from the cloudy dust-covered horizonrsquorsquo(Lubin 126) Only now do we get to see the protagonist in after-the-fact interview footage

The filmmakersrsquo decision to frame their documentary as a Holly-wood-style rite-of-passage drama drew mixed responses MarcPeyser a writer for Newsweek notes

At its best lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo is as close to a feel-good movie as it can beconsidering the tragic cloth from which it is made At its bestlsquolsquo911rsquorsquo is much more than a mere document of one of thedeadliest days in American history With its richly drawncharacters its plot twists and its raw emotion lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo oftenplays out like a three-act Hollywood movie The only problemis itrsquos all real

Peyser himself does not seem overly troubled by this problemin fact reading his articlemdashappropriately titled lsquolsquoIf Only It Were Justa Moviersquorsquomdashone gets the impression that the author is more thanhappy to take his wishes for reality8 A very different note issounded by Chris Rylant of TeeVee who in an article that recallsTheodor Adornorsquos famous injunction against writing poetry afterAuschwitz and Elie Wieselrsquos critique of the television miniseriesHolocaust angrily denounces what he sees as lsquolsquothe ridiculouslymanipulative filmmaking of 911rsquorsquo calling it lsquolsquoshamelessrsquorsquo In hisview the documentaryrsquos systematic and exclusive focus on the birthof a hero amounts to a betrayal of the victims whose suffering issmoothed over and ignored

As if we needed to be thinking about the fate of this onehandsome young hero-with-a-capital-H because we couldnrsquot

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really feel the violent deaths of tens of hundreds of namelessoffice workers Just like the sinking of the Titanic and thebombing of Pearl Harbor needed romantic triangles tomake them worthwhile and interesting we needed to wonderif this one Probie fire-fighter would make it out alive Nevermind the destruction of two office buildings and thousandsof people

The Hollywoodization of the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary isunderlined by the inclusion of narration by long-time Tribecaresident Robert De Niro who appears briefly in three segmentsas host His film-star status makes De Niro a paradoxical guarantorof the authenticity of the footage his assurances that the film inwhich he features is a truthful record of reality inevitably producea derealization effect In fact from the other remarks the actormakes it becomes evident that his services have been enlisted forjust this purpose De Niro Hollywoodrsquos archetypal tough guyintroduces the documentary as an epic tale of courage strengthand triumph lsquolsquoThis is the story of how the cityrsquos bravest roseto their greatest challenge on September 11rsquorsquo Just before thesecond act featuring the World Trade Center scenes he returns toannounce that lsquolsquo[w]hat yoursquore about to see is how brave men workunder stress surrounded by chaosrsquorsquo Clearly De Nirorsquos framingremarks are meant to guide the viewerrsquos interpretation of theNaudet brothersrsquo atrocity footage in such a way as to counteractits traumatizing potential Rather than presenting these disturbingimages as testimony to the murderous nightmare of terrorismhe attempts to strip them of their essential horror (however miti-gated) by integrating them into an edifying story of grace underpressure That this is the intention becomes crystal clear when inhis final appearance at the end of the film De Niro claims thatlsquolsquothe moment in historyrsquorsquo that the viewer has just witnessed is lsquolsquo[n]ota moment of terror but one of strength when good men did greatthings Tens of thousands were saved by simple acts of courageWe hope that will be the true legacy of the men from Engine 7Ladder 1rsquorsquo9 In substituting heroism for terror this passage effec-tively dramatizes the lsquolsquostrange movement of languagersquorsquo observed byJames Berger in the aftermath of 11 September lsquolsquothe transformationof overwhelming loss into a kind of victory The media soon spokemore about the heroes of September 11 than of the deadrsquorsquo (55)10

A tropological movement takes place in which the traumatic excessof a deathly disaster is domesticated through anthropomorphiza-tion and reversal into life-saving heroism

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Interestingly De Nirorsquos representation of the fire-fighters as for-midable heroes performing extraordinary feats is radically at oddswith the menrsquos self-representation and with their own experience ofthe events of 11 September as they describe it in the retrospectiveinterview segments One of them evokes an overwhelming sense ofloss and powerlessness lsquolsquoWe lost so much in that two-hour periodWe felt like we got the hell kicked out of usrsquorsquo James Hanlonmentions his surprise at being treated like a hero by people in thestreets lsquolsquoIt was weird in a way walking back to the firehousePeople were cheering us but we sure didnrsquot feel like heroesrsquorsquo In theadditional interviews on the DVD which did not make the finalcut of the film other men of Engine 7 Ladder 1 speak of feelinglsquolsquohelplessrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoterrifiedrsquorsquo and admit that lsquolsquoThere was not muchyou could dorsquorsquo This is also the impression one gets from watchingthe footage shot by Jules inside the lobby of Tower 1 which showsscenes of chaos and indecision and captures the look of utterdisbelief and confusion on the fire-fightersrsquo faces Apparentlymaking heroes of the fire-fighters is demanded not so much bythe facts of the case as by the conventional narrative form intowhich those facts have been inserted11

Another way in which De Niro seeks to soften the impact of thedocumentary materials has to do with the numerous expletivesused by the witnesses At the beginning of the program he warnsthe viewer that although what he or she is about to see has beenlsquolsquoedited with great carersquorsquo still lsquolsquosome of the language is roughrsquorsquoAfter all he explains lsquolsquo[T]hese men had never been tested likethis beforersquorsquo In the course of the documentary we do indeedfrequently hear people curse lsquolsquoHoly shitrsquorsquo lsquolsquoTherersquos another fuck-ing planersquorsquo lsquolsquoAnd you know the fucking Pentagon is burningnowrsquorsquo and so on In fact it has been claimed that the amount ofunderstandable profanity spoken by the fire-fighters in 911 wasunprecedented for American network television which is notor-iously squeamish about this issue (Erickson) Trauma pushes peo-ple beyond the boundaries of normal socially acceptable speechan excessive event it seems can only be matched by excessivelanguage The filmmakers apparently felt that editing out swearwords would have been too intrusive an intervention howeverto cushion the supposed shock to the viewer they decided to haveDe Niro give him or her advance warning of what was aboutto assail his or her ears Thus the confrontation with foul languageis prevented from having anything even remotely resembling atraumatic effectmdashafter all for something to be traumatic it has to

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catch one off-guard and unprepared Still the decision not to tonedown the language used by the fire-fighters managed to attract agreat deal of media attention a fact which as Claudia Rosettobserves can only be accounted for by the extreme care withwhich the genuinely shocking aspects of the project had beenhandled

While De Nirorsquos narration is mostly concerned with the creation ofheroism the greatest good resulting from the World Trade Centerdisaster according to the documentary is the strengthening ofcommunity ties The focus in this film made by two brothers isnot only on heroism but also on brotherhood An important sub-plot with strong mythological overtones12 recounts the story of theNaudet brothersrsquo separation by the events their agonizing overeach otherrsquos fate (both of them fear that the other one may be dead)and their emotional reunion at the fire station (which curiously isfilmed by a third person) Gedeon tells us how when the secondtower came down lsquolsquothe only thing I could think about was Julesrsquorsquoand how he vowed to himself that lsquolsquo[i]f I would survive thatI would be a better brother [sic]rsquorsquo The documentary also highlightsthe bonds of brotherhood between the fire-fighters The men ofEngine 7 Ladder 1 are pictured as forming a tight-knit communitywhich closely resembles a family The film not only documents theprobiersquos integration into the firemenrsquos community but also showshow the filmmakers themselves gradually become accepted asmembers of this fraternity While reminiscing about the eveningof 10 September when he and his brother had cooked a meal for theother men Gedeon points out that lsquolsquowe were getting acceptedrsquorsquoThis process is completed when back at the firehouse after thetraumatic events they have lived through together one of the fire-men tells Jules lsquolsquoYesterday you had one brother Today youhave 50rsquorsquo At the end of the program the viewer is invited toshare in the community experience by donating money to a fire-fighterndashrelated charity the Uniformed Firefighters AssociationScholarship Fund The documentary thus shifts attention awayfrom the traumatic events to focus on the sense of caring andkinship forged in the shared disaster Community as Orly Lubinpoints out becomes lsquolsquothe tool of the containment of the traumarsquorsquo(124) The emphasis placed on the sense of community andtogetherness born at the moment of the traumatic event amountsto a form of denialmdashlsquolsquodenialrsquorsquo as Berger explains lsquolsquoin a specificallypsychoanalytic sense not a repression of the trauma or a claim thatit didnrsquot happen but a claim that the traumarsquos consequences will

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not be traumatic that it will not have symptoms but ratheronly beneficial lessons and varieties of redemptionrsquorsquo (55)

The community rhetoric mobilized in 911 is highly ideologicallycharged Though Jules Naudet told reporters that lsquolsquothe film is meantto be seen solely as a tribute to the firemen not as an argumentfor warrsquorsquo (Dreher) the documentary confirms preconceptions andassumptions that enabled a discourse of revenge and militaryaction to take root13 Indeed the film taps into the rhetoric offoundational innocence on which Americans have traditionallyestablished their public identity (but which has always hiddena more rapacious reality) the belief that they are the chosen peoplea nation founded in innocence and godliness The story recountedin the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary purports to represent thenational experience of the events of 11 September In fact the filmcan be seen to claim wider validity for the experience it documentsthrough its title which promises to tell us not a particular story butthe whole story of 11 September The viewer is led to interpret theprobiersquos journey from innocence to experience as an allegory of thefate of the entire nation The fire-fightersrsquo community in generaland Benetatos in particular metonymically and metaphoricallyrepresent the United States a nation that sees itself as a forcefor good the worldrsquos fireman14 The probiersquos self-description aslsquolsquoa person who tries to do good just like every other person in thefire departmentrsquorsquo is entirely consistent with this benign nationalself-image As a fire-fighter adds James Hanlon lsquolsquoYou do your jobyou risk your life to help peoplersquorsquo This notion is echoed by RobertDe Niro lsquolsquoFiremen live to help others live itrsquos that simplersquorsquo15

With the premise of US benevolence firmly in place the film canonly present the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center as an actof pure and inexplicable evil In an apparent effort to avoid politicalcontroversy the filmmakers provide little or no context for whattranspired that day The documentary does not reach beyond thestory of the men of Engine 7 Ladder 1 it refrains from placingthe disaster in a broader political or social context In so doingit effectively buys into the myth of American exceptionalismAfter all the viewer is given no way of framing the attack asanything other than a completely irrational and totally undeservedact of aggression We learn from one of the fire-fighters thatthat day made him realize lsquolsquohow evil evil can bersquorsquo no furtherexplanation is offered The appropriate response to 11 Septemberis voiced by the probie whomdashlsquolsquoexpressing what we all feltrsquorsquo

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(Gedeon)mdashimmediately defines the events as a declaration of waras he watches them unfold on TV Hearing that a plane has crashedinto the Pentagon he exclaims lsquolsquoThe Pentagonrsquos on fucking fireWar This is warrsquorsquo In a postndash11 September interview fragmentBenetatos wise from experience reflects lsquolsquoI know itrsquos either this orthe army now And I like saving lives I donrsquot like taking themBut after what I saw if my country decides to send me to go kill Irsquolldo it nowrsquorsquo This view expressed by a confirmed hero is in no waychallenged in the film which leaves little or no room for alternativeinterpretations Throughout the documentary maintains the inno-cence of the victim-nation suffering an unjust injury inflicted on itfor reasons that are left entirely unclear From this perspective themilitary responsemdashthe only one conceivablemdashappears as a legit-imate act of self-defence16

In Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence Judith Butleraddresses the passage from the experience of vulnerability and lossto military violence and retribution in a way that helps to shedfurther light on the ideological underpinnings of 911 Discussingthe aftermath of the 11 September attacks Butler points out that lsquolsquoitis one matter to suffer violence and quite another to use that fact toground a framework in which onersquos injury authorizes limitlessaggression against targets that may or may not be related to thesources of onersquos own sufferingrsquorsquo (4) This explanatory frameworkwhich has emerged in tandem with the experience of violenceworks lsquolsquoboth to preclude certain kinds of questions certain kinds ofhistorical inquiries and to function as a moral justification forretaliationrsquorsquo (4) Moreover it is said to have a narrative dimensionIn the United States Butler observes the story is typically told froma first-person narrative point of view and begins with the events of11 September events that have no relevant prehistorymdashafter all totell the story another way to ask how things came to such a pass islsquolsquoto complicate the question of agencyrsquorsquo which leads to lsquolsquothe fear ofmoral equivocationrsquorsquo lsquolsquoIn order to condemn these acts as inexcu-sable absolutely wrong in order to sustain the affective structure inwhich we are on the one hand victimized and on the otherengaged in a righteous cause of rooting out terror we have tobegin the story with the experience of violence we sufferedrsquorsquo (6)There is a strong desire to shore up the first-person point of viewand to preclude from the telling accounts that might involve adecentring of the narrative lsquolsquoIrsquorsquo within the international politicaldomain lsquolsquoThis decentering is precisely what we seek to rectifythrough a recentering A narrative form emerges to compensate

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for the enormous narcissistic wound opened up by the publicdisplay of our physical vulnerabilityrsquorsquo (7) This is of course exactlythe form taken by the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary as it attemptsto convert a lsquolsquodecentringrsquorsquo tale of terror into a lsquolsquore-centringrsquorsquo story ofheroism and community spirit Butler insists on the urgent needto decentre this first-person narrative if the world is to be sparedstill worse disasters She sees the temporary dislocation fromFirst World privilege caused by the 11 September attacks as offeringa chance to begin to imagine a world in which such violence mightbe minimized a world in which lsquolsquoan inevitable interdependencybecomes acknowledged as the basis for global political communityrsquorsquo(xiindashxiii) For this vision to become reality she writes lsquolsquowe will needto emerge from the narrative perspective of US unilateralism andas it were its defensive structures to consider the ways in whichour lives are profoundly implicated in the lives of othersrsquorsquo (7)

Butlerrsquos ideal of narrative decentring is strikingly realized in AlainBrigandrsquos 11rsquo0901 another 11 September film produced by aFrenchman that came out in 2002 However this is where thesimilarities between 911 and 11rsquo0901 stop Commissioned byBrigand as a response to the terrorist attacks 11rsquo0901 bringstogether eleven directors from as many countries each contributinga film lasting eleven minutes nine seconds and one frame The titlerefers to this duration as well as to the date of the attacks as itwould appear on a European calendar Hence the decentring of thecustomary first-person point of view that Brigandrsquos omnibus filmenacts is already signalled by its title which suggests foreignness17

The Naudetsrsquo film by contrast is content to use the Americannotation of the date for its title Varying enormously in style scopeand content the eleven segments of 11rsquo0901 testify to the reso-nance of the 11 September attacks around the world Unlike 911which places the events in a political and historical vacuum andthus ends up echoing the official discourse many of the filmsmaking up 11rsquo0901 insist on the interconnectedness of 11 Septem-ber with tragedies taking place elsewhere for which the UnitedStates is seen to be at least partially responsible British director KenLoach for example links 11 September 2001 with 11 September1973 when Chilean president Salvador Allende was killed duringa CIA-backed coup drsquoetat that put dictator Augusto Pinochet inpower In the episode contributed by Egyptian director YoussefChahine the ghost of a US marine is lectured on various interna-tional atrocities carried out in the name of American foreign policyHowever while it clearly distances itself from the American

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patriotic narrative of innocence under siege 11rsquo09rsquorsquo01 at no pointrefuses empathy with or denigrates the suffering of the victims ofthe World Trade Center attacks Rather than playing the who-suffered-most game or getting involved in lsquolsquothe moralizing mathe-matics of guilt and horrorrsquorsquo the film adopts what Zizek callslsquolsquothe only appropriate stancersquorsquo namely lsquolsquounconditional solidaritywith all victimsrsquorsquo (51)18

In contrast with 11rsquo0901 911 carefully avoids the subject of USresponsibility for Third-World poverty and political repressionIn fact the New York Fire Department is a highly appropriatesubject for this film as the make-up of its workforce reveals asimilar kind of blindness to issues of equality inclusion andsolidarity It is a matter of public record that the fire departmentof the multicultural melange that is New York has a serious mino-rities problem lsquolsquoThere are approximately 11500 firefighters andofficers in the FDNY of whom about 300 are black thatrsquos about 3per cent The department which is 92 per cent white has beenhistorically dominated by the cityrsquos Irish and Italian communitiesand is the least diverse fire department of any big city in Americarsquorsquo(Knight) Like African Americans Hispanics make up only3 per cent of New York City fire-fighters and women even lessthan 03 per cent (Latour) In May 2001 the cityrsquos Equal Employ-ment Practices Commission found that the severe under-representation of these groups far from being accidental couldbe attributed to the fire departmentrsquos having lsquolsquocreated barriers tothe hiring of minorities women and the poorrsquorsquo (Latour)19 Thisdramatic lack of diversitymdasha long-standing problem for which theNew York Fire Department has been much criticizedmdashis reflectedin 911 which shows only one African American and not a singleHispanic or woman employed at the Engine 7 Ladder 1 firehouseOnly a handful of African American and Hispanic fire-fighters andno women fire-fighters are shown working in or near the WorldTrade Center on 11 September and the dead fire-fighters whosepictures are displayed at the end of the film are overwhelminglywhite and without exception male The fire-fighting communitythat is held up in the Naudetsrsquo documentary as a model for the USas a nation thus turns out to be a privileged and exclusionary whitebrotherhood Not only then does 911 turn a blind eye to issues ofsocial justice at the international level by maintaining an overlysimplistic good (us) versus evil (them) philosophy but it alsowilfully ignores the demands of social justice closer to home bysinging the praises of an insular defensive and intransigent

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type of community Evidently we are a long way here from theideal of an inclusive and equitable global community as envisagedby Butler an ideal that appears to underlie Brigandrsquos 11rsquo090120

Remarkably in tune with the dominant political discourse of itstime 911 provides us with an example of what Eric Santner hascalled lsquolsquonarrative fetishismrsquorsquo lsquolsquothe construction and deployment ofa narrative consciously or unconsciously designed to expunge thetraces of the trauma that called that narrative into being in the firstplacersquorsquo (144) The film superimposes a linear narrative of heroismand community upon the traumatic reality of the attacks in order todeprive it of its potential significance As we have seen 911 doesnot shirk from suppressing evidence of trauma by excluding orsanitizing graphic footage nor from undermining the authority ofeye-witness testimony by frequently contradicting the fire-fightersrsquoown experience and by adopting an attitude of patronizing toler-ance towards linguistic excesses Viewed from a different anglehowever 911 offers a critique rather than an instantiation of theway in which 11 September is officially remembered In its veryattempt to marginalize trauma and testimony the film actuallyshows how trauma overflows the limits of the memorializingstrategies deployed to contain it thereby demonstrating theirinadequacy and tenuousness Its attempted portrayal of traumaas a discrete past event locatable representable and curable isbelied by traces of trauma seeping through the manifest narrativeresisting processes of identification comprehension and facileredemption

One of these traces is the moment in the film when Tower 2collapses covering the lobby of Tower 1 with debris As JulesNaudet runs up an escalator for shelter not knowing what hashappened his camera keeps rolling We hear a deafening rumblewhich drowns out all other sounds to the point of doing actualdamage to the soundtrack the lens is covered with grit and theneverything becomes pitch black Something similar happens afterthe collapse of Tower 1 which both Jules and Gedeon were filmingfrom nearby streets As the streets fill up with dust and debris theystart running for their lives but eventually fall to the ground Againthe cameras keep rolling recording the loud noise and the onset ofdarkness as the lenses turn brown and gritty Together with thesound of people falling to their deaths these three scenes representthe most direct intrusions of reality in the documentary As ifcaught in a repetition compulsion the film keeps returning to

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these extraordinary images which stand out by their indexicalquality reality physically imprints itself upon the camera insteadof merely being recorded by it in much the same way as atraumatic event falls directly into the psyche bypassing perceptionand consciousness While the filmrsquos apparent objective is to maketrauma visible and narratable in these haunting scenes traumareveals itself as an impossibility of seeing hearing and knowing

That the truth of trauma resides in its resistance to perception andunderstanding is borne out by the testimony of the survivors fromwhich we learn that the fire-fighters on the scene were almosttotally oblivious to the reality of what was going on For examplewhile the whole world had seen Tower 2 collapse on live televisionthe people trapped inside the lobby of Tower 1 did not have a clueas to what had happenedmdashwhich explains why having finallymade their way out they kept standing in the immediate vicinityof the doomed tower In an interview recently made public as partof the 911 records Joseph Pfeifer the battalion chief whom Juleshad found himself shadowing for most of the day recalls lsquolsquoWe gotout there and then we were standing under the bridge trying to seewhat was going on I couldnrsquot see what was going on Everythingwas covered with smoke I couldnrsquot see what collapsed Our eyeswere full of garbage Wersquore standing on the street and still notknowing the full implication of what took place because youcouldnrsquot seersquorsquo The film shows how the fire-fighters only beganto realize what they had lived through after they had got back tothe firehouse The emphasis placed by various eye-witnesses onthe eventsrsquo defiance of sight and comprehension challenges theassumptions structuring the filmrsquos conventional narrative in parti-cular the view that there is an intact history out there waiting to belured into vision and spoken as pure meaning In fact no soonerdoes 911 assert its claim to total visual mastery over the events of11 September than this claim is rebutted by the very footageintended to substantiate it James Hanlonrsquos promise at the begin-ning of the film that the viewer lsquolsquowill see all of itrsquorsquo lsquolsquobeginning toendrsquorsquo is immediately followed by a flash-forward to the dust- anddebris-filled images shot by Jules during the collapse of Tower 2With the picture going black it becomes impossible for the viewerto see anything at all

It is precisely this tension between the desire to know the subjectbeing represented and themdashimplicitmdashrecognition of the limits ofthat knowing that makes 911 so compelling With one hand the

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film offers the familiar gesture of memory as forgettingmdashtheincorporation of trauma into a reassuring narrative of nationalgreatnessmdashand with the other hand it takes away the comfort ofresting in this narrative Whatever ethical value the documentarycan be said to possess lies in the tension between these twogestures which if nothing more at least complicates the returnto the lsquolsquodogmatic slumberrsquorsquo (Derrida qtd in Borradori 100) fromwhich 11 September had awakened us

Notes

1 This is especially true of the televised version of the documentarywhich differs in several respects from the DVD edition released byParamount Pictures in 2002 under the title 911 The FilmmakersrsquoCommemorative Edition Most notably Robert De Niro who hosted theCBS program does not appear on the DVD edition Yet with a runningtime of 129 minutes the DVD edition is about a quarter of an hourlonger than the CBS broadcast Some footage has been added thatexpands on the original material for example scenes from the trainingof new recruits scenes from within the firehouse and scenes from therecovery effort As a result the tight narrative structure undergirdingthe TV version is loosened somewhat By way of bonus materialthe DVD features a 53-minute interview section containing furthercommentary from the fire-fighters

2 In fact the only visual evidence of death in the documentary comes inthe form of two still images of the intact body of Father Mychal Judgethe fire departmentrsquos chaplain being carried to a nearby church Hisdeathmdashdistanced as it is through the use of still rather than movingimagesmdashcan hardly be called representative as the vast majority of thevictims of 11 September were denied such dignity their bodies beingall but obliterated and therefore hard (if not impossible) to identify Asone of the fire-fighters testifies in the additional interview section onthe DVD lsquolsquoThere were many there were many eh it wasnrsquot manybodies but it was many pieces body parts There was I saw one ortwo whole bodies but not it wasnrsquot many I imagine thepeople were the same as the building nothing leftrsquorsquo Moreover thechaplainrsquos death is rescued from meaninglessness by the uncannyresemblance between the scene captured in the two photographs andtraditional pictorial representations of the descent from the crosswhich has the effect of turning the clergyman into a Christ-likesacrificial victim (I owe this point to my colleague Kristiaan Versluys)

3 One might argue as many have that the noise of the impact of thebodies on the glass and metal awning outside Tower 1 is disturbingenough While these sounds are definitely chilling as are the screamswe hear of terrified burn victims inside the lobby it should be pointedout that the original soundtrack recorded by Julesrsquos on-camera

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microphone was manipulated so as to soften the shock effectAppearances notwithstanding what we get to hear is a diluted andsanitized version of the original soundtrack as executive producerSusan Zirinsky explained at the press screening most of the crasheswere edited out on the grounds that lsquolsquo[t]o have that incredible crushof sound every 20 or 30 seconds would have been very tough for theaudiencersquorsquo (qtd in Laurence)

4 A similar point is made by Susan Sontag in Regarding the Pain of Others

Staying within the bounds of good taste was the primary reasongiven for not showing any of the horrific pictures of the deadtaken at the site of the World Trade Center in the immediateaftermath of the attack on September 11 2001 This novelinsistence on good taste in a culture saturated with commercialincentives to lower standards of taste may be puzzling But itmakes sense if understood as obscuring a host of concerns andanxieties about public order and public morale that cannotbe named as well as pointing to the inability otherwise toformulate or defend traditional conventions of how to mourn(68ndash9)

5 In an interview segment filmed at the Fire Academy in June 2001 andshown at the beginning of the documentary Benetatos says lsquolsquoIt soundskind of cheesy but I always kind of wanted to be a hero and this isreally the only thing you can do that you can do that [sic]rsquorsquo

6 See also Orly Lubinrsquos discussion of the documentaryrsquos compliancewith Hollywood conventions (125ndash7)

7 In view of the documentaryrsquos own affinity with mainstream disasterfilms the Hollywood comparisons invoked by some of the witnessesto convey the magnitude of the events take on an ironic ring A newscorrespondent reports from on the ground that lsquolsquo[t]he scene here is justone right out of one of those movies you would see in Hollywoodrsquorsquoand in the DVD version a passer-by is heard saying lsquolsquoLike somethingout of The Towering Inferno like a moviersquorsquo

8 Not only does Peyser speak of lsquolsquorichly drawn charactersrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoplottwistsrsquorsquo in the above passage but he also uses film vocabulary todescribe the thumps of bodies hitting the roof of the lobby callingthem lsquolsquothe most chilling sound effects ever heard on televisionrsquorsquo

9 De Nirorsquos words were echoed by Susan Zirinsky at the pre-screeningpress meeting Responding to Zirinskyrsquos claim in an article titledlsquolsquoShield Us on Sunday Night No Just Show Us Airing the Cultureof Denial on CBSrsquorsquo Claudia Rosett puts her finger on the problemlsquolsquoMoment of strength Well yes unquestionably there was valorBut given that the overwhelming event this bravery sought to addresswas actually terror this amounts to a cleaned up version of therealities of that dayrsquorsquo

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10 lsquolsquoOrrsquorsquo Berger continues lsquolsquothe dead were spoken of now as heroesrsquorsquo (55)Extending the creation of heroes to include the dead is also noticeablein the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary By way of an epilogue photo-graphs of the 344 fire-fighters who lost their lives on 11 September aredisplayed four by four against the background of the Stars and StripesThey are commemorated as national heroes who made the ultimatesacrifice in the service of their country By conceiving the catastropheas a purposive and meaningful sacrificial operation the documentaryeffectively softens its traumatic core

11 As a cinematic tribute to fire-fighters 911 stands in a long traditionof adulatory films about the fire-fighting profession stretching fromLife of an American Fireman (1903) to The Towering Inferno (1974) andfrom Backdraft (1991) to The Guys (2002) and Ladder 49 (2004)

12 While there are numerous myths featuring two brothers one isparticularly reminded of the legendary love of Castor and Polluxthe twin sons of Jupiter and Leda

13 That the documentary promotes a pro-war political agenda wasrecognized at the press meeting by Susan Zirinsky who defended thetiming of the broadcast as follows lsquolsquoThis is the right time We canrsquotforget what drove this country to be at war It is really important to notforget what happenedrsquorsquo (qtd in Long) Appearing on Foxrsquos The OrsquoReillyFactor later that week Zirinsky again invoked the war being fought inAfghanistan and stressed the supposed need lsquolsquoto keep that missionaliversquorsquo As Chris Fitzpatrick points out Zirinskyrsquos attitude lsquolsquoborrowedfrom John Ashcroftrsquorsquo suggests that lsquolsquothe true function of 911 may begetting Americarsquos jingoistic blood boilingrsquorsquo The Naudetsrsquo andZirinskyrsquos apparent disagreement about the purpose of thedocumentary is a rare breach of Franco-American unity judging frominterviews with directors and producers there was a completeconsensus among the different parties involved on just about everyother aspect of the film

14 A similar observation is made by Andre Habib in lsquolsquoAutour de 911 mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelle ou dommages au reelrsquorsquo one ofthe most insightful articles on the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary that Ihave come across Habib also regards the probie as lsquolsquoune metonymie desEtats-Unis en entierrsquorsquo (lsquolsquoa metonymy of the United States as a wholersquorsquo)

Tony crsquoest les Etats-Unis jusque la menages par lrsquoHistoireassoiffes drsquoheroısme mais maintenus a lrsquoecart de toute epreuveveritable Crsquoest comme si tout le pays avait ete jusqursquoa cette datefatidique en probation et que apres le 11 septembre elle avaitsubi son initiation devenant du coup mure pour lrsquoHistoire

(Tony is the United States until then spared by History thirstyfor heroism but kept away from any real challenge It is as if thewhole country had until that fateful date been on probation

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and as if after September 11 it had undergone its initiation andthereby become ripe for History)

15 Compare Zizek lsquolsquo[i]s not the surprise at why are they not loved [sic] forwhat they are doing to the world the most fundamental Americanreaction (at least) since the Vietnam war We just try to be good to helpothers to bring peace and prosperity and look what we get in returnrsquorsquo(145ndash6)

16 In this respect the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary is of a piece withother postndash11 September mass-audience films As Wheeler WinstonDixon observes lsquolsquo[T]he bulk of mainstream American cinema since911 whether the films were in production before or not seemscentered on a desire to replicate the idea of the lsquojust warrsquo in whichmilitary reprisals and the concomitant escalation of warfare seemsimultaneously inevitable and justifiedrsquorsquo (1)

17 In the United States however Brigandrsquos film was released(belatedly in 2003) under the name September 11 in an apparenteffort to counteract this disorienting effect

18 However this did not stop Variety from calling the film lsquolsquostridentlyanti-Americanrsquorsquo (Godard 1) Dixon correctly points out that 11rsquo0901lsquolsquofar from being anti-American is more accurately critical of Americanpolicy in the wake of 911 a very different matterrsquorsquo (5) In his viewthe contested episodes of Brigandrsquos film lsquolsquobring a welcome breath ofdissenting opinion to current cinematic discourse on the attacks of911rsquorsquo (5)

19 Efforts to get the department to comply with the commissionrsquosrecommendations were suspended indefinitely in the wake of the11 September attacks (Latour)

20 In 11rsquo0901 the reality of racism and xenophobia in New York ispoignantly evoked by the Indian director Mira Nair whose segmentdeals with the chilling effects of 11 September on the American Muslimcommunity Set in New York City Nairrsquos film recounts the story (basedon actual events) of a Pakistani American family whose eldest son goesmissing on the morning of 11 September For several months the FBIand the media keep claiming that he was a terrorist causing his familyto be shunned and ostracized by their initially supportive neighboursEventually however it emerges that the young man a medic waskilled while attempting to rescue people at the World Trade CenterOnce the truth is known he is hailed as a hero

Works Cited

Adorno Theodor lsquolsquoCultural Criticism and Societyrsquorsquo Prisms Trans SamuelWeber and Shierry Weber Cambridge MA MIT Press 1984 17ndash34

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Anderson Lisa and Stevenson Swanson lsquolsquoFilm Goes inside World TradeCenter Gripping Sept 11 Footage Followed NYC Firefightersrsquorsquo ChicagoTribune 5 Mar 2002 Advocate 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwstamfordadvo-catecomclassifiedjobssns-worldtrade-filmfootage-ctstorygt

Berger James lsquolsquolsquoTherersquos No Backhand to Thisrsquorsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911Ed Judith Greenberg Lincoln U of Nebraska P 2003 52ndash9

Borradori Giovanna Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with JurgenHabermas and Jacques Derrida Chicago U of Chicago P 2003

Butler Judith Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence LondonVerso 2004

Caruth Cathy lsquolsquoRecapturing the Pastrsquorsquo Introduction Trauma Explorations inMemory Ed Cathy Caruth Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP 1995 151ndash7

Dixon Wheeler Winston lsquolsquoSomething LostmdashFilm after 911rsquorsquo IntroductionFilm and Television after 911 Ed Wheeler Winston Dixon CarbondaleSouthern Illinois UP 2004 1ndash28

Dreher Rod lsquolsquoInside the Inferno The 911 Documentaryrsquorsquo National ReviewOnline 7 Mar 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwnationalreviewcomdreherdreher030702shtmlgt

11rsquo0901 Dir Youssef Chahine et al Prod Alain Brigand DVD GalateeFilms Studio Canal 2002

Erickson Hal lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo All-Movie Guide 22 Sept 2005 lthttpallmoviecomcgavgdllpfrac14avgampsqlfrac141265838gt

Fitzpatrick Chris lsquolsquo911 Happy Anniversaryrsquorsquo PopMatterscom 23 July 2005lthttpwwwpopmatterscomtvreviewsn9ndash11shtmlgt

Godard Francois lsquolsquoCanal Plus 911 Pic Courts Controversyrsquorsquo Daily Variety21 Aug 2002 1 20

Habib Andre lsquolsquoAutour de 911mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelleou dommages au reelrsquorsquo Hors Champs June 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwhorschampqccaarticlephp3id_articlefrac1481gt

Hope Gloves and Redemption Dir Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet 1999DVD Pathfinder 2003

Knight Sam lsquolsquoNew Yorkrsquos Whitestrsquorsquo Slices of New York Times Online 21Feb 2005 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwtimesonlinecoukarticle018391ndash149383700htmlgt

Latour Jane lsquolsquoLooking for a Fire Department That Looks like New YorkrsquorsquoGotham Gazette 3 Dec 2001 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwgothamgazettecomiotwfiredepartmentdoc1shtmlgt

Laurence Robert P lsquolsquoTwo-Hour Special 911 Conveys Horror withoutBeing Graphicrsquorsquo San Diego Union-Tribune 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwsignonsandiegocomtvradiocbs911htmlgt

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one hand and the desire to bring this crisis under controlon the other The filmmakers attempt to mitigate the traumaticpotential of their unique atrocity footage by sanitizing it andintegrating it into a Hollywood-style coming-of-age drama tracinga probationary fire-fighterrsquos perilous journey from innocence toexperience Thus the focus shifts from a disorienting and over-whelming sense of loss to comforting ideologically charged notionsof heroism and community that perpetuate an idealized nationalself-image and come to function as a moral justification for retalia-tion In its drive to obtain mastery over trauma by rendering itlegible in terms of existing cultural codes 911 appears to disregardwhat Cathy Caruth calls lsquolsquothe eventrsquos essential incomprehensibilitythe force of its affront to understandingrsquorsquo (154) Yet for all itsinvestment in a classical realist aesthetic the film remains hauntedby a traumatic history that exceeds and breaks down accustomedhabits of thought narration and visualization

Before becoming accidental witnesses to history with 911 theFrench-born Jules and Gedeon Naudet who moved to the UnitedStates in 1989 and graduated from the New York Film School in1995 had already made another documentary film about an Amer-ican subject Hope Gloves and Redemption The Story of Mickey andNegra Rosario which enjoyed a DVD release in the wake of thesuccess of 911 follows an ex-gang member from Spanish Harlemand his wife who turned their lives around and set up a commu-nity boxing studio to help other urban youth avoid the temptationsof gang life Prior to its DVD release this uplifting documentaryframed as a validation of the American dream had picked up theGrand Jury Prize for Documentary and the award for Best Cine-matography at the 2001 New York International Independent Filmand Video Festival The Naudet brothers set out to duplicate thesuccess formula of this documentary in their next film the one thatwound up as 911 Their intention was to follow a rookie New Yorkfire-fighter Tony Benetatos through his first year on the job tocapture the process they describe in the film as lsquolsquoa kid becom[ing]a man in nine monthsrsquorsquo The first part of the documentary showsBenetatos going through the usual work of a probationary fire-fighter (or lsquolsquoprobiersquorsquo) including cleaning dishes and washinga fire truck as he anxiously awaits his first major firemdashwhichturns out to be a long time coming ironically there were nomajor fires handled by his company (Engine 7 Ladder 1) in themonths leading up to the 11 September attacks at least not whilehe was on duty

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In one of the amazing turns of circumstances shown in the filmJules Naudet is out with some of the companyrsquos fire-fighterswhen they respond at about 830 am on the day of the disasterto a routine call to investigate a suspected gas leak at an intersectionless than a mile north of the World Trade Center While there hehears the roar of a low-flying jet and turns his camera upwardsthus shooting the only known video of the first plane hittingTower 1 Accompanying the fire-fighters the two French brothersmanage to capture extraordinary footage of the World Trade Centerdisaster Jules from inside the lobby of Tower 1 where the battalionchiefs are planning their rescue operations Gedeon from outside ashe makes his way from the firehouse to the World Trade Center onfoot and by pick-up truck While Jules films the fire-fightersrsquo franticattempts to get a handle on the situation Gedeon records thereaction of the watching crowds in the streets of ManhattanWe are shown how the men in the Tower 1 lobby are thrown intodarkness as Tower 2 collapses how they struggle to escape thebuilding while avoiding debris and people jumping to their deathsand how they run for cover after the collapse of Tower 1 We seedowntown streets full of people pointing at the towers and talkingwith one another Later the streets are full of people trying to getaway from the site of the disaster Later still they are empty ofpeople but full of dust and ash

The footage shot by the Naudet brothers on 11 September which isat the heart of the documentary is powerful frightening andoverwhelming Their harrowing images drive home the traumaticimpact of events in excess of our conceptual categories and framesof reference Besides filming the horrific events themselves from upclose the camera also captures the look of bewilderment disbeliefincomprehension fear and powerlessness on the faces of peoplecaught in the most appalling disaster The retrospective interviewswith the filmmakers and the fire-fighters that are interspersed withthis footage confirm these responses Gedeon and Jules recallinability of the passers-by and the fire-fighters to believe whatwas happening before their eyes lsquolsquo[w]alking to the World TradeCenter passing by these people filming their astonishment Eyessaying this is not happeningrsquorsquo (Gedeon) lsquolsquoI was seeing the lookon the fire-fighters [sic] It was not fear it was whatrsquos going onDisbelief That made me panic a little bit That made me panicrsquorsquo(Jules) Several fire-fighters stress the complete unexpectednessof what took place (lsquolsquowersquod never experienced something like thisbeforersquorsquo) and the impossibility of bringing the situation under

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control (lsquolsquowhat do we do what do we do for thisrsquorsquo) These reactionsare clearly symptomatic of trauma understood as a suddenunexpected and overwhelming experience that escapes onersquosgraspmdashwhether conceptual or physicalmdashand as a result keepshaunting one The haunting power of the events of 11 September isapparent from the following comment made by Jules lsquolsquo[e]very nowand then I still wonder is it really true you know I know ithappened but I donrsquot know how do you deal with somethinglike this Itrsquos the eleventh every day for me when I wake uprsquorsquo

The question of how to cope with trauma is right at the forefrontof the documentary The filmmakers deploy various strategies todefuse their explosive footage and thus to contain control andmanage the trauma it conveys In fact their efforts to lsquolsquodetrau-matizersquorsquo 11 September started well before they got to the editingroom Amid concerns prior to its first CBS broadcast over thepossibly graphic content of the documentary Jules Naudet toldreporters and critics at a small press screening that lsquolsquo[t]here wasnever any graphic footage We did self-censorshiprsquorsquo (qtd in Ander-son and Swanson) In the program Jules says that as he enteredthe lobby of Tower 1 with the fire-fighters he saw people engulfedin flames By his own account he chose not to film them thinkinglsquolsquono one should see thisrsquorsquo Indeed despite the carnage that took thelives of nearly 3000 people there is nothing grisly in the footagewe are shown2 While the scenes of devastation are unrelentingno gore no mutilated bodies or body parts and no one jumpingfrom the towers are ever visible The only injury seen in the film isa small cut on the upper cheek of a fire-fighter who is shown restingafter the second collapse3 The filmmakersrsquo self-censorship waswidely seen as a commendable decision to stay within the boundsof good taste Good taste however is hardly the self-evident andinnocent concept it appears to be Rather it functions as a cover forideological motives As Slavoj Zizek has argued with reference tothe television coverage of the World Trade Center disaster theabsence on-screen of graphic depictions of deathmdashwhich standsin stark contrast with the in-your-face gore of reporting onThird-World calamitiesmdasheffects a lsquolsquoderealizationrsquorsquo of the horrorthat ultimately serves to restore First-World complacency

while the number of victimsmdash3000mdashis repeated all the time itis surprising how little of the actual carnage we seemdashnodismembered bodies no blood no desperate faces of dyingpeople in clear contrast to reporting on Third World

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catastrophies where the whole point is to produce a scoop ofsome gruesome detail Somalis dying of hunger raped Bosnianwomen men with their throats cut Is this not yet furtherproof of how even in this tragic moment the distance whichseparates Us from Them from their reality is maintained thereal horror happens there not here (13)4

If this ideological (self-)censorship reduces the traumatic impact ofthe events of 11 September their incorporation into a familiarnarrative form only reinforces this effect At the beginning of thedocumentary James Hanlon the Naudet brothersrsquo fire-fighterfriend who acts as the filmrsquos narrator and co-director suggeststhat the events of 11 September caused the filmmakers to abandontheir original plan of making lsquolsquoa documentary about a fire-fighterrsquorsquoThe film they ended up making so Hanlon asserts is lsquolsquoa documen-tary about 911rsquorsquo Remarkably however the radical shift of focusimplied here does not take place Though the unique footage shotby the Naudet brothers at and near the World Trade Center on11 September obviously forms the centrepiece of the documentarythe filmmakers have actually produced the all-American coming-of-age drama they intended to make all along The documentarytakes the form of a rite-of-passage narrative in which Tony Bene-tatos proves himself as a fire-fighter on 11 September thus realizinghis self-declared desire to become a hero5 Nothing it seems isallowed to stand in the way of the fulfilment of this quintessentialAmerican dream The World Trade Center disaster is presented asa test of the probiersquos manhood an obstacle to be overcome Hanlonannounces as much early on in the film when he says about hiscolleagues at the firehouse lsquolsquoSoon theyrsquod face the unthinkableThe question was would Tony be readyrsquorsquo At the end of the filmhe proclaims Benetatos to have passed the test lsquolsquoIt turns out Tonybecame a man [not in nine monthsmdashie the duration of hisprobationary periodmdashbut] in about nine hours trying to help outon 911rsquorsquo

In the spirit of the originally planned documentary the programtakes on the structure of a classical Hollywood film complete withan omniscient narrator a protagonist a carefully crafted storylinea dramatic soundtrack and the obligatory happy ending6 indeednot only does Tony emerge from the scene of the disaster a herobut all the companyrsquos other fire-fighters turn out to have survivedthe ordeal as well7 While it is striking how the events lentthemselves to this formulaic Hollywood treatment it has to besaid that the filmmakers spared no effort in exploiting their

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materialrsquos Hollywood potential This is particularly clear in thebuild-up of suspense in the film which relies partly on brief flash-forwards and foreboding comments by the narrator during the longwait for a real fire and partly also on the absence of the protagonistfrom the interview segments filmed after 11 September an absencemaintained until the finale Unlike the other fire-fighters formost of the film Benetatos only appears in footage from before11 September Thus a further element of tension is added thecentral question becomes whether or not our young unseasonedhero has survived the catastrophe This mystery is not resolveduntil all the other fire-fighters have returned alive and well to thestation where they sit worrying about the probie who is stillunaccounted for suddenly in walks Benetatos lsquolsquolike an urbancowboy appearing alone from the cloudy dust-covered horizonrsquorsquo(Lubin 126) Only now do we get to see the protagonist in after-the-fact interview footage

The filmmakersrsquo decision to frame their documentary as a Holly-wood-style rite-of-passage drama drew mixed responses MarcPeyser a writer for Newsweek notes

At its best lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo is as close to a feel-good movie as it can beconsidering the tragic cloth from which it is made At its bestlsquolsquo911rsquorsquo is much more than a mere document of one of thedeadliest days in American history With its richly drawncharacters its plot twists and its raw emotion lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo oftenplays out like a three-act Hollywood movie The only problemis itrsquos all real

Peyser himself does not seem overly troubled by this problemin fact reading his articlemdashappropriately titled lsquolsquoIf Only It Were Justa Moviersquorsquomdashone gets the impression that the author is more thanhappy to take his wishes for reality8 A very different note issounded by Chris Rylant of TeeVee who in an article that recallsTheodor Adornorsquos famous injunction against writing poetry afterAuschwitz and Elie Wieselrsquos critique of the television miniseriesHolocaust angrily denounces what he sees as lsquolsquothe ridiculouslymanipulative filmmaking of 911rsquorsquo calling it lsquolsquoshamelessrsquorsquo In hisview the documentaryrsquos systematic and exclusive focus on the birthof a hero amounts to a betrayal of the victims whose suffering issmoothed over and ignored

As if we needed to be thinking about the fate of this onehandsome young hero-with-a-capital-H because we couldnrsquot

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really feel the violent deaths of tens of hundreds of namelessoffice workers Just like the sinking of the Titanic and thebombing of Pearl Harbor needed romantic triangles tomake them worthwhile and interesting we needed to wonderif this one Probie fire-fighter would make it out alive Nevermind the destruction of two office buildings and thousandsof people

The Hollywoodization of the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary isunderlined by the inclusion of narration by long-time Tribecaresident Robert De Niro who appears briefly in three segmentsas host His film-star status makes De Niro a paradoxical guarantorof the authenticity of the footage his assurances that the film inwhich he features is a truthful record of reality inevitably producea derealization effect In fact from the other remarks the actormakes it becomes evident that his services have been enlisted forjust this purpose De Niro Hollywoodrsquos archetypal tough guyintroduces the documentary as an epic tale of courage strengthand triumph lsquolsquoThis is the story of how the cityrsquos bravest roseto their greatest challenge on September 11rsquorsquo Just before thesecond act featuring the World Trade Center scenes he returns toannounce that lsquolsquo[w]hat yoursquore about to see is how brave men workunder stress surrounded by chaosrsquorsquo Clearly De Nirorsquos framingremarks are meant to guide the viewerrsquos interpretation of theNaudet brothersrsquo atrocity footage in such a way as to counteractits traumatizing potential Rather than presenting these disturbingimages as testimony to the murderous nightmare of terrorismhe attempts to strip them of their essential horror (however miti-gated) by integrating them into an edifying story of grace underpressure That this is the intention becomes crystal clear when inhis final appearance at the end of the film De Niro claims thatlsquolsquothe moment in historyrsquorsquo that the viewer has just witnessed is lsquolsquo[n]ota moment of terror but one of strength when good men did greatthings Tens of thousands were saved by simple acts of courageWe hope that will be the true legacy of the men from Engine 7Ladder 1rsquorsquo9 In substituting heroism for terror this passage effec-tively dramatizes the lsquolsquostrange movement of languagersquorsquo observed byJames Berger in the aftermath of 11 September lsquolsquothe transformationof overwhelming loss into a kind of victory The media soon spokemore about the heroes of September 11 than of the deadrsquorsquo (55)10

A tropological movement takes place in which the traumatic excessof a deathly disaster is domesticated through anthropomorphiza-tion and reversal into life-saving heroism

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Interestingly De Nirorsquos representation of the fire-fighters as for-midable heroes performing extraordinary feats is radically at oddswith the menrsquos self-representation and with their own experience ofthe events of 11 September as they describe it in the retrospectiveinterview segments One of them evokes an overwhelming sense ofloss and powerlessness lsquolsquoWe lost so much in that two-hour periodWe felt like we got the hell kicked out of usrsquorsquo James Hanlonmentions his surprise at being treated like a hero by people in thestreets lsquolsquoIt was weird in a way walking back to the firehousePeople were cheering us but we sure didnrsquot feel like heroesrsquorsquo In theadditional interviews on the DVD which did not make the finalcut of the film other men of Engine 7 Ladder 1 speak of feelinglsquolsquohelplessrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoterrifiedrsquorsquo and admit that lsquolsquoThere was not muchyou could dorsquorsquo This is also the impression one gets from watchingthe footage shot by Jules inside the lobby of Tower 1 which showsscenes of chaos and indecision and captures the look of utterdisbelief and confusion on the fire-fightersrsquo faces Apparentlymaking heroes of the fire-fighters is demanded not so much bythe facts of the case as by the conventional narrative form intowhich those facts have been inserted11

Another way in which De Niro seeks to soften the impact of thedocumentary materials has to do with the numerous expletivesused by the witnesses At the beginning of the program he warnsthe viewer that although what he or she is about to see has beenlsquolsquoedited with great carersquorsquo still lsquolsquosome of the language is roughrsquorsquoAfter all he explains lsquolsquo[T]hese men had never been tested likethis beforersquorsquo In the course of the documentary we do indeedfrequently hear people curse lsquolsquoHoly shitrsquorsquo lsquolsquoTherersquos another fuck-ing planersquorsquo lsquolsquoAnd you know the fucking Pentagon is burningnowrsquorsquo and so on In fact it has been claimed that the amount ofunderstandable profanity spoken by the fire-fighters in 911 wasunprecedented for American network television which is notor-iously squeamish about this issue (Erickson) Trauma pushes peo-ple beyond the boundaries of normal socially acceptable speechan excessive event it seems can only be matched by excessivelanguage The filmmakers apparently felt that editing out swearwords would have been too intrusive an intervention howeverto cushion the supposed shock to the viewer they decided to haveDe Niro give him or her advance warning of what was aboutto assail his or her ears Thus the confrontation with foul languageis prevented from having anything even remotely resembling atraumatic effectmdashafter all for something to be traumatic it has to

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catch one off-guard and unprepared Still the decision not to tonedown the language used by the fire-fighters managed to attract agreat deal of media attention a fact which as Claudia Rosettobserves can only be accounted for by the extreme care withwhich the genuinely shocking aspects of the project had beenhandled

While De Nirorsquos narration is mostly concerned with the creation ofheroism the greatest good resulting from the World Trade Centerdisaster according to the documentary is the strengthening ofcommunity ties The focus in this film made by two brothers isnot only on heroism but also on brotherhood An important sub-plot with strong mythological overtones12 recounts the story of theNaudet brothersrsquo separation by the events their agonizing overeach otherrsquos fate (both of them fear that the other one may be dead)and their emotional reunion at the fire station (which curiously isfilmed by a third person) Gedeon tells us how when the secondtower came down lsquolsquothe only thing I could think about was Julesrsquorsquoand how he vowed to himself that lsquolsquo[i]f I would survive thatI would be a better brother [sic]rsquorsquo The documentary also highlightsthe bonds of brotherhood between the fire-fighters The men ofEngine 7 Ladder 1 are pictured as forming a tight-knit communitywhich closely resembles a family The film not only documents theprobiersquos integration into the firemenrsquos community but also showshow the filmmakers themselves gradually become accepted asmembers of this fraternity While reminiscing about the eveningof 10 September when he and his brother had cooked a meal for theother men Gedeon points out that lsquolsquowe were getting acceptedrsquorsquoThis process is completed when back at the firehouse after thetraumatic events they have lived through together one of the fire-men tells Jules lsquolsquoYesterday you had one brother Today youhave 50rsquorsquo At the end of the program the viewer is invited toshare in the community experience by donating money to a fire-fighterndashrelated charity the Uniformed Firefighters AssociationScholarship Fund The documentary thus shifts attention awayfrom the traumatic events to focus on the sense of caring andkinship forged in the shared disaster Community as Orly Lubinpoints out becomes lsquolsquothe tool of the containment of the traumarsquorsquo(124) The emphasis placed on the sense of community andtogetherness born at the moment of the traumatic event amountsto a form of denialmdashlsquolsquodenialrsquorsquo as Berger explains lsquolsquoin a specificallypsychoanalytic sense not a repression of the trauma or a claim thatit didnrsquot happen but a claim that the traumarsquos consequences will

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not be traumatic that it will not have symptoms but ratheronly beneficial lessons and varieties of redemptionrsquorsquo (55)

The community rhetoric mobilized in 911 is highly ideologicallycharged Though Jules Naudet told reporters that lsquolsquothe film is meantto be seen solely as a tribute to the firemen not as an argumentfor warrsquorsquo (Dreher) the documentary confirms preconceptions andassumptions that enabled a discourse of revenge and militaryaction to take root13 Indeed the film taps into the rhetoric offoundational innocence on which Americans have traditionallyestablished their public identity (but which has always hiddena more rapacious reality) the belief that they are the chosen peoplea nation founded in innocence and godliness The story recountedin the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary purports to represent thenational experience of the events of 11 September In fact the filmcan be seen to claim wider validity for the experience it documentsthrough its title which promises to tell us not a particular story butthe whole story of 11 September The viewer is led to interpret theprobiersquos journey from innocence to experience as an allegory of thefate of the entire nation The fire-fightersrsquo community in generaland Benetatos in particular metonymically and metaphoricallyrepresent the United States a nation that sees itself as a forcefor good the worldrsquos fireman14 The probiersquos self-description aslsquolsquoa person who tries to do good just like every other person in thefire departmentrsquorsquo is entirely consistent with this benign nationalself-image As a fire-fighter adds James Hanlon lsquolsquoYou do your jobyou risk your life to help peoplersquorsquo This notion is echoed by RobertDe Niro lsquolsquoFiremen live to help others live itrsquos that simplersquorsquo15

With the premise of US benevolence firmly in place the film canonly present the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center as an actof pure and inexplicable evil In an apparent effort to avoid politicalcontroversy the filmmakers provide little or no context for whattranspired that day The documentary does not reach beyond thestory of the men of Engine 7 Ladder 1 it refrains from placingthe disaster in a broader political or social context In so doingit effectively buys into the myth of American exceptionalismAfter all the viewer is given no way of framing the attack asanything other than a completely irrational and totally undeservedact of aggression We learn from one of the fire-fighters thatthat day made him realize lsquolsquohow evil evil can bersquorsquo no furtherexplanation is offered The appropriate response to 11 Septemberis voiced by the probie whomdashlsquolsquoexpressing what we all feltrsquorsquo

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193

(Gedeon)mdashimmediately defines the events as a declaration of waras he watches them unfold on TV Hearing that a plane has crashedinto the Pentagon he exclaims lsquolsquoThe Pentagonrsquos on fucking fireWar This is warrsquorsquo In a postndash11 September interview fragmentBenetatos wise from experience reflects lsquolsquoI know itrsquos either this orthe army now And I like saving lives I donrsquot like taking themBut after what I saw if my country decides to send me to go kill Irsquolldo it nowrsquorsquo This view expressed by a confirmed hero is in no waychallenged in the film which leaves little or no room for alternativeinterpretations Throughout the documentary maintains the inno-cence of the victim-nation suffering an unjust injury inflicted on itfor reasons that are left entirely unclear From this perspective themilitary responsemdashthe only one conceivablemdashappears as a legit-imate act of self-defence16

In Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence Judith Butleraddresses the passage from the experience of vulnerability and lossto military violence and retribution in a way that helps to shedfurther light on the ideological underpinnings of 911 Discussingthe aftermath of the 11 September attacks Butler points out that lsquolsquoitis one matter to suffer violence and quite another to use that fact toground a framework in which onersquos injury authorizes limitlessaggression against targets that may or may not be related to thesources of onersquos own sufferingrsquorsquo (4) This explanatory frameworkwhich has emerged in tandem with the experience of violenceworks lsquolsquoboth to preclude certain kinds of questions certain kinds ofhistorical inquiries and to function as a moral justification forretaliationrsquorsquo (4) Moreover it is said to have a narrative dimensionIn the United States Butler observes the story is typically told froma first-person narrative point of view and begins with the events of11 September events that have no relevant prehistorymdashafter all totell the story another way to ask how things came to such a pass islsquolsquoto complicate the question of agencyrsquorsquo which leads to lsquolsquothe fear ofmoral equivocationrsquorsquo lsquolsquoIn order to condemn these acts as inexcu-sable absolutely wrong in order to sustain the affective structure inwhich we are on the one hand victimized and on the otherengaged in a righteous cause of rooting out terror we have tobegin the story with the experience of violence we sufferedrsquorsquo (6)There is a strong desire to shore up the first-person point of viewand to preclude from the telling accounts that might involve adecentring of the narrative lsquolsquoIrsquorsquo within the international politicaldomain lsquolsquoThis decentering is precisely what we seek to rectifythrough a recentering A narrative form emerges to compensate

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for the enormous narcissistic wound opened up by the publicdisplay of our physical vulnerabilityrsquorsquo (7) This is of course exactlythe form taken by the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary as it attemptsto convert a lsquolsquodecentringrsquorsquo tale of terror into a lsquolsquore-centringrsquorsquo story ofheroism and community spirit Butler insists on the urgent needto decentre this first-person narrative if the world is to be sparedstill worse disasters She sees the temporary dislocation fromFirst World privilege caused by the 11 September attacks as offeringa chance to begin to imagine a world in which such violence mightbe minimized a world in which lsquolsquoan inevitable interdependencybecomes acknowledged as the basis for global political communityrsquorsquo(xiindashxiii) For this vision to become reality she writes lsquolsquowe will needto emerge from the narrative perspective of US unilateralism andas it were its defensive structures to consider the ways in whichour lives are profoundly implicated in the lives of othersrsquorsquo (7)

Butlerrsquos ideal of narrative decentring is strikingly realized in AlainBrigandrsquos 11rsquo0901 another 11 September film produced by aFrenchman that came out in 2002 However this is where thesimilarities between 911 and 11rsquo0901 stop Commissioned byBrigand as a response to the terrorist attacks 11rsquo0901 bringstogether eleven directors from as many countries each contributinga film lasting eleven minutes nine seconds and one frame The titlerefers to this duration as well as to the date of the attacks as itwould appear on a European calendar Hence the decentring of thecustomary first-person point of view that Brigandrsquos omnibus filmenacts is already signalled by its title which suggests foreignness17

The Naudetsrsquo film by contrast is content to use the Americannotation of the date for its title Varying enormously in style scopeand content the eleven segments of 11rsquo0901 testify to the reso-nance of the 11 September attacks around the world Unlike 911which places the events in a political and historical vacuum andthus ends up echoing the official discourse many of the filmsmaking up 11rsquo0901 insist on the interconnectedness of 11 Septem-ber with tragedies taking place elsewhere for which the UnitedStates is seen to be at least partially responsible British director KenLoach for example links 11 September 2001 with 11 September1973 when Chilean president Salvador Allende was killed duringa CIA-backed coup drsquoetat that put dictator Augusto Pinochet inpower In the episode contributed by Egyptian director YoussefChahine the ghost of a US marine is lectured on various interna-tional atrocities carried out in the name of American foreign policyHowever while it clearly distances itself from the American

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patriotic narrative of innocence under siege 11rsquo09rsquorsquo01 at no pointrefuses empathy with or denigrates the suffering of the victims ofthe World Trade Center attacks Rather than playing the who-suffered-most game or getting involved in lsquolsquothe moralizing mathe-matics of guilt and horrorrsquorsquo the film adopts what Zizek callslsquolsquothe only appropriate stancersquorsquo namely lsquolsquounconditional solidaritywith all victimsrsquorsquo (51)18

In contrast with 11rsquo0901 911 carefully avoids the subject of USresponsibility for Third-World poverty and political repressionIn fact the New York Fire Department is a highly appropriatesubject for this film as the make-up of its workforce reveals asimilar kind of blindness to issues of equality inclusion andsolidarity It is a matter of public record that the fire departmentof the multicultural melange that is New York has a serious mino-rities problem lsquolsquoThere are approximately 11500 firefighters andofficers in the FDNY of whom about 300 are black thatrsquos about 3per cent The department which is 92 per cent white has beenhistorically dominated by the cityrsquos Irish and Italian communitiesand is the least diverse fire department of any big city in Americarsquorsquo(Knight) Like African Americans Hispanics make up only3 per cent of New York City fire-fighters and women even lessthan 03 per cent (Latour) In May 2001 the cityrsquos Equal Employ-ment Practices Commission found that the severe under-representation of these groups far from being accidental couldbe attributed to the fire departmentrsquos having lsquolsquocreated barriers tothe hiring of minorities women and the poorrsquorsquo (Latour)19 Thisdramatic lack of diversitymdasha long-standing problem for which theNew York Fire Department has been much criticizedmdashis reflectedin 911 which shows only one African American and not a singleHispanic or woman employed at the Engine 7 Ladder 1 firehouseOnly a handful of African American and Hispanic fire-fighters andno women fire-fighters are shown working in or near the WorldTrade Center on 11 September and the dead fire-fighters whosepictures are displayed at the end of the film are overwhelminglywhite and without exception male The fire-fighting communitythat is held up in the Naudetsrsquo documentary as a model for the USas a nation thus turns out to be a privileged and exclusionary whitebrotherhood Not only then does 911 turn a blind eye to issues ofsocial justice at the international level by maintaining an overlysimplistic good (us) versus evil (them) philosophy but it alsowilfully ignores the demands of social justice closer to home bysinging the praises of an insular defensive and intransigent

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type of community Evidently we are a long way here from theideal of an inclusive and equitable global community as envisagedby Butler an ideal that appears to underlie Brigandrsquos 11rsquo090120

Remarkably in tune with the dominant political discourse of itstime 911 provides us with an example of what Eric Santner hascalled lsquolsquonarrative fetishismrsquorsquo lsquolsquothe construction and deployment ofa narrative consciously or unconsciously designed to expunge thetraces of the trauma that called that narrative into being in the firstplacersquorsquo (144) The film superimposes a linear narrative of heroismand community upon the traumatic reality of the attacks in order todeprive it of its potential significance As we have seen 911 doesnot shirk from suppressing evidence of trauma by excluding orsanitizing graphic footage nor from undermining the authority ofeye-witness testimony by frequently contradicting the fire-fightersrsquoown experience and by adopting an attitude of patronizing toler-ance towards linguistic excesses Viewed from a different anglehowever 911 offers a critique rather than an instantiation of theway in which 11 September is officially remembered In its veryattempt to marginalize trauma and testimony the film actuallyshows how trauma overflows the limits of the memorializingstrategies deployed to contain it thereby demonstrating theirinadequacy and tenuousness Its attempted portrayal of traumaas a discrete past event locatable representable and curable isbelied by traces of trauma seeping through the manifest narrativeresisting processes of identification comprehension and facileredemption

One of these traces is the moment in the film when Tower 2collapses covering the lobby of Tower 1 with debris As JulesNaudet runs up an escalator for shelter not knowing what hashappened his camera keeps rolling We hear a deafening rumblewhich drowns out all other sounds to the point of doing actualdamage to the soundtrack the lens is covered with grit and theneverything becomes pitch black Something similar happens afterthe collapse of Tower 1 which both Jules and Gedeon were filmingfrom nearby streets As the streets fill up with dust and debris theystart running for their lives but eventually fall to the ground Againthe cameras keep rolling recording the loud noise and the onset ofdarkness as the lenses turn brown and gritty Together with thesound of people falling to their deaths these three scenes representthe most direct intrusions of reality in the documentary As ifcaught in a repetition compulsion the film keeps returning to

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these extraordinary images which stand out by their indexicalquality reality physically imprints itself upon the camera insteadof merely being recorded by it in much the same way as atraumatic event falls directly into the psyche bypassing perceptionand consciousness While the filmrsquos apparent objective is to maketrauma visible and narratable in these haunting scenes traumareveals itself as an impossibility of seeing hearing and knowing

That the truth of trauma resides in its resistance to perception andunderstanding is borne out by the testimony of the survivors fromwhich we learn that the fire-fighters on the scene were almosttotally oblivious to the reality of what was going on For examplewhile the whole world had seen Tower 2 collapse on live televisionthe people trapped inside the lobby of Tower 1 did not have a clueas to what had happenedmdashwhich explains why having finallymade their way out they kept standing in the immediate vicinityof the doomed tower In an interview recently made public as partof the 911 records Joseph Pfeifer the battalion chief whom Juleshad found himself shadowing for most of the day recalls lsquolsquoWe gotout there and then we were standing under the bridge trying to seewhat was going on I couldnrsquot see what was going on Everythingwas covered with smoke I couldnrsquot see what collapsed Our eyeswere full of garbage Wersquore standing on the street and still notknowing the full implication of what took place because youcouldnrsquot seersquorsquo The film shows how the fire-fighters only beganto realize what they had lived through after they had got back tothe firehouse The emphasis placed by various eye-witnesses onthe eventsrsquo defiance of sight and comprehension challenges theassumptions structuring the filmrsquos conventional narrative in parti-cular the view that there is an intact history out there waiting to belured into vision and spoken as pure meaning In fact no soonerdoes 911 assert its claim to total visual mastery over the events of11 September than this claim is rebutted by the very footageintended to substantiate it James Hanlonrsquos promise at the begin-ning of the film that the viewer lsquolsquowill see all of itrsquorsquo lsquolsquobeginning toendrsquorsquo is immediately followed by a flash-forward to the dust- anddebris-filled images shot by Jules during the collapse of Tower 2With the picture going black it becomes impossible for the viewerto see anything at all

It is precisely this tension between the desire to know the subjectbeing represented and themdashimplicitmdashrecognition of the limits ofthat knowing that makes 911 so compelling With one hand the

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film offers the familiar gesture of memory as forgettingmdashtheincorporation of trauma into a reassuring narrative of nationalgreatnessmdashand with the other hand it takes away the comfort ofresting in this narrative Whatever ethical value the documentarycan be said to possess lies in the tension between these twogestures which if nothing more at least complicates the returnto the lsquolsquodogmatic slumberrsquorsquo (Derrida qtd in Borradori 100) fromwhich 11 September had awakened us

Notes

1 This is especially true of the televised version of the documentarywhich differs in several respects from the DVD edition released byParamount Pictures in 2002 under the title 911 The FilmmakersrsquoCommemorative Edition Most notably Robert De Niro who hosted theCBS program does not appear on the DVD edition Yet with a runningtime of 129 minutes the DVD edition is about a quarter of an hourlonger than the CBS broadcast Some footage has been added thatexpands on the original material for example scenes from the trainingof new recruits scenes from within the firehouse and scenes from therecovery effort As a result the tight narrative structure undergirdingthe TV version is loosened somewhat By way of bonus materialthe DVD features a 53-minute interview section containing furthercommentary from the fire-fighters

2 In fact the only visual evidence of death in the documentary comes inthe form of two still images of the intact body of Father Mychal Judgethe fire departmentrsquos chaplain being carried to a nearby church Hisdeathmdashdistanced as it is through the use of still rather than movingimagesmdashcan hardly be called representative as the vast majority of thevictims of 11 September were denied such dignity their bodies beingall but obliterated and therefore hard (if not impossible) to identify Asone of the fire-fighters testifies in the additional interview section onthe DVD lsquolsquoThere were many there were many eh it wasnrsquot manybodies but it was many pieces body parts There was I saw one ortwo whole bodies but not it wasnrsquot many I imagine thepeople were the same as the building nothing leftrsquorsquo Moreover thechaplainrsquos death is rescued from meaninglessness by the uncannyresemblance between the scene captured in the two photographs andtraditional pictorial representations of the descent from the crosswhich has the effect of turning the clergyman into a Christ-likesacrificial victim (I owe this point to my colleague Kristiaan Versluys)

3 One might argue as many have that the noise of the impact of thebodies on the glass and metal awning outside Tower 1 is disturbingenough While these sounds are definitely chilling as are the screamswe hear of terrified burn victims inside the lobby it should be pointedout that the original soundtrack recorded by Julesrsquos on-camera

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microphone was manipulated so as to soften the shock effectAppearances notwithstanding what we get to hear is a diluted andsanitized version of the original soundtrack as executive producerSusan Zirinsky explained at the press screening most of the crasheswere edited out on the grounds that lsquolsquo[t]o have that incredible crushof sound every 20 or 30 seconds would have been very tough for theaudiencersquorsquo (qtd in Laurence)

4 A similar point is made by Susan Sontag in Regarding the Pain of Others

Staying within the bounds of good taste was the primary reasongiven for not showing any of the horrific pictures of the deadtaken at the site of the World Trade Center in the immediateaftermath of the attack on September 11 2001 This novelinsistence on good taste in a culture saturated with commercialincentives to lower standards of taste may be puzzling But itmakes sense if understood as obscuring a host of concerns andanxieties about public order and public morale that cannotbe named as well as pointing to the inability otherwise toformulate or defend traditional conventions of how to mourn(68ndash9)

5 In an interview segment filmed at the Fire Academy in June 2001 andshown at the beginning of the documentary Benetatos says lsquolsquoIt soundskind of cheesy but I always kind of wanted to be a hero and this isreally the only thing you can do that you can do that [sic]rsquorsquo

6 See also Orly Lubinrsquos discussion of the documentaryrsquos compliancewith Hollywood conventions (125ndash7)

7 In view of the documentaryrsquos own affinity with mainstream disasterfilms the Hollywood comparisons invoked by some of the witnessesto convey the magnitude of the events take on an ironic ring A newscorrespondent reports from on the ground that lsquolsquo[t]he scene here is justone right out of one of those movies you would see in Hollywoodrsquorsquoand in the DVD version a passer-by is heard saying lsquolsquoLike somethingout of The Towering Inferno like a moviersquorsquo

8 Not only does Peyser speak of lsquolsquorichly drawn charactersrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoplottwistsrsquorsquo in the above passage but he also uses film vocabulary todescribe the thumps of bodies hitting the roof of the lobby callingthem lsquolsquothe most chilling sound effects ever heard on televisionrsquorsquo

9 De Nirorsquos words were echoed by Susan Zirinsky at the pre-screeningpress meeting Responding to Zirinskyrsquos claim in an article titledlsquolsquoShield Us on Sunday Night No Just Show Us Airing the Cultureof Denial on CBSrsquorsquo Claudia Rosett puts her finger on the problemlsquolsquoMoment of strength Well yes unquestionably there was valorBut given that the overwhelming event this bravery sought to addresswas actually terror this amounts to a cleaned up version of therealities of that dayrsquorsquo

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10 lsquolsquoOrrsquorsquo Berger continues lsquolsquothe dead were spoken of now as heroesrsquorsquo (55)Extending the creation of heroes to include the dead is also noticeablein the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary By way of an epilogue photo-graphs of the 344 fire-fighters who lost their lives on 11 September aredisplayed four by four against the background of the Stars and StripesThey are commemorated as national heroes who made the ultimatesacrifice in the service of their country By conceiving the catastropheas a purposive and meaningful sacrificial operation the documentaryeffectively softens its traumatic core

11 As a cinematic tribute to fire-fighters 911 stands in a long traditionof adulatory films about the fire-fighting profession stretching fromLife of an American Fireman (1903) to The Towering Inferno (1974) andfrom Backdraft (1991) to The Guys (2002) and Ladder 49 (2004)

12 While there are numerous myths featuring two brothers one isparticularly reminded of the legendary love of Castor and Polluxthe twin sons of Jupiter and Leda

13 That the documentary promotes a pro-war political agenda wasrecognized at the press meeting by Susan Zirinsky who defended thetiming of the broadcast as follows lsquolsquoThis is the right time We canrsquotforget what drove this country to be at war It is really important to notforget what happenedrsquorsquo (qtd in Long) Appearing on Foxrsquos The OrsquoReillyFactor later that week Zirinsky again invoked the war being fought inAfghanistan and stressed the supposed need lsquolsquoto keep that missionaliversquorsquo As Chris Fitzpatrick points out Zirinskyrsquos attitude lsquolsquoborrowedfrom John Ashcroftrsquorsquo suggests that lsquolsquothe true function of 911 may begetting Americarsquos jingoistic blood boilingrsquorsquo The Naudetsrsquo andZirinskyrsquos apparent disagreement about the purpose of thedocumentary is a rare breach of Franco-American unity judging frominterviews with directors and producers there was a completeconsensus among the different parties involved on just about everyother aspect of the film

14 A similar observation is made by Andre Habib in lsquolsquoAutour de 911 mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelle ou dommages au reelrsquorsquo one ofthe most insightful articles on the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary that Ihave come across Habib also regards the probie as lsquolsquoune metonymie desEtats-Unis en entierrsquorsquo (lsquolsquoa metonymy of the United States as a wholersquorsquo)

Tony crsquoest les Etats-Unis jusque la menages par lrsquoHistoireassoiffes drsquoheroısme mais maintenus a lrsquoecart de toute epreuveveritable Crsquoest comme si tout le pays avait ete jusqursquoa cette datefatidique en probation et que apres le 11 septembre elle avaitsubi son initiation devenant du coup mure pour lrsquoHistoire

(Tony is the United States until then spared by History thirstyfor heroism but kept away from any real challenge It is as if thewhole country had until that fateful date been on probation

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and as if after September 11 it had undergone its initiation andthereby become ripe for History)

15 Compare Zizek lsquolsquo[i]s not the surprise at why are they not loved [sic] forwhat they are doing to the world the most fundamental Americanreaction (at least) since the Vietnam war We just try to be good to helpothers to bring peace and prosperity and look what we get in returnrsquorsquo(145ndash6)

16 In this respect the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary is of a piece withother postndash11 September mass-audience films As Wheeler WinstonDixon observes lsquolsquo[T]he bulk of mainstream American cinema since911 whether the films were in production before or not seemscentered on a desire to replicate the idea of the lsquojust warrsquo in whichmilitary reprisals and the concomitant escalation of warfare seemsimultaneously inevitable and justifiedrsquorsquo (1)

17 In the United States however Brigandrsquos film was released(belatedly in 2003) under the name September 11 in an apparenteffort to counteract this disorienting effect

18 However this did not stop Variety from calling the film lsquolsquostridentlyanti-Americanrsquorsquo (Godard 1) Dixon correctly points out that 11rsquo0901lsquolsquofar from being anti-American is more accurately critical of Americanpolicy in the wake of 911 a very different matterrsquorsquo (5) In his viewthe contested episodes of Brigandrsquos film lsquolsquobring a welcome breath ofdissenting opinion to current cinematic discourse on the attacks of911rsquorsquo (5)

19 Efforts to get the department to comply with the commissionrsquosrecommendations were suspended indefinitely in the wake of the11 September attacks (Latour)

20 In 11rsquo0901 the reality of racism and xenophobia in New York ispoignantly evoked by the Indian director Mira Nair whose segmentdeals with the chilling effects of 11 September on the American Muslimcommunity Set in New York City Nairrsquos film recounts the story (basedon actual events) of a Pakistani American family whose eldest son goesmissing on the morning of 11 September For several months the FBIand the media keep claiming that he was a terrorist causing his familyto be shunned and ostracized by their initially supportive neighboursEventually however it emerges that the young man a medic waskilled while attempting to rescue people at the World Trade CenterOnce the truth is known he is hailed as a hero

Works Cited

Adorno Theodor lsquolsquoCultural Criticism and Societyrsquorsquo Prisms Trans SamuelWeber and Shierry Weber Cambridge MA MIT Press 1984 17ndash34

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Anderson Lisa and Stevenson Swanson lsquolsquoFilm Goes inside World TradeCenter Gripping Sept 11 Footage Followed NYC Firefightersrsquorsquo ChicagoTribune 5 Mar 2002 Advocate 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwstamfordadvo-catecomclassifiedjobssns-worldtrade-filmfootage-ctstorygt

Berger James lsquolsquolsquoTherersquos No Backhand to Thisrsquorsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911Ed Judith Greenberg Lincoln U of Nebraska P 2003 52ndash9

Borradori Giovanna Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with JurgenHabermas and Jacques Derrida Chicago U of Chicago P 2003

Butler Judith Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence LondonVerso 2004

Caruth Cathy lsquolsquoRecapturing the Pastrsquorsquo Introduction Trauma Explorations inMemory Ed Cathy Caruth Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP 1995 151ndash7

Dixon Wheeler Winston lsquolsquoSomething LostmdashFilm after 911rsquorsquo IntroductionFilm and Television after 911 Ed Wheeler Winston Dixon CarbondaleSouthern Illinois UP 2004 1ndash28

Dreher Rod lsquolsquoInside the Inferno The 911 Documentaryrsquorsquo National ReviewOnline 7 Mar 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwnationalreviewcomdreherdreher030702shtmlgt

11rsquo0901 Dir Youssef Chahine et al Prod Alain Brigand DVD GalateeFilms Studio Canal 2002

Erickson Hal lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo All-Movie Guide 22 Sept 2005 lthttpallmoviecomcgavgdllpfrac14avgampsqlfrac141265838gt

Fitzpatrick Chris lsquolsquo911 Happy Anniversaryrsquorsquo PopMatterscom 23 July 2005lthttpwwwpopmatterscomtvreviewsn9ndash11shtmlgt

Godard Francois lsquolsquoCanal Plus 911 Pic Courts Controversyrsquorsquo Daily Variety21 Aug 2002 1 20

Habib Andre lsquolsquoAutour de 911mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelleou dommages au reelrsquorsquo Hors Champs June 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwhorschampqccaarticlephp3id_articlefrac1481gt

Hope Gloves and Redemption Dir Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet 1999DVD Pathfinder 2003

Knight Sam lsquolsquoNew Yorkrsquos Whitestrsquorsquo Slices of New York Times Online 21Feb 2005 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwtimesonlinecoukarticle018391ndash149383700htmlgt

Latour Jane lsquolsquoLooking for a Fire Department That Looks like New YorkrsquorsquoGotham Gazette 3 Dec 2001 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwgothamgazettecomiotwfiredepartmentdoc1shtmlgt

Laurence Robert P lsquolsquoTwo-Hour Special 911 Conveys Horror withoutBeing Graphicrsquorsquo San Diego Union-Tribune 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwsignonsandiegocomtvradiocbs911htmlgt

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In one of the amazing turns of circumstances shown in the filmJules Naudet is out with some of the companyrsquos fire-fighterswhen they respond at about 830 am on the day of the disasterto a routine call to investigate a suspected gas leak at an intersectionless than a mile north of the World Trade Center While there hehears the roar of a low-flying jet and turns his camera upwardsthus shooting the only known video of the first plane hittingTower 1 Accompanying the fire-fighters the two French brothersmanage to capture extraordinary footage of the World Trade Centerdisaster Jules from inside the lobby of Tower 1 where the battalionchiefs are planning their rescue operations Gedeon from outside ashe makes his way from the firehouse to the World Trade Center onfoot and by pick-up truck While Jules films the fire-fightersrsquo franticattempts to get a handle on the situation Gedeon records thereaction of the watching crowds in the streets of ManhattanWe are shown how the men in the Tower 1 lobby are thrown intodarkness as Tower 2 collapses how they struggle to escape thebuilding while avoiding debris and people jumping to their deathsand how they run for cover after the collapse of Tower 1 We seedowntown streets full of people pointing at the towers and talkingwith one another Later the streets are full of people trying to getaway from the site of the disaster Later still they are empty ofpeople but full of dust and ash

The footage shot by the Naudet brothers on 11 September which isat the heart of the documentary is powerful frightening andoverwhelming Their harrowing images drive home the traumaticimpact of events in excess of our conceptual categories and framesof reference Besides filming the horrific events themselves from upclose the camera also captures the look of bewilderment disbeliefincomprehension fear and powerlessness on the faces of peoplecaught in the most appalling disaster The retrospective interviewswith the filmmakers and the fire-fighters that are interspersed withthis footage confirm these responses Gedeon and Jules recallinability of the passers-by and the fire-fighters to believe whatwas happening before their eyes lsquolsquo[w]alking to the World TradeCenter passing by these people filming their astonishment Eyessaying this is not happeningrsquorsquo (Gedeon) lsquolsquoI was seeing the lookon the fire-fighters [sic] It was not fear it was whatrsquos going onDisbelief That made me panic a little bit That made me panicrsquorsquo(Jules) Several fire-fighters stress the complete unexpectednessof what took place (lsquolsquowersquod never experienced something like thisbeforersquorsquo) and the impossibility of bringing the situation under

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control (lsquolsquowhat do we do what do we do for thisrsquorsquo) These reactionsare clearly symptomatic of trauma understood as a suddenunexpected and overwhelming experience that escapes onersquosgraspmdashwhether conceptual or physicalmdashand as a result keepshaunting one The haunting power of the events of 11 September isapparent from the following comment made by Jules lsquolsquo[e]very nowand then I still wonder is it really true you know I know ithappened but I donrsquot know how do you deal with somethinglike this Itrsquos the eleventh every day for me when I wake uprsquorsquo

The question of how to cope with trauma is right at the forefrontof the documentary The filmmakers deploy various strategies todefuse their explosive footage and thus to contain control andmanage the trauma it conveys In fact their efforts to lsquolsquodetrau-matizersquorsquo 11 September started well before they got to the editingroom Amid concerns prior to its first CBS broadcast over thepossibly graphic content of the documentary Jules Naudet toldreporters and critics at a small press screening that lsquolsquo[t]here wasnever any graphic footage We did self-censorshiprsquorsquo (qtd in Ander-son and Swanson) In the program Jules says that as he enteredthe lobby of Tower 1 with the fire-fighters he saw people engulfedin flames By his own account he chose not to film them thinkinglsquolsquono one should see thisrsquorsquo Indeed despite the carnage that took thelives of nearly 3000 people there is nothing grisly in the footagewe are shown2 While the scenes of devastation are unrelentingno gore no mutilated bodies or body parts and no one jumpingfrom the towers are ever visible The only injury seen in the film isa small cut on the upper cheek of a fire-fighter who is shown restingafter the second collapse3 The filmmakersrsquo self-censorship waswidely seen as a commendable decision to stay within the boundsof good taste Good taste however is hardly the self-evident andinnocent concept it appears to be Rather it functions as a cover forideological motives As Slavoj Zizek has argued with reference tothe television coverage of the World Trade Center disaster theabsence on-screen of graphic depictions of deathmdashwhich standsin stark contrast with the in-your-face gore of reporting onThird-World calamitiesmdasheffects a lsquolsquoderealizationrsquorsquo of the horrorthat ultimately serves to restore First-World complacency

while the number of victimsmdash3000mdashis repeated all the time itis surprising how little of the actual carnage we seemdashnodismembered bodies no blood no desperate faces of dyingpeople in clear contrast to reporting on Third World

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187

catastrophies where the whole point is to produce a scoop ofsome gruesome detail Somalis dying of hunger raped Bosnianwomen men with their throats cut Is this not yet furtherproof of how even in this tragic moment the distance whichseparates Us from Them from their reality is maintained thereal horror happens there not here (13)4

If this ideological (self-)censorship reduces the traumatic impact ofthe events of 11 September their incorporation into a familiarnarrative form only reinforces this effect At the beginning of thedocumentary James Hanlon the Naudet brothersrsquo fire-fighterfriend who acts as the filmrsquos narrator and co-director suggeststhat the events of 11 September caused the filmmakers to abandontheir original plan of making lsquolsquoa documentary about a fire-fighterrsquorsquoThe film they ended up making so Hanlon asserts is lsquolsquoa documen-tary about 911rsquorsquo Remarkably however the radical shift of focusimplied here does not take place Though the unique footage shotby the Naudet brothers at and near the World Trade Center on11 September obviously forms the centrepiece of the documentarythe filmmakers have actually produced the all-American coming-of-age drama they intended to make all along The documentarytakes the form of a rite-of-passage narrative in which Tony Bene-tatos proves himself as a fire-fighter on 11 September thus realizinghis self-declared desire to become a hero5 Nothing it seems isallowed to stand in the way of the fulfilment of this quintessentialAmerican dream The World Trade Center disaster is presented asa test of the probiersquos manhood an obstacle to be overcome Hanlonannounces as much early on in the film when he says about hiscolleagues at the firehouse lsquolsquoSoon theyrsquod face the unthinkableThe question was would Tony be readyrsquorsquo At the end of the filmhe proclaims Benetatos to have passed the test lsquolsquoIt turns out Tonybecame a man [not in nine monthsmdashie the duration of hisprobationary periodmdashbut] in about nine hours trying to help outon 911rsquorsquo

In the spirit of the originally planned documentary the programtakes on the structure of a classical Hollywood film complete withan omniscient narrator a protagonist a carefully crafted storylinea dramatic soundtrack and the obligatory happy ending6 indeednot only does Tony emerge from the scene of the disaster a herobut all the companyrsquos other fire-fighters turn out to have survivedthe ordeal as well7 While it is striking how the events lentthemselves to this formulaic Hollywood treatment it has to besaid that the filmmakers spared no effort in exploiting their

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materialrsquos Hollywood potential This is particularly clear in thebuild-up of suspense in the film which relies partly on brief flash-forwards and foreboding comments by the narrator during the longwait for a real fire and partly also on the absence of the protagonistfrom the interview segments filmed after 11 September an absencemaintained until the finale Unlike the other fire-fighters formost of the film Benetatos only appears in footage from before11 September Thus a further element of tension is added thecentral question becomes whether or not our young unseasonedhero has survived the catastrophe This mystery is not resolveduntil all the other fire-fighters have returned alive and well to thestation where they sit worrying about the probie who is stillunaccounted for suddenly in walks Benetatos lsquolsquolike an urbancowboy appearing alone from the cloudy dust-covered horizonrsquorsquo(Lubin 126) Only now do we get to see the protagonist in after-the-fact interview footage

The filmmakersrsquo decision to frame their documentary as a Holly-wood-style rite-of-passage drama drew mixed responses MarcPeyser a writer for Newsweek notes

At its best lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo is as close to a feel-good movie as it can beconsidering the tragic cloth from which it is made At its bestlsquolsquo911rsquorsquo is much more than a mere document of one of thedeadliest days in American history With its richly drawncharacters its plot twists and its raw emotion lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo oftenplays out like a three-act Hollywood movie The only problemis itrsquos all real

Peyser himself does not seem overly troubled by this problemin fact reading his articlemdashappropriately titled lsquolsquoIf Only It Were Justa Moviersquorsquomdashone gets the impression that the author is more thanhappy to take his wishes for reality8 A very different note issounded by Chris Rylant of TeeVee who in an article that recallsTheodor Adornorsquos famous injunction against writing poetry afterAuschwitz and Elie Wieselrsquos critique of the television miniseriesHolocaust angrily denounces what he sees as lsquolsquothe ridiculouslymanipulative filmmaking of 911rsquorsquo calling it lsquolsquoshamelessrsquorsquo In hisview the documentaryrsquos systematic and exclusive focus on the birthof a hero amounts to a betrayal of the victims whose suffering issmoothed over and ignored

As if we needed to be thinking about the fate of this onehandsome young hero-with-a-capital-H because we couldnrsquot

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really feel the violent deaths of tens of hundreds of namelessoffice workers Just like the sinking of the Titanic and thebombing of Pearl Harbor needed romantic triangles tomake them worthwhile and interesting we needed to wonderif this one Probie fire-fighter would make it out alive Nevermind the destruction of two office buildings and thousandsof people

The Hollywoodization of the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary isunderlined by the inclusion of narration by long-time Tribecaresident Robert De Niro who appears briefly in three segmentsas host His film-star status makes De Niro a paradoxical guarantorof the authenticity of the footage his assurances that the film inwhich he features is a truthful record of reality inevitably producea derealization effect In fact from the other remarks the actormakes it becomes evident that his services have been enlisted forjust this purpose De Niro Hollywoodrsquos archetypal tough guyintroduces the documentary as an epic tale of courage strengthand triumph lsquolsquoThis is the story of how the cityrsquos bravest roseto their greatest challenge on September 11rsquorsquo Just before thesecond act featuring the World Trade Center scenes he returns toannounce that lsquolsquo[w]hat yoursquore about to see is how brave men workunder stress surrounded by chaosrsquorsquo Clearly De Nirorsquos framingremarks are meant to guide the viewerrsquos interpretation of theNaudet brothersrsquo atrocity footage in such a way as to counteractits traumatizing potential Rather than presenting these disturbingimages as testimony to the murderous nightmare of terrorismhe attempts to strip them of their essential horror (however miti-gated) by integrating them into an edifying story of grace underpressure That this is the intention becomes crystal clear when inhis final appearance at the end of the film De Niro claims thatlsquolsquothe moment in historyrsquorsquo that the viewer has just witnessed is lsquolsquo[n]ota moment of terror but one of strength when good men did greatthings Tens of thousands were saved by simple acts of courageWe hope that will be the true legacy of the men from Engine 7Ladder 1rsquorsquo9 In substituting heroism for terror this passage effec-tively dramatizes the lsquolsquostrange movement of languagersquorsquo observed byJames Berger in the aftermath of 11 September lsquolsquothe transformationof overwhelming loss into a kind of victory The media soon spokemore about the heroes of September 11 than of the deadrsquorsquo (55)10

A tropological movement takes place in which the traumatic excessof a deathly disaster is domesticated through anthropomorphiza-tion and reversal into life-saving heroism

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Interestingly De Nirorsquos representation of the fire-fighters as for-midable heroes performing extraordinary feats is radically at oddswith the menrsquos self-representation and with their own experience ofthe events of 11 September as they describe it in the retrospectiveinterview segments One of them evokes an overwhelming sense ofloss and powerlessness lsquolsquoWe lost so much in that two-hour periodWe felt like we got the hell kicked out of usrsquorsquo James Hanlonmentions his surprise at being treated like a hero by people in thestreets lsquolsquoIt was weird in a way walking back to the firehousePeople were cheering us but we sure didnrsquot feel like heroesrsquorsquo In theadditional interviews on the DVD which did not make the finalcut of the film other men of Engine 7 Ladder 1 speak of feelinglsquolsquohelplessrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoterrifiedrsquorsquo and admit that lsquolsquoThere was not muchyou could dorsquorsquo This is also the impression one gets from watchingthe footage shot by Jules inside the lobby of Tower 1 which showsscenes of chaos and indecision and captures the look of utterdisbelief and confusion on the fire-fightersrsquo faces Apparentlymaking heroes of the fire-fighters is demanded not so much bythe facts of the case as by the conventional narrative form intowhich those facts have been inserted11

Another way in which De Niro seeks to soften the impact of thedocumentary materials has to do with the numerous expletivesused by the witnesses At the beginning of the program he warnsthe viewer that although what he or she is about to see has beenlsquolsquoedited with great carersquorsquo still lsquolsquosome of the language is roughrsquorsquoAfter all he explains lsquolsquo[T]hese men had never been tested likethis beforersquorsquo In the course of the documentary we do indeedfrequently hear people curse lsquolsquoHoly shitrsquorsquo lsquolsquoTherersquos another fuck-ing planersquorsquo lsquolsquoAnd you know the fucking Pentagon is burningnowrsquorsquo and so on In fact it has been claimed that the amount ofunderstandable profanity spoken by the fire-fighters in 911 wasunprecedented for American network television which is notor-iously squeamish about this issue (Erickson) Trauma pushes peo-ple beyond the boundaries of normal socially acceptable speechan excessive event it seems can only be matched by excessivelanguage The filmmakers apparently felt that editing out swearwords would have been too intrusive an intervention howeverto cushion the supposed shock to the viewer they decided to haveDe Niro give him or her advance warning of what was aboutto assail his or her ears Thus the confrontation with foul languageis prevented from having anything even remotely resembling atraumatic effectmdashafter all for something to be traumatic it has to

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catch one off-guard and unprepared Still the decision not to tonedown the language used by the fire-fighters managed to attract agreat deal of media attention a fact which as Claudia Rosettobserves can only be accounted for by the extreme care withwhich the genuinely shocking aspects of the project had beenhandled

While De Nirorsquos narration is mostly concerned with the creation ofheroism the greatest good resulting from the World Trade Centerdisaster according to the documentary is the strengthening ofcommunity ties The focus in this film made by two brothers isnot only on heroism but also on brotherhood An important sub-plot with strong mythological overtones12 recounts the story of theNaudet brothersrsquo separation by the events their agonizing overeach otherrsquos fate (both of them fear that the other one may be dead)and their emotional reunion at the fire station (which curiously isfilmed by a third person) Gedeon tells us how when the secondtower came down lsquolsquothe only thing I could think about was Julesrsquorsquoand how he vowed to himself that lsquolsquo[i]f I would survive thatI would be a better brother [sic]rsquorsquo The documentary also highlightsthe bonds of brotherhood between the fire-fighters The men ofEngine 7 Ladder 1 are pictured as forming a tight-knit communitywhich closely resembles a family The film not only documents theprobiersquos integration into the firemenrsquos community but also showshow the filmmakers themselves gradually become accepted asmembers of this fraternity While reminiscing about the eveningof 10 September when he and his brother had cooked a meal for theother men Gedeon points out that lsquolsquowe were getting acceptedrsquorsquoThis process is completed when back at the firehouse after thetraumatic events they have lived through together one of the fire-men tells Jules lsquolsquoYesterday you had one brother Today youhave 50rsquorsquo At the end of the program the viewer is invited toshare in the community experience by donating money to a fire-fighterndashrelated charity the Uniformed Firefighters AssociationScholarship Fund The documentary thus shifts attention awayfrom the traumatic events to focus on the sense of caring andkinship forged in the shared disaster Community as Orly Lubinpoints out becomes lsquolsquothe tool of the containment of the traumarsquorsquo(124) The emphasis placed on the sense of community andtogetherness born at the moment of the traumatic event amountsto a form of denialmdashlsquolsquodenialrsquorsquo as Berger explains lsquolsquoin a specificallypsychoanalytic sense not a repression of the trauma or a claim thatit didnrsquot happen but a claim that the traumarsquos consequences will

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not be traumatic that it will not have symptoms but ratheronly beneficial lessons and varieties of redemptionrsquorsquo (55)

The community rhetoric mobilized in 911 is highly ideologicallycharged Though Jules Naudet told reporters that lsquolsquothe film is meantto be seen solely as a tribute to the firemen not as an argumentfor warrsquorsquo (Dreher) the documentary confirms preconceptions andassumptions that enabled a discourse of revenge and militaryaction to take root13 Indeed the film taps into the rhetoric offoundational innocence on which Americans have traditionallyestablished their public identity (but which has always hiddena more rapacious reality) the belief that they are the chosen peoplea nation founded in innocence and godliness The story recountedin the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary purports to represent thenational experience of the events of 11 September In fact the filmcan be seen to claim wider validity for the experience it documentsthrough its title which promises to tell us not a particular story butthe whole story of 11 September The viewer is led to interpret theprobiersquos journey from innocence to experience as an allegory of thefate of the entire nation The fire-fightersrsquo community in generaland Benetatos in particular metonymically and metaphoricallyrepresent the United States a nation that sees itself as a forcefor good the worldrsquos fireman14 The probiersquos self-description aslsquolsquoa person who tries to do good just like every other person in thefire departmentrsquorsquo is entirely consistent with this benign nationalself-image As a fire-fighter adds James Hanlon lsquolsquoYou do your jobyou risk your life to help peoplersquorsquo This notion is echoed by RobertDe Niro lsquolsquoFiremen live to help others live itrsquos that simplersquorsquo15

With the premise of US benevolence firmly in place the film canonly present the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center as an actof pure and inexplicable evil In an apparent effort to avoid politicalcontroversy the filmmakers provide little or no context for whattranspired that day The documentary does not reach beyond thestory of the men of Engine 7 Ladder 1 it refrains from placingthe disaster in a broader political or social context In so doingit effectively buys into the myth of American exceptionalismAfter all the viewer is given no way of framing the attack asanything other than a completely irrational and totally undeservedact of aggression We learn from one of the fire-fighters thatthat day made him realize lsquolsquohow evil evil can bersquorsquo no furtherexplanation is offered The appropriate response to 11 Septemberis voiced by the probie whomdashlsquolsquoexpressing what we all feltrsquorsquo

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(Gedeon)mdashimmediately defines the events as a declaration of waras he watches them unfold on TV Hearing that a plane has crashedinto the Pentagon he exclaims lsquolsquoThe Pentagonrsquos on fucking fireWar This is warrsquorsquo In a postndash11 September interview fragmentBenetatos wise from experience reflects lsquolsquoI know itrsquos either this orthe army now And I like saving lives I donrsquot like taking themBut after what I saw if my country decides to send me to go kill Irsquolldo it nowrsquorsquo This view expressed by a confirmed hero is in no waychallenged in the film which leaves little or no room for alternativeinterpretations Throughout the documentary maintains the inno-cence of the victim-nation suffering an unjust injury inflicted on itfor reasons that are left entirely unclear From this perspective themilitary responsemdashthe only one conceivablemdashappears as a legit-imate act of self-defence16

In Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence Judith Butleraddresses the passage from the experience of vulnerability and lossto military violence and retribution in a way that helps to shedfurther light on the ideological underpinnings of 911 Discussingthe aftermath of the 11 September attacks Butler points out that lsquolsquoitis one matter to suffer violence and quite another to use that fact toground a framework in which onersquos injury authorizes limitlessaggression against targets that may or may not be related to thesources of onersquos own sufferingrsquorsquo (4) This explanatory frameworkwhich has emerged in tandem with the experience of violenceworks lsquolsquoboth to preclude certain kinds of questions certain kinds ofhistorical inquiries and to function as a moral justification forretaliationrsquorsquo (4) Moreover it is said to have a narrative dimensionIn the United States Butler observes the story is typically told froma first-person narrative point of view and begins with the events of11 September events that have no relevant prehistorymdashafter all totell the story another way to ask how things came to such a pass islsquolsquoto complicate the question of agencyrsquorsquo which leads to lsquolsquothe fear ofmoral equivocationrsquorsquo lsquolsquoIn order to condemn these acts as inexcu-sable absolutely wrong in order to sustain the affective structure inwhich we are on the one hand victimized and on the otherengaged in a righteous cause of rooting out terror we have tobegin the story with the experience of violence we sufferedrsquorsquo (6)There is a strong desire to shore up the first-person point of viewand to preclude from the telling accounts that might involve adecentring of the narrative lsquolsquoIrsquorsquo within the international politicaldomain lsquolsquoThis decentering is precisely what we seek to rectifythrough a recentering A narrative form emerges to compensate

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for the enormous narcissistic wound opened up by the publicdisplay of our physical vulnerabilityrsquorsquo (7) This is of course exactlythe form taken by the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary as it attemptsto convert a lsquolsquodecentringrsquorsquo tale of terror into a lsquolsquore-centringrsquorsquo story ofheroism and community spirit Butler insists on the urgent needto decentre this first-person narrative if the world is to be sparedstill worse disasters She sees the temporary dislocation fromFirst World privilege caused by the 11 September attacks as offeringa chance to begin to imagine a world in which such violence mightbe minimized a world in which lsquolsquoan inevitable interdependencybecomes acknowledged as the basis for global political communityrsquorsquo(xiindashxiii) For this vision to become reality she writes lsquolsquowe will needto emerge from the narrative perspective of US unilateralism andas it were its defensive structures to consider the ways in whichour lives are profoundly implicated in the lives of othersrsquorsquo (7)

Butlerrsquos ideal of narrative decentring is strikingly realized in AlainBrigandrsquos 11rsquo0901 another 11 September film produced by aFrenchman that came out in 2002 However this is where thesimilarities between 911 and 11rsquo0901 stop Commissioned byBrigand as a response to the terrorist attacks 11rsquo0901 bringstogether eleven directors from as many countries each contributinga film lasting eleven minutes nine seconds and one frame The titlerefers to this duration as well as to the date of the attacks as itwould appear on a European calendar Hence the decentring of thecustomary first-person point of view that Brigandrsquos omnibus filmenacts is already signalled by its title which suggests foreignness17

The Naudetsrsquo film by contrast is content to use the Americannotation of the date for its title Varying enormously in style scopeand content the eleven segments of 11rsquo0901 testify to the reso-nance of the 11 September attacks around the world Unlike 911which places the events in a political and historical vacuum andthus ends up echoing the official discourse many of the filmsmaking up 11rsquo0901 insist on the interconnectedness of 11 Septem-ber with tragedies taking place elsewhere for which the UnitedStates is seen to be at least partially responsible British director KenLoach for example links 11 September 2001 with 11 September1973 when Chilean president Salvador Allende was killed duringa CIA-backed coup drsquoetat that put dictator Augusto Pinochet inpower In the episode contributed by Egyptian director YoussefChahine the ghost of a US marine is lectured on various interna-tional atrocities carried out in the name of American foreign policyHowever while it clearly distances itself from the American

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patriotic narrative of innocence under siege 11rsquo09rsquorsquo01 at no pointrefuses empathy with or denigrates the suffering of the victims ofthe World Trade Center attacks Rather than playing the who-suffered-most game or getting involved in lsquolsquothe moralizing mathe-matics of guilt and horrorrsquorsquo the film adopts what Zizek callslsquolsquothe only appropriate stancersquorsquo namely lsquolsquounconditional solidaritywith all victimsrsquorsquo (51)18

In contrast with 11rsquo0901 911 carefully avoids the subject of USresponsibility for Third-World poverty and political repressionIn fact the New York Fire Department is a highly appropriatesubject for this film as the make-up of its workforce reveals asimilar kind of blindness to issues of equality inclusion andsolidarity It is a matter of public record that the fire departmentof the multicultural melange that is New York has a serious mino-rities problem lsquolsquoThere are approximately 11500 firefighters andofficers in the FDNY of whom about 300 are black thatrsquos about 3per cent The department which is 92 per cent white has beenhistorically dominated by the cityrsquos Irish and Italian communitiesand is the least diverse fire department of any big city in Americarsquorsquo(Knight) Like African Americans Hispanics make up only3 per cent of New York City fire-fighters and women even lessthan 03 per cent (Latour) In May 2001 the cityrsquos Equal Employ-ment Practices Commission found that the severe under-representation of these groups far from being accidental couldbe attributed to the fire departmentrsquos having lsquolsquocreated barriers tothe hiring of minorities women and the poorrsquorsquo (Latour)19 Thisdramatic lack of diversitymdasha long-standing problem for which theNew York Fire Department has been much criticizedmdashis reflectedin 911 which shows only one African American and not a singleHispanic or woman employed at the Engine 7 Ladder 1 firehouseOnly a handful of African American and Hispanic fire-fighters andno women fire-fighters are shown working in or near the WorldTrade Center on 11 September and the dead fire-fighters whosepictures are displayed at the end of the film are overwhelminglywhite and without exception male The fire-fighting communitythat is held up in the Naudetsrsquo documentary as a model for the USas a nation thus turns out to be a privileged and exclusionary whitebrotherhood Not only then does 911 turn a blind eye to issues ofsocial justice at the international level by maintaining an overlysimplistic good (us) versus evil (them) philosophy but it alsowilfully ignores the demands of social justice closer to home bysinging the praises of an insular defensive and intransigent

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type of community Evidently we are a long way here from theideal of an inclusive and equitable global community as envisagedby Butler an ideal that appears to underlie Brigandrsquos 11rsquo090120

Remarkably in tune with the dominant political discourse of itstime 911 provides us with an example of what Eric Santner hascalled lsquolsquonarrative fetishismrsquorsquo lsquolsquothe construction and deployment ofa narrative consciously or unconsciously designed to expunge thetraces of the trauma that called that narrative into being in the firstplacersquorsquo (144) The film superimposes a linear narrative of heroismand community upon the traumatic reality of the attacks in order todeprive it of its potential significance As we have seen 911 doesnot shirk from suppressing evidence of trauma by excluding orsanitizing graphic footage nor from undermining the authority ofeye-witness testimony by frequently contradicting the fire-fightersrsquoown experience and by adopting an attitude of patronizing toler-ance towards linguistic excesses Viewed from a different anglehowever 911 offers a critique rather than an instantiation of theway in which 11 September is officially remembered In its veryattempt to marginalize trauma and testimony the film actuallyshows how trauma overflows the limits of the memorializingstrategies deployed to contain it thereby demonstrating theirinadequacy and tenuousness Its attempted portrayal of traumaas a discrete past event locatable representable and curable isbelied by traces of trauma seeping through the manifest narrativeresisting processes of identification comprehension and facileredemption

One of these traces is the moment in the film when Tower 2collapses covering the lobby of Tower 1 with debris As JulesNaudet runs up an escalator for shelter not knowing what hashappened his camera keeps rolling We hear a deafening rumblewhich drowns out all other sounds to the point of doing actualdamage to the soundtrack the lens is covered with grit and theneverything becomes pitch black Something similar happens afterthe collapse of Tower 1 which both Jules and Gedeon were filmingfrom nearby streets As the streets fill up with dust and debris theystart running for their lives but eventually fall to the ground Againthe cameras keep rolling recording the loud noise and the onset ofdarkness as the lenses turn brown and gritty Together with thesound of people falling to their deaths these three scenes representthe most direct intrusions of reality in the documentary As ifcaught in a repetition compulsion the film keeps returning to

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these extraordinary images which stand out by their indexicalquality reality physically imprints itself upon the camera insteadof merely being recorded by it in much the same way as atraumatic event falls directly into the psyche bypassing perceptionand consciousness While the filmrsquos apparent objective is to maketrauma visible and narratable in these haunting scenes traumareveals itself as an impossibility of seeing hearing and knowing

That the truth of trauma resides in its resistance to perception andunderstanding is borne out by the testimony of the survivors fromwhich we learn that the fire-fighters on the scene were almosttotally oblivious to the reality of what was going on For examplewhile the whole world had seen Tower 2 collapse on live televisionthe people trapped inside the lobby of Tower 1 did not have a clueas to what had happenedmdashwhich explains why having finallymade their way out they kept standing in the immediate vicinityof the doomed tower In an interview recently made public as partof the 911 records Joseph Pfeifer the battalion chief whom Juleshad found himself shadowing for most of the day recalls lsquolsquoWe gotout there and then we were standing under the bridge trying to seewhat was going on I couldnrsquot see what was going on Everythingwas covered with smoke I couldnrsquot see what collapsed Our eyeswere full of garbage Wersquore standing on the street and still notknowing the full implication of what took place because youcouldnrsquot seersquorsquo The film shows how the fire-fighters only beganto realize what they had lived through after they had got back tothe firehouse The emphasis placed by various eye-witnesses onthe eventsrsquo defiance of sight and comprehension challenges theassumptions structuring the filmrsquos conventional narrative in parti-cular the view that there is an intact history out there waiting to belured into vision and spoken as pure meaning In fact no soonerdoes 911 assert its claim to total visual mastery over the events of11 September than this claim is rebutted by the very footageintended to substantiate it James Hanlonrsquos promise at the begin-ning of the film that the viewer lsquolsquowill see all of itrsquorsquo lsquolsquobeginning toendrsquorsquo is immediately followed by a flash-forward to the dust- anddebris-filled images shot by Jules during the collapse of Tower 2With the picture going black it becomes impossible for the viewerto see anything at all

It is precisely this tension between the desire to know the subjectbeing represented and themdashimplicitmdashrecognition of the limits ofthat knowing that makes 911 so compelling With one hand the

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film offers the familiar gesture of memory as forgettingmdashtheincorporation of trauma into a reassuring narrative of nationalgreatnessmdashand with the other hand it takes away the comfort ofresting in this narrative Whatever ethical value the documentarycan be said to possess lies in the tension between these twogestures which if nothing more at least complicates the returnto the lsquolsquodogmatic slumberrsquorsquo (Derrida qtd in Borradori 100) fromwhich 11 September had awakened us

Notes

1 This is especially true of the televised version of the documentarywhich differs in several respects from the DVD edition released byParamount Pictures in 2002 under the title 911 The FilmmakersrsquoCommemorative Edition Most notably Robert De Niro who hosted theCBS program does not appear on the DVD edition Yet with a runningtime of 129 minutes the DVD edition is about a quarter of an hourlonger than the CBS broadcast Some footage has been added thatexpands on the original material for example scenes from the trainingof new recruits scenes from within the firehouse and scenes from therecovery effort As a result the tight narrative structure undergirdingthe TV version is loosened somewhat By way of bonus materialthe DVD features a 53-minute interview section containing furthercommentary from the fire-fighters

2 In fact the only visual evidence of death in the documentary comes inthe form of two still images of the intact body of Father Mychal Judgethe fire departmentrsquos chaplain being carried to a nearby church Hisdeathmdashdistanced as it is through the use of still rather than movingimagesmdashcan hardly be called representative as the vast majority of thevictims of 11 September were denied such dignity their bodies beingall but obliterated and therefore hard (if not impossible) to identify Asone of the fire-fighters testifies in the additional interview section onthe DVD lsquolsquoThere were many there were many eh it wasnrsquot manybodies but it was many pieces body parts There was I saw one ortwo whole bodies but not it wasnrsquot many I imagine thepeople were the same as the building nothing leftrsquorsquo Moreover thechaplainrsquos death is rescued from meaninglessness by the uncannyresemblance between the scene captured in the two photographs andtraditional pictorial representations of the descent from the crosswhich has the effect of turning the clergyman into a Christ-likesacrificial victim (I owe this point to my colleague Kristiaan Versluys)

3 One might argue as many have that the noise of the impact of thebodies on the glass and metal awning outside Tower 1 is disturbingenough While these sounds are definitely chilling as are the screamswe hear of terrified burn victims inside the lobby it should be pointedout that the original soundtrack recorded by Julesrsquos on-camera

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microphone was manipulated so as to soften the shock effectAppearances notwithstanding what we get to hear is a diluted andsanitized version of the original soundtrack as executive producerSusan Zirinsky explained at the press screening most of the crasheswere edited out on the grounds that lsquolsquo[t]o have that incredible crushof sound every 20 or 30 seconds would have been very tough for theaudiencersquorsquo (qtd in Laurence)

4 A similar point is made by Susan Sontag in Regarding the Pain of Others

Staying within the bounds of good taste was the primary reasongiven for not showing any of the horrific pictures of the deadtaken at the site of the World Trade Center in the immediateaftermath of the attack on September 11 2001 This novelinsistence on good taste in a culture saturated with commercialincentives to lower standards of taste may be puzzling But itmakes sense if understood as obscuring a host of concerns andanxieties about public order and public morale that cannotbe named as well as pointing to the inability otherwise toformulate or defend traditional conventions of how to mourn(68ndash9)

5 In an interview segment filmed at the Fire Academy in June 2001 andshown at the beginning of the documentary Benetatos says lsquolsquoIt soundskind of cheesy but I always kind of wanted to be a hero and this isreally the only thing you can do that you can do that [sic]rsquorsquo

6 See also Orly Lubinrsquos discussion of the documentaryrsquos compliancewith Hollywood conventions (125ndash7)

7 In view of the documentaryrsquos own affinity with mainstream disasterfilms the Hollywood comparisons invoked by some of the witnessesto convey the magnitude of the events take on an ironic ring A newscorrespondent reports from on the ground that lsquolsquo[t]he scene here is justone right out of one of those movies you would see in Hollywoodrsquorsquoand in the DVD version a passer-by is heard saying lsquolsquoLike somethingout of The Towering Inferno like a moviersquorsquo

8 Not only does Peyser speak of lsquolsquorichly drawn charactersrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoplottwistsrsquorsquo in the above passage but he also uses film vocabulary todescribe the thumps of bodies hitting the roof of the lobby callingthem lsquolsquothe most chilling sound effects ever heard on televisionrsquorsquo

9 De Nirorsquos words were echoed by Susan Zirinsky at the pre-screeningpress meeting Responding to Zirinskyrsquos claim in an article titledlsquolsquoShield Us on Sunday Night No Just Show Us Airing the Cultureof Denial on CBSrsquorsquo Claudia Rosett puts her finger on the problemlsquolsquoMoment of strength Well yes unquestionably there was valorBut given that the overwhelming event this bravery sought to addresswas actually terror this amounts to a cleaned up version of therealities of that dayrsquorsquo

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10 lsquolsquoOrrsquorsquo Berger continues lsquolsquothe dead were spoken of now as heroesrsquorsquo (55)Extending the creation of heroes to include the dead is also noticeablein the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary By way of an epilogue photo-graphs of the 344 fire-fighters who lost their lives on 11 September aredisplayed four by four against the background of the Stars and StripesThey are commemorated as national heroes who made the ultimatesacrifice in the service of their country By conceiving the catastropheas a purposive and meaningful sacrificial operation the documentaryeffectively softens its traumatic core

11 As a cinematic tribute to fire-fighters 911 stands in a long traditionof adulatory films about the fire-fighting profession stretching fromLife of an American Fireman (1903) to The Towering Inferno (1974) andfrom Backdraft (1991) to The Guys (2002) and Ladder 49 (2004)

12 While there are numerous myths featuring two brothers one isparticularly reminded of the legendary love of Castor and Polluxthe twin sons of Jupiter and Leda

13 That the documentary promotes a pro-war political agenda wasrecognized at the press meeting by Susan Zirinsky who defended thetiming of the broadcast as follows lsquolsquoThis is the right time We canrsquotforget what drove this country to be at war It is really important to notforget what happenedrsquorsquo (qtd in Long) Appearing on Foxrsquos The OrsquoReillyFactor later that week Zirinsky again invoked the war being fought inAfghanistan and stressed the supposed need lsquolsquoto keep that missionaliversquorsquo As Chris Fitzpatrick points out Zirinskyrsquos attitude lsquolsquoborrowedfrom John Ashcroftrsquorsquo suggests that lsquolsquothe true function of 911 may begetting Americarsquos jingoistic blood boilingrsquorsquo The Naudetsrsquo andZirinskyrsquos apparent disagreement about the purpose of thedocumentary is a rare breach of Franco-American unity judging frominterviews with directors and producers there was a completeconsensus among the different parties involved on just about everyother aspect of the film

14 A similar observation is made by Andre Habib in lsquolsquoAutour de 911 mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelle ou dommages au reelrsquorsquo one ofthe most insightful articles on the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary that Ihave come across Habib also regards the probie as lsquolsquoune metonymie desEtats-Unis en entierrsquorsquo (lsquolsquoa metonymy of the United States as a wholersquorsquo)

Tony crsquoest les Etats-Unis jusque la menages par lrsquoHistoireassoiffes drsquoheroısme mais maintenus a lrsquoecart de toute epreuveveritable Crsquoest comme si tout le pays avait ete jusqursquoa cette datefatidique en probation et que apres le 11 septembre elle avaitsubi son initiation devenant du coup mure pour lrsquoHistoire

(Tony is the United States until then spared by History thirstyfor heroism but kept away from any real challenge It is as if thewhole country had until that fateful date been on probation

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and as if after September 11 it had undergone its initiation andthereby become ripe for History)

15 Compare Zizek lsquolsquo[i]s not the surprise at why are they not loved [sic] forwhat they are doing to the world the most fundamental Americanreaction (at least) since the Vietnam war We just try to be good to helpothers to bring peace and prosperity and look what we get in returnrsquorsquo(145ndash6)

16 In this respect the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary is of a piece withother postndash11 September mass-audience films As Wheeler WinstonDixon observes lsquolsquo[T]he bulk of mainstream American cinema since911 whether the films were in production before or not seemscentered on a desire to replicate the idea of the lsquojust warrsquo in whichmilitary reprisals and the concomitant escalation of warfare seemsimultaneously inevitable and justifiedrsquorsquo (1)

17 In the United States however Brigandrsquos film was released(belatedly in 2003) under the name September 11 in an apparenteffort to counteract this disorienting effect

18 However this did not stop Variety from calling the film lsquolsquostridentlyanti-Americanrsquorsquo (Godard 1) Dixon correctly points out that 11rsquo0901lsquolsquofar from being anti-American is more accurately critical of Americanpolicy in the wake of 911 a very different matterrsquorsquo (5) In his viewthe contested episodes of Brigandrsquos film lsquolsquobring a welcome breath ofdissenting opinion to current cinematic discourse on the attacks of911rsquorsquo (5)

19 Efforts to get the department to comply with the commissionrsquosrecommendations were suspended indefinitely in the wake of the11 September attacks (Latour)

20 In 11rsquo0901 the reality of racism and xenophobia in New York ispoignantly evoked by the Indian director Mira Nair whose segmentdeals with the chilling effects of 11 September on the American Muslimcommunity Set in New York City Nairrsquos film recounts the story (basedon actual events) of a Pakistani American family whose eldest son goesmissing on the morning of 11 September For several months the FBIand the media keep claiming that he was a terrorist causing his familyto be shunned and ostracized by their initially supportive neighboursEventually however it emerges that the young man a medic waskilled while attempting to rescue people at the World Trade CenterOnce the truth is known he is hailed as a hero

Works Cited

Adorno Theodor lsquolsquoCultural Criticism and Societyrsquorsquo Prisms Trans SamuelWeber and Shierry Weber Cambridge MA MIT Press 1984 17ndash34

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Anderson Lisa and Stevenson Swanson lsquolsquoFilm Goes inside World TradeCenter Gripping Sept 11 Footage Followed NYC Firefightersrsquorsquo ChicagoTribune 5 Mar 2002 Advocate 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwstamfordadvo-catecomclassifiedjobssns-worldtrade-filmfootage-ctstorygt

Berger James lsquolsquolsquoTherersquos No Backhand to Thisrsquorsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911Ed Judith Greenberg Lincoln U of Nebraska P 2003 52ndash9

Borradori Giovanna Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with JurgenHabermas and Jacques Derrida Chicago U of Chicago P 2003

Butler Judith Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence LondonVerso 2004

Caruth Cathy lsquolsquoRecapturing the Pastrsquorsquo Introduction Trauma Explorations inMemory Ed Cathy Caruth Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP 1995 151ndash7

Dixon Wheeler Winston lsquolsquoSomething LostmdashFilm after 911rsquorsquo IntroductionFilm and Television after 911 Ed Wheeler Winston Dixon CarbondaleSouthern Illinois UP 2004 1ndash28

Dreher Rod lsquolsquoInside the Inferno The 911 Documentaryrsquorsquo National ReviewOnline 7 Mar 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwnationalreviewcomdreherdreher030702shtmlgt

11rsquo0901 Dir Youssef Chahine et al Prod Alain Brigand DVD GalateeFilms Studio Canal 2002

Erickson Hal lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo All-Movie Guide 22 Sept 2005 lthttpallmoviecomcgavgdllpfrac14avgampsqlfrac141265838gt

Fitzpatrick Chris lsquolsquo911 Happy Anniversaryrsquorsquo PopMatterscom 23 July 2005lthttpwwwpopmatterscomtvreviewsn9ndash11shtmlgt

Godard Francois lsquolsquoCanal Plus 911 Pic Courts Controversyrsquorsquo Daily Variety21 Aug 2002 1 20

Habib Andre lsquolsquoAutour de 911mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelleou dommages au reelrsquorsquo Hors Champs June 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwhorschampqccaarticlephp3id_articlefrac1481gt

Hope Gloves and Redemption Dir Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet 1999DVD Pathfinder 2003

Knight Sam lsquolsquoNew Yorkrsquos Whitestrsquorsquo Slices of New York Times Online 21Feb 2005 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwtimesonlinecoukarticle018391ndash149383700htmlgt

Latour Jane lsquolsquoLooking for a Fire Department That Looks like New YorkrsquorsquoGotham Gazette 3 Dec 2001 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwgothamgazettecomiotwfiredepartmentdoc1shtmlgt

Laurence Robert P lsquolsquoTwo-Hour Special 911 Conveys Horror withoutBeing Graphicrsquorsquo San Diego Union-Tribune 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwsignonsandiegocomtvradiocbs911htmlgt

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control (lsquolsquowhat do we do what do we do for thisrsquorsquo) These reactionsare clearly symptomatic of trauma understood as a suddenunexpected and overwhelming experience that escapes onersquosgraspmdashwhether conceptual or physicalmdashand as a result keepshaunting one The haunting power of the events of 11 September isapparent from the following comment made by Jules lsquolsquo[e]very nowand then I still wonder is it really true you know I know ithappened but I donrsquot know how do you deal with somethinglike this Itrsquos the eleventh every day for me when I wake uprsquorsquo

The question of how to cope with trauma is right at the forefrontof the documentary The filmmakers deploy various strategies todefuse their explosive footage and thus to contain control andmanage the trauma it conveys In fact their efforts to lsquolsquodetrau-matizersquorsquo 11 September started well before they got to the editingroom Amid concerns prior to its first CBS broadcast over thepossibly graphic content of the documentary Jules Naudet toldreporters and critics at a small press screening that lsquolsquo[t]here wasnever any graphic footage We did self-censorshiprsquorsquo (qtd in Ander-son and Swanson) In the program Jules says that as he enteredthe lobby of Tower 1 with the fire-fighters he saw people engulfedin flames By his own account he chose not to film them thinkinglsquolsquono one should see thisrsquorsquo Indeed despite the carnage that took thelives of nearly 3000 people there is nothing grisly in the footagewe are shown2 While the scenes of devastation are unrelentingno gore no mutilated bodies or body parts and no one jumpingfrom the towers are ever visible The only injury seen in the film isa small cut on the upper cheek of a fire-fighter who is shown restingafter the second collapse3 The filmmakersrsquo self-censorship waswidely seen as a commendable decision to stay within the boundsof good taste Good taste however is hardly the self-evident andinnocent concept it appears to be Rather it functions as a cover forideological motives As Slavoj Zizek has argued with reference tothe television coverage of the World Trade Center disaster theabsence on-screen of graphic depictions of deathmdashwhich standsin stark contrast with the in-your-face gore of reporting onThird-World calamitiesmdasheffects a lsquolsquoderealizationrsquorsquo of the horrorthat ultimately serves to restore First-World complacency

while the number of victimsmdash3000mdashis repeated all the time itis surprising how little of the actual carnage we seemdashnodismembered bodies no blood no desperate faces of dyingpeople in clear contrast to reporting on Third World

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catastrophies where the whole point is to produce a scoop ofsome gruesome detail Somalis dying of hunger raped Bosnianwomen men with their throats cut Is this not yet furtherproof of how even in this tragic moment the distance whichseparates Us from Them from their reality is maintained thereal horror happens there not here (13)4

If this ideological (self-)censorship reduces the traumatic impact ofthe events of 11 September their incorporation into a familiarnarrative form only reinforces this effect At the beginning of thedocumentary James Hanlon the Naudet brothersrsquo fire-fighterfriend who acts as the filmrsquos narrator and co-director suggeststhat the events of 11 September caused the filmmakers to abandontheir original plan of making lsquolsquoa documentary about a fire-fighterrsquorsquoThe film they ended up making so Hanlon asserts is lsquolsquoa documen-tary about 911rsquorsquo Remarkably however the radical shift of focusimplied here does not take place Though the unique footage shotby the Naudet brothers at and near the World Trade Center on11 September obviously forms the centrepiece of the documentarythe filmmakers have actually produced the all-American coming-of-age drama they intended to make all along The documentarytakes the form of a rite-of-passage narrative in which Tony Bene-tatos proves himself as a fire-fighter on 11 September thus realizinghis self-declared desire to become a hero5 Nothing it seems isallowed to stand in the way of the fulfilment of this quintessentialAmerican dream The World Trade Center disaster is presented asa test of the probiersquos manhood an obstacle to be overcome Hanlonannounces as much early on in the film when he says about hiscolleagues at the firehouse lsquolsquoSoon theyrsquod face the unthinkableThe question was would Tony be readyrsquorsquo At the end of the filmhe proclaims Benetatos to have passed the test lsquolsquoIt turns out Tonybecame a man [not in nine monthsmdashie the duration of hisprobationary periodmdashbut] in about nine hours trying to help outon 911rsquorsquo

In the spirit of the originally planned documentary the programtakes on the structure of a classical Hollywood film complete withan omniscient narrator a protagonist a carefully crafted storylinea dramatic soundtrack and the obligatory happy ending6 indeednot only does Tony emerge from the scene of the disaster a herobut all the companyrsquos other fire-fighters turn out to have survivedthe ordeal as well7 While it is striking how the events lentthemselves to this formulaic Hollywood treatment it has to besaid that the filmmakers spared no effort in exploiting their

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materialrsquos Hollywood potential This is particularly clear in thebuild-up of suspense in the film which relies partly on brief flash-forwards and foreboding comments by the narrator during the longwait for a real fire and partly also on the absence of the protagonistfrom the interview segments filmed after 11 September an absencemaintained until the finale Unlike the other fire-fighters formost of the film Benetatos only appears in footage from before11 September Thus a further element of tension is added thecentral question becomes whether or not our young unseasonedhero has survived the catastrophe This mystery is not resolveduntil all the other fire-fighters have returned alive and well to thestation where they sit worrying about the probie who is stillunaccounted for suddenly in walks Benetatos lsquolsquolike an urbancowboy appearing alone from the cloudy dust-covered horizonrsquorsquo(Lubin 126) Only now do we get to see the protagonist in after-the-fact interview footage

The filmmakersrsquo decision to frame their documentary as a Holly-wood-style rite-of-passage drama drew mixed responses MarcPeyser a writer for Newsweek notes

At its best lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo is as close to a feel-good movie as it can beconsidering the tragic cloth from which it is made At its bestlsquolsquo911rsquorsquo is much more than a mere document of one of thedeadliest days in American history With its richly drawncharacters its plot twists and its raw emotion lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo oftenplays out like a three-act Hollywood movie The only problemis itrsquos all real

Peyser himself does not seem overly troubled by this problemin fact reading his articlemdashappropriately titled lsquolsquoIf Only It Were Justa Moviersquorsquomdashone gets the impression that the author is more thanhappy to take his wishes for reality8 A very different note issounded by Chris Rylant of TeeVee who in an article that recallsTheodor Adornorsquos famous injunction against writing poetry afterAuschwitz and Elie Wieselrsquos critique of the television miniseriesHolocaust angrily denounces what he sees as lsquolsquothe ridiculouslymanipulative filmmaking of 911rsquorsquo calling it lsquolsquoshamelessrsquorsquo In hisview the documentaryrsquos systematic and exclusive focus on the birthof a hero amounts to a betrayal of the victims whose suffering issmoothed over and ignored

As if we needed to be thinking about the fate of this onehandsome young hero-with-a-capital-H because we couldnrsquot

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really feel the violent deaths of tens of hundreds of namelessoffice workers Just like the sinking of the Titanic and thebombing of Pearl Harbor needed romantic triangles tomake them worthwhile and interesting we needed to wonderif this one Probie fire-fighter would make it out alive Nevermind the destruction of two office buildings and thousandsof people

The Hollywoodization of the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary isunderlined by the inclusion of narration by long-time Tribecaresident Robert De Niro who appears briefly in three segmentsas host His film-star status makes De Niro a paradoxical guarantorof the authenticity of the footage his assurances that the film inwhich he features is a truthful record of reality inevitably producea derealization effect In fact from the other remarks the actormakes it becomes evident that his services have been enlisted forjust this purpose De Niro Hollywoodrsquos archetypal tough guyintroduces the documentary as an epic tale of courage strengthand triumph lsquolsquoThis is the story of how the cityrsquos bravest roseto their greatest challenge on September 11rsquorsquo Just before thesecond act featuring the World Trade Center scenes he returns toannounce that lsquolsquo[w]hat yoursquore about to see is how brave men workunder stress surrounded by chaosrsquorsquo Clearly De Nirorsquos framingremarks are meant to guide the viewerrsquos interpretation of theNaudet brothersrsquo atrocity footage in such a way as to counteractits traumatizing potential Rather than presenting these disturbingimages as testimony to the murderous nightmare of terrorismhe attempts to strip them of their essential horror (however miti-gated) by integrating them into an edifying story of grace underpressure That this is the intention becomes crystal clear when inhis final appearance at the end of the film De Niro claims thatlsquolsquothe moment in historyrsquorsquo that the viewer has just witnessed is lsquolsquo[n]ota moment of terror but one of strength when good men did greatthings Tens of thousands were saved by simple acts of courageWe hope that will be the true legacy of the men from Engine 7Ladder 1rsquorsquo9 In substituting heroism for terror this passage effec-tively dramatizes the lsquolsquostrange movement of languagersquorsquo observed byJames Berger in the aftermath of 11 September lsquolsquothe transformationof overwhelming loss into a kind of victory The media soon spokemore about the heroes of September 11 than of the deadrsquorsquo (55)10

A tropological movement takes place in which the traumatic excessof a deathly disaster is domesticated through anthropomorphiza-tion and reversal into life-saving heroism

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Interestingly De Nirorsquos representation of the fire-fighters as for-midable heroes performing extraordinary feats is radically at oddswith the menrsquos self-representation and with their own experience ofthe events of 11 September as they describe it in the retrospectiveinterview segments One of them evokes an overwhelming sense ofloss and powerlessness lsquolsquoWe lost so much in that two-hour periodWe felt like we got the hell kicked out of usrsquorsquo James Hanlonmentions his surprise at being treated like a hero by people in thestreets lsquolsquoIt was weird in a way walking back to the firehousePeople were cheering us but we sure didnrsquot feel like heroesrsquorsquo In theadditional interviews on the DVD which did not make the finalcut of the film other men of Engine 7 Ladder 1 speak of feelinglsquolsquohelplessrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoterrifiedrsquorsquo and admit that lsquolsquoThere was not muchyou could dorsquorsquo This is also the impression one gets from watchingthe footage shot by Jules inside the lobby of Tower 1 which showsscenes of chaos and indecision and captures the look of utterdisbelief and confusion on the fire-fightersrsquo faces Apparentlymaking heroes of the fire-fighters is demanded not so much bythe facts of the case as by the conventional narrative form intowhich those facts have been inserted11

Another way in which De Niro seeks to soften the impact of thedocumentary materials has to do with the numerous expletivesused by the witnesses At the beginning of the program he warnsthe viewer that although what he or she is about to see has beenlsquolsquoedited with great carersquorsquo still lsquolsquosome of the language is roughrsquorsquoAfter all he explains lsquolsquo[T]hese men had never been tested likethis beforersquorsquo In the course of the documentary we do indeedfrequently hear people curse lsquolsquoHoly shitrsquorsquo lsquolsquoTherersquos another fuck-ing planersquorsquo lsquolsquoAnd you know the fucking Pentagon is burningnowrsquorsquo and so on In fact it has been claimed that the amount ofunderstandable profanity spoken by the fire-fighters in 911 wasunprecedented for American network television which is notor-iously squeamish about this issue (Erickson) Trauma pushes peo-ple beyond the boundaries of normal socially acceptable speechan excessive event it seems can only be matched by excessivelanguage The filmmakers apparently felt that editing out swearwords would have been too intrusive an intervention howeverto cushion the supposed shock to the viewer they decided to haveDe Niro give him or her advance warning of what was aboutto assail his or her ears Thus the confrontation with foul languageis prevented from having anything even remotely resembling atraumatic effectmdashafter all for something to be traumatic it has to

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catch one off-guard and unprepared Still the decision not to tonedown the language used by the fire-fighters managed to attract agreat deal of media attention a fact which as Claudia Rosettobserves can only be accounted for by the extreme care withwhich the genuinely shocking aspects of the project had beenhandled

While De Nirorsquos narration is mostly concerned with the creation ofheroism the greatest good resulting from the World Trade Centerdisaster according to the documentary is the strengthening ofcommunity ties The focus in this film made by two brothers isnot only on heroism but also on brotherhood An important sub-plot with strong mythological overtones12 recounts the story of theNaudet brothersrsquo separation by the events their agonizing overeach otherrsquos fate (both of them fear that the other one may be dead)and their emotional reunion at the fire station (which curiously isfilmed by a third person) Gedeon tells us how when the secondtower came down lsquolsquothe only thing I could think about was Julesrsquorsquoand how he vowed to himself that lsquolsquo[i]f I would survive thatI would be a better brother [sic]rsquorsquo The documentary also highlightsthe bonds of brotherhood between the fire-fighters The men ofEngine 7 Ladder 1 are pictured as forming a tight-knit communitywhich closely resembles a family The film not only documents theprobiersquos integration into the firemenrsquos community but also showshow the filmmakers themselves gradually become accepted asmembers of this fraternity While reminiscing about the eveningof 10 September when he and his brother had cooked a meal for theother men Gedeon points out that lsquolsquowe were getting acceptedrsquorsquoThis process is completed when back at the firehouse after thetraumatic events they have lived through together one of the fire-men tells Jules lsquolsquoYesterday you had one brother Today youhave 50rsquorsquo At the end of the program the viewer is invited toshare in the community experience by donating money to a fire-fighterndashrelated charity the Uniformed Firefighters AssociationScholarship Fund The documentary thus shifts attention awayfrom the traumatic events to focus on the sense of caring andkinship forged in the shared disaster Community as Orly Lubinpoints out becomes lsquolsquothe tool of the containment of the traumarsquorsquo(124) The emphasis placed on the sense of community andtogetherness born at the moment of the traumatic event amountsto a form of denialmdashlsquolsquodenialrsquorsquo as Berger explains lsquolsquoin a specificallypsychoanalytic sense not a repression of the trauma or a claim thatit didnrsquot happen but a claim that the traumarsquos consequences will

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not be traumatic that it will not have symptoms but ratheronly beneficial lessons and varieties of redemptionrsquorsquo (55)

The community rhetoric mobilized in 911 is highly ideologicallycharged Though Jules Naudet told reporters that lsquolsquothe film is meantto be seen solely as a tribute to the firemen not as an argumentfor warrsquorsquo (Dreher) the documentary confirms preconceptions andassumptions that enabled a discourse of revenge and militaryaction to take root13 Indeed the film taps into the rhetoric offoundational innocence on which Americans have traditionallyestablished their public identity (but which has always hiddena more rapacious reality) the belief that they are the chosen peoplea nation founded in innocence and godliness The story recountedin the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary purports to represent thenational experience of the events of 11 September In fact the filmcan be seen to claim wider validity for the experience it documentsthrough its title which promises to tell us not a particular story butthe whole story of 11 September The viewer is led to interpret theprobiersquos journey from innocence to experience as an allegory of thefate of the entire nation The fire-fightersrsquo community in generaland Benetatos in particular metonymically and metaphoricallyrepresent the United States a nation that sees itself as a forcefor good the worldrsquos fireman14 The probiersquos self-description aslsquolsquoa person who tries to do good just like every other person in thefire departmentrsquorsquo is entirely consistent with this benign nationalself-image As a fire-fighter adds James Hanlon lsquolsquoYou do your jobyou risk your life to help peoplersquorsquo This notion is echoed by RobertDe Niro lsquolsquoFiremen live to help others live itrsquos that simplersquorsquo15

With the premise of US benevolence firmly in place the film canonly present the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center as an actof pure and inexplicable evil In an apparent effort to avoid politicalcontroversy the filmmakers provide little or no context for whattranspired that day The documentary does not reach beyond thestory of the men of Engine 7 Ladder 1 it refrains from placingthe disaster in a broader political or social context In so doingit effectively buys into the myth of American exceptionalismAfter all the viewer is given no way of framing the attack asanything other than a completely irrational and totally undeservedact of aggression We learn from one of the fire-fighters thatthat day made him realize lsquolsquohow evil evil can bersquorsquo no furtherexplanation is offered The appropriate response to 11 Septemberis voiced by the probie whomdashlsquolsquoexpressing what we all feltrsquorsquo

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(Gedeon)mdashimmediately defines the events as a declaration of waras he watches them unfold on TV Hearing that a plane has crashedinto the Pentagon he exclaims lsquolsquoThe Pentagonrsquos on fucking fireWar This is warrsquorsquo In a postndash11 September interview fragmentBenetatos wise from experience reflects lsquolsquoI know itrsquos either this orthe army now And I like saving lives I donrsquot like taking themBut after what I saw if my country decides to send me to go kill Irsquolldo it nowrsquorsquo This view expressed by a confirmed hero is in no waychallenged in the film which leaves little or no room for alternativeinterpretations Throughout the documentary maintains the inno-cence of the victim-nation suffering an unjust injury inflicted on itfor reasons that are left entirely unclear From this perspective themilitary responsemdashthe only one conceivablemdashappears as a legit-imate act of self-defence16

In Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence Judith Butleraddresses the passage from the experience of vulnerability and lossto military violence and retribution in a way that helps to shedfurther light on the ideological underpinnings of 911 Discussingthe aftermath of the 11 September attacks Butler points out that lsquolsquoitis one matter to suffer violence and quite another to use that fact toground a framework in which onersquos injury authorizes limitlessaggression against targets that may or may not be related to thesources of onersquos own sufferingrsquorsquo (4) This explanatory frameworkwhich has emerged in tandem with the experience of violenceworks lsquolsquoboth to preclude certain kinds of questions certain kinds ofhistorical inquiries and to function as a moral justification forretaliationrsquorsquo (4) Moreover it is said to have a narrative dimensionIn the United States Butler observes the story is typically told froma first-person narrative point of view and begins with the events of11 September events that have no relevant prehistorymdashafter all totell the story another way to ask how things came to such a pass islsquolsquoto complicate the question of agencyrsquorsquo which leads to lsquolsquothe fear ofmoral equivocationrsquorsquo lsquolsquoIn order to condemn these acts as inexcu-sable absolutely wrong in order to sustain the affective structure inwhich we are on the one hand victimized and on the otherengaged in a righteous cause of rooting out terror we have tobegin the story with the experience of violence we sufferedrsquorsquo (6)There is a strong desire to shore up the first-person point of viewand to preclude from the telling accounts that might involve adecentring of the narrative lsquolsquoIrsquorsquo within the international politicaldomain lsquolsquoThis decentering is precisely what we seek to rectifythrough a recentering A narrative form emerges to compensate

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for the enormous narcissistic wound opened up by the publicdisplay of our physical vulnerabilityrsquorsquo (7) This is of course exactlythe form taken by the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary as it attemptsto convert a lsquolsquodecentringrsquorsquo tale of terror into a lsquolsquore-centringrsquorsquo story ofheroism and community spirit Butler insists on the urgent needto decentre this first-person narrative if the world is to be sparedstill worse disasters She sees the temporary dislocation fromFirst World privilege caused by the 11 September attacks as offeringa chance to begin to imagine a world in which such violence mightbe minimized a world in which lsquolsquoan inevitable interdependencybecomes acknowledged as the basis for global political communityrsquorsquo(xiindashxiii) For this vision to become reality she writes lsquolsquowe will needto emerge from the narrative perspective of US unilateralism andas it were its defensive structures to consider the ways in whichour lives are profoundly implicated in the lives of othersrsquorsquo (7)

Butlerrsquos ideal of narrative decentring is strikingly realized in AlainBrigandrsquos 11rsquo0901 another 11 September film produced by aFrenchman that came out in 2002 However this is where thesimilarities between 911 and 11rsquo0901 stop Commissioned byBrigand as a response to the terrorist attacks 11rsquo0901 bringstogether eleven directors from as many countries each contributinga film lasting eleven minutes nine seconds and one frame The titlerefers to this duration as well as to the date of the attacks as itwould appear on a European calendar Hence the decentring of thecustomary first-person point of view that Brigandrsquos omnibus filmenacts is already signalled by its title which suggests foreignness17

The Naudetsrsquo film by contrast is content to use the Americannotation of the date for its title Varying enormously in style scopeand content the eleven segments of 11rsquo0901 testify to the reso-nance of the 11 September attacks around the world Unlike 911which places the events in a political and historical vacuum andthus ends up echoing the official discourse many of the filmsmaking up 11rsquo0901 insist on the interconnectedness of 11 Septem-ber with tragedies taking place elsewhere for which the UnitedStates is seen to be at least partially responsible British director KenLoach for example links 11 September 2001 with 11 September1973 when Chilean president Salvador Allende was killed duringa CIA-backed coup drsquoetat that put dictator Augusto Pinochet inpower In the episode contributed by Egyptian director YoussefChahine the ghost of a US marine is lectured on various interna-tional atrocities carried out in the name of American foreign policyHowever while it clearly distances itself from the American

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195

patriotic narrative of innocence under siege 11rsquo09rsquorsquo01 at no pointrefuses empathy with or denigrates the suffering of the victims ofthe World Trade Center attacks Rather than playing the who-suffered-most game or getting involved in lsquolsquothe moralizing mathe-matics of guilt and horrorrsquorsquo the film adopts what Zizek callslsquolsquothe only appropriate stancersquorsquo namely lsquolsquounconditional solidaritywith all victimsrsquorsquo (51)18

In contrast with 11rsquo0901 911 carefully avoids the subject of USresponsibility for Third-World poverty and political repressionIn fact the New York Fire Department is a highly appropriatesubject for this film as the make-up of its workforce reveals asimilar kind of blindness to issues of equality inclusion andsolidarity It is a matter of public record that the fire departmentof the multicultural melange that is New York has a serious mino-rities problem lsquolsquoThere are approximately 11500 firefighters andofficers in the FDNY of whom about 300 are black thatrsquos about 3per cent The department which is 92 per cent white has beenhistorically dominated by the cityrsquos Irish and Italian communitiesand is the least diverse fire department of any big city in Americarsquorsquo(Knight) Like African Americans Hispanics make up only3 per cent of New York City fire-fighters and women even lessthan 03 per cent (Latour) In May 2001 the cityrsquos Equal Employ-ment Practices Commission found that the severe under-representation of these groups far from being accidental couldbe attributed to the fire departmentrsquos having lsquolsquocreated barriers tothe hiring of minorities women and the poorrsquorsquo (Latour)19 Thisdramatic lack of diversitymdasha long-standing problem for which theNew York Fire Department has been much criticizedmdashis reflectedin 911 which shows only one African American and not a singleHispanic or woman employed at the Engine 7 Ladder 1 firehouseOnly a handful of African American and Hispanic fire-fighters andno women fire-fighters are shown working in or near the WorldTrade Center on 11 September and the dead fire-fighters whosepictures are displayed at the end of the film are overwhelminglywhite and without exception male The fire-fighting communitythat is held up in the Naudetsrsquo documentary as a model for the USas a nation thus turns out to be a privileged and exclusionary whitebrotherhood Not only then does 911 turn a blind eye to issues ofsocial justice at the international level by maintaining an overlysimplistic good (us) versus evil (them) philosophy but it alsowilfully ignores the demands of social justice closer to home bysinging the praises of an insular defensive and intransigent

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type of community Evidently we are a long way here from theideal of an inclusive and equitable global community as envisagedby Butler an ideal that appears to underlie Brigandrsquos 11rsquo090120

Remarkably in tune with the dominant political discourse of itstime 911 provides us with an example of what Eric Santner hascalled lsquolsquonarrative fetishismrsquorsquo lsquolsquothe construction and deployment ofa narrative consciously or unconsciously designed to expunge thetraces of the trauma that called that narrative into being in the firstplacersquorsquo (144) The film superimposes a linear narrative of heroismand community upon the traumatic reality of the attacks in order todeprive it of its potential significance As we have seen 911 doesnot shirk from suppressing evidence of trauma by excluding orsanitizing graphic footage nor from undermining the authority ofeye-witness testimony by frequently contradicting the fire-fightersrsquoown experience and by adopting an attitude of patronizing toler-ance towards linguistic excesses Viewed from a different anglehowever 911 offers a critique rather than an instantiation of theway in which 11 September is officially remembered In its veryattempt to marginalize trauma and testimony the film actuallyshows how trauma overflows the limits of the memorializingstrategies deployed to contain it thereby demonstrating theirinadequacy and tenuousness Its attempted portrayal of traumaas a discrete past event locatable representable and curable isbelied by traces of trauma seeping through the manifest narrativeresisting processes of identification comprehension and facileredemption

One of these traces is the moment in the film when Tower 2collapses covering the lobby of Tower 1 with debris As JulesNaudet runs up an escalator for shelter not knowing what hashappened his camera keeps rolling We hear a deafening rumblewhich drowns out all other sounds to the point of doing actualdamage to the soundtrack the lens is covered with grit and theneverything becomes pitch black Something similar happens afterthe collapse of Tower 1 which both Jules and Gedeon were filmingfrom nearby streets As the streets fill up with dust and debris theystart running for their lives but eventually fall to the ground Againthe cameras keep rolling recording the loud noise and the onset ofdarkness as the lenses turn brown and gritty Together with thesound of people falling to their deaths these three scenes representthe most direct intrusions of reality in the documentary As ifcaught in a repetition compulsion the film keeps returning to

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these extraordinary images which stand out by their indexicalquality reality physically imprints itself upon the camera insteadof merely being recorded by it in much the same way as atraumatic event falls directly into the psyche bypassing perceptionand consciousness While the filmrsquos apparent objective is to maketrauma visible and narratable in these haunting scenes traumareveals itself as an impossibility of seeing hearing and knowing

That the truth of trauma resides in its resistance to perception andunderstanding is borne out by the testimony of the survivors fromwhich we learn that the fire-fighters on the scene were almosttotally oblivious to the reality of what was going on For examplewhile the whole world had seen Tower 2 collapse on live televisionthe people trapped inside the lobby of Tower 1 did not have a clueas to what had happenedmdashwhich explains why having finallymade their way out they kept standing in the immediate vicinityof the doomed tower In an interview recently made public as partof the 911 records Joseph Pfeifer the battalion chief whom Juleshad found himself shadowing for most of the day recalls lsquolsquoWe gotout there and then we were standing under the bridge trying to seewhat was going on I couldnrsquot see what was going on Everythingwas covered with smoke I couldnrsquot see what collapsed Our eyeswere full of garbage Wersquore standing on the street and still notknowing the full implication of what took place because youcouldnrsquot seersquorsquo The film shows how the fire-fighters only beganto realize what they had lived through after they had got back tothe firehouse The emphasis placed by various eye-witnesses onthe eventsrsquo defiance of sight and comprehension challenges theassumptions structuring the filmrsquos conventional narrative in parti-cular the view that there is an intact history out there waiting to belured into vision and spoken as pure meaning In fact no soonerdoes 911 assert its claim to total visual mastery over the events of11 September than this claim is rebutted by the very footageintended to substantiate it James Hanlonrsquos promise at the begin-ning of the film that the viewer lsquolsquowill see all of itrsquorsquo lsquolsquobeginning toendrsquorsquo is immediately followed by a flash-forward to the dust- anddebris-filled images shot by Jules during the collapse of Tower 2With the picture going black it becomes impossible for the viewerto see anything at all

It is precisely this tension between the desire to know the subjectbeing represented and themdashimplicitmdashrecognition of the limits ofthat knowing that makes 911 so compelling With one hand the

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film offers the familiar gesture of memory as forgettingmdashtheincorporation of trauma into a reassuring narrative of nationalgreatnessmdashand with the other hand it takes away the comfort ofresting in this narrative Whatever ethical value the documentarycan be said to possess lies in the tension between these twogestures which if nothing more at least complicates the returnto the lsquolsquodogmatic slumberrsquorsquo (Derrida qtd in Borradori 100) fromwhich 11 September had awakened us

Notes

1 This is especially true of the televised version of the documentarywhich differs in several respects from the DVD edition released byParamount Pictures in 2002 under the title 911 The FilmmakersrsquoCommemorative Edition Most notably Robert De Niro who hosted theCBS program does not appear on the DVD edition Yet with a runningtime of 129 minutes the DVD edition is about a quarter of an hourlonger than the CBS broadcast Some footage has been added thatexpands on the original material for example scenes from the trainingof new recruits scenes from within the firehouse and scenes from therecovery effort As a result the tight narrative structure undergirdingthe TV version is loosened somewhat By way of bonus materialthe DVD features a 53-minute interview section containing furthercommentary from the fire-fighters

2 In fact the only visual evidence of death in the documentary comes inthe form of two still images of the intact body of Father Mychal Judgethe fire departmentrsquos chaplain being carried to a nearby church Hisdeathmdashdistanced as it is through the use of still rather than movingimagesmdashcan hardly be called representative as the vast majority of thevictims of 11 September were denied such dignity their bodies beingall but obliterated and therefore hard (if not impossible) to identify Asone of the fire-fighters testifies in the additional interview section onthe DVD lsquolsquoThere were many there were many eh it wasnrsquot manybodies but it was many pieces body parts There was I saw one ortwo whole bodies but not it wasnrsquot many I imagine thepeople were the same as the building nothing leftrsquorsquo Moreover thechaplainrsquos death is rescued from meaninglessness by the uncannyresemblance between the scene captured in the two photographs andtraditional pictorial representations of the descent from the crosswhich has the effect of turning the clergyman into a Christ-likesacrificial victim (I owe this point to my colleague Kristiaan Versluys)

3 One might argue as many have that the noise of the impact of thebodies on the glass and metal awning outside Tower 1 is disturbingenough While these sounds are definitely chilling as are the screamswe hear of terrified burn victims inside the lobby it should be pointedout that the original soundtrack recorded by Julesrsquos on-camera

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microphone was manipulated so as to soften the shock effectAppearances notwithstanding what we get to hear is a diluted andsanitized version of the original soundtrack as executive producerSusan Zirinsky explained at the press screening most of the crasheswere edited out on the grounds that lsquolsquo[t]o have that incredible crushof sound every 20 or 30 seconds would have been very tough for theaudiencersquorsquo (qtd in Laurence)

4 A similar point is made by Susan Sontag in Regarding the Pain of Others

Staying within the bounds of good taste was the primary reasongiven for not showing any of the horrific pictures of the deadtaken at the site of the World Trade Center in the immediateaftermath of the attack on September 11 2001 This novelinsistence on good taste in a culture saturated with commercialincentives to lower standards of taste may be puzzling But itmakes sense if understood as obscuring a host of concerns andanxieties about public order and public morale that cannotbe named as well as pointing to the inability otherwise toformulate or defend traditional conventions of how to mourn(68ndash9)

5 In an interview segment filmed at the Fire Academy in June 2001 andshown at the beginning of the documentary Benetatos says lsquolsquoIt soundskind of cheesy but I always kind of wanted to be a hero and this isreally the only thing you can do that you can do that [sic]rsquorsquo

6 See also Orly Lubinrsquos discussion of the documentaryrsquos compliancewith Hollywood conventions (125ndash7)

7 In view of the documentaryrsquos own affinity with mainstream disasterfilms the Hollywood comparisons invoked by some of the witnessesto convey the magnitude of the events take on an ironic ring A newscorrespondent reports from on the ground that lsquolsquo[t]he scene here is justone right out of one of those movies you would see in Hollywoodrsquorsquoand in the DVD version a passer-by is heard saying lsquolsquoLike somethingout of The Towering Inferno like a moviersquorsquo

8 Not only does Peyser speak of lsquolsquorichly drawn charactersrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoplottwistsrsquorsquo in the above passage but he also uses film vocabulary todescribe the thumps of bodies hitting the roof of the lobby callingthem lsquolsquothe most chilling sound effects ever heard on televisionrsquorsquo

9 De Nirorsquos words were echoed by Susan Zirinsky at the pre-screeningpress meeting Responding to Zirinskyrsquos claim in an article titledlsquolsquoShield Us on Sunday Night No Just Show Us Airing the Cultureof Denial on CBSrsquorsquo Claudia Rosett puts her finger on the problemlsquolsquoMoment of strength Well yes unquestionably there was valorBut given that the overwhelming event this bravery sought to addresswas actually terror this amounts to a cleaned up version of therealities of that dayrsquorsquo

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10 lsquolsquoOrrsquorsquo Berger continues lsquolsquothe dead were spoken of now as heroesrsquorsquo (55)Extending the creation of heroes to include the dead is also noticeablein the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary By way of an epilogue photo-graphs of the 344 fire-fighters who lost their lives on 11 September aredisplayed four by four against the background of the Stars and StripesThey are commemorated as national heroes who made the ultimatesacrifice in the service of their country By conceiving the catastropheas a purposive and meaningful sacrificial operation the documentaryeffectively softens its traumatic core

11 As a cinematic tribute to fire-fighters 911 stands in a long traditionof adulatory films about the fire-fighting profession stretching fromLife of an American Fireman (1903) to The Towering Inferno (1974) andfrom Backdraft (1991) to The Guys (2002) and Ladder 49 (2004)

12 While there are numerous myths featuring two brothers one isparticularly reminded of the legendary love of Castor and Polluxthe twin sons of Jupiter and Leda

13 That the documentary promotes a pro-war political agenda wasrecognized at the press meeting by Susan Zirinsky who defended thetiming of the broadcast as follows lsquolsquoThis is the right time We canrsquotforget what drove this country to be at war It is really important to notforget what happenedrsquorsquo (qtd in Long) Appearing on Foxrsquos The OrsquoReillyFactor later that week Zirinsky again invoked the war being fought inAfghanistan and stressed the supposed need lsquolsquoto keep that missionaliversquorsquo As Chris Fitzpatrick points out Zirinskyrsquos attitude lsquolsquoborrowedfrom John Ashcroftrsquorsquo suggests that lsquolsquothe true function of 911 may begetting Americarsquos jingoistic blood boilingrsquorsquo The Naudetsrsquo andZirinskyrsquos apparent disagreement about the purpose of thedocumentary is a rare breach of Franco-American unity judging frominterviews with directors and producers there was a completeconsensus among the different parties involved on just about everyother aspect of the film

14 A similar observation is made by Andre Habib in lsquolsquoAutour de 911 mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelle ou dommages au reelrsquorsquo one ofthe most insightful articles on the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary that Ihave come across Habib also regards the probie as lsquolsquoune metonymie desEtats-Unis en entierrsquorsquo (lsquolsquoa metonymy of the United States as a wholersquorsquo)

Tony crsquoest les Etats-Unis jusque la menages par lrsquoHistoireassoiffes drsquoheroısme mais maintenus a lrsquoecart de toute epreuveveritable Crsquoest comme si tout le pays avait ete jusqursquoa cette datefatidique en probation et que apres le 11 septembre elle avaitsubi son initiation devenant du coup mure pour lrsquoHistoire

(Tony is the United States until then spared by History thirstyfor heroism but kept away from any real challenge It is as if thewhole country had until that fateful date been on probation

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and as if after September 11 it had undergone its initiation andthereby become ripe for History)

15 Compare Zizek lsquolsquo[i]s not the surprise at why are they not loved [sic] forwhat they are doing to the world the most fundamental Americanreaction (at least) since the Vietnam war We just try to be good to helpothers to bring peace and prosperity and look what we get in returnrsquorsquo(145ndash6)

16 In this respect the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary is of a piece withother postndash11 September mass-audience films As Wheeler WinstonDixon observes lsquolsquo[T]he bulk of mainstream American cinema since911 whether the films were in production before or not seemscentered on a desire to replicate the idea of the lsquojust warrsquo in whichmilitary reprisals and the concomitant escalation of warfare seemsimultaneously inevitable and justifiedrsquorsquo (1)

17 In the United States however Brigandrsquos film was released(belatedly in 2003) under the name September 11 in an apparenteffort to counteract this disorienting effect

18 However this did not stop Variety from calling the film lsquolsquostridentlyanti-Americanrsquorsquo (Godard 1) Dixon correctly points out that 11rsquo0901lsquolsquofar from being anti-American is more accurately critical of Americanpolicy in the wake of 911 a very different matterrsquorsquo (5) In his viewthe contested episodes of Brigandrsquos film lsquolsquobring a welcome breath ofdissenting opinion to current cinematic discourse on the attacks of911rsquorsquo (5)

19 Efforts to get the department to comply with the commissionrsquosrecommendations were suspended indefinitely in the wake of the11 September attacks (Latour)

20 In 11rsquo0901 the reality of racism and xenophobia in New York ispoignantly evoked by the Indian director Mira Nair whose segmentdeals with the chilling effects of 11 September on the American Muslimcommunity Set in New York City Nairrsquos film recounts the story (basedon actual events) of a Pakistani American family whose eldest son goesmissing on the morning of 11 September For several months the FBIand the media keep claiming that he was a terrorist causing his familyto be shunned and ostracized by their initially supportive neighboursEventually however it emerges that the young man a medic waskilled while attempting to rescue people at the World Trade CenterOnce the truth is known he is hailed as a hero

Works Cited

Adorno Theodor lsquolsquoCultural Criticism and Societyrsquorsquo Prisms Trans SamuelWeber and Shierry Weber Cambridge MA MIT Press 1984 17ndash34

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Anderson Lisa and Stevenson Swanson lsquolsquoFilm Goes inside World TradeCenter Gripping Sept 11 Footage Followed NYC Firefightersrsquorsquo ChicagoTribune 5 Mar 2002 Advocate 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwstamfordadvo-catecomclassifiedjobssns-worldtrade-filmfootage-ctstorygt

Berger James lsquolsquolsquoTherersquos No Backhand to Thisrsquorsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911Ed Judith Greenberg Lincoln U of Nebraska P 2003 52ndash9

Borradori Giovanna Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with JurgenHabermas and Jacques Derrida Chicago U of Chicago P 2003

Butler Judith Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence LondonVerso 2004

Caruth Cathy lsquolsquoRecapturing the Pastrsquorsquo Introduction Trauma Explorations inMemory Ed Cathy Caruth Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP 1995 151ndash7

Dixon Wheeler Winston lsquolsquoSomething LostmdashFilm after 911rsquorsquo IntroductionFilm and Television after 911 Ed Wheeler Winston Dixon CarbondaleSouthern Illinois UP 2004 1ndash28

Dreher Rod lsquolsquoInside the Inferno The 911 Documentaryrsquorsquo National ReviewOnline 7 Mar 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwnationalreviewcomdreherdreher030702shtmlgt

11rsquo0901 Dir Youssef Chahine et al Prod Alain Brigand DVD GalateeFilms Studio Canal 2002

Erickson Hal lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo All-Movie Guide 22 Sept 2005 lthttpallmoviecomcgavgdllpfrac14avgampsqlfrac141265838gt

Fitzpatrick Chris lsquolsquo911 Happy Anniversaryrsquorsquo PopMatterscom 23 July 2005lthttpwwwpopmatterscomtvreviewsn9ndash11shtmlgt

Godard Francois lsquolsquoCanal Plus 911 Pic Courts Controversyrsquorsquo Daily Variety21 Aug 2002 1 20

Habib Andre lsquolsquoAutour de 911mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelleou dommages au reelrsquorsquo Hors Champs June 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwhorschampqccaarticlephp3id_articlefrac1481gt

Hope Gloves and Redemption Dir Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet 1999DVD Pathfinder 2003

Knight Sam lsquolsquoNew Yorkrsquos Whitestrsquorsquo Slices of New York Times Online 21Feb 2005 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwtimesonlinecoukarticle018391ndash149383700htmlgt

Latour Jane lsquolsquoLooking for a Fire Department That Looks like New YorkrsquorsquoGotham Gazette 3 Dec 2001 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwgothamgazettecomiotwfiredepartmentdoc1shtmlgt

Laurence Robert P lsquolsquoTwo-Hour Special 911 Conveys Horror withoutBeing Graphicrsquorsquo San Diego Union-Tribune 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwsignonsandiegocomtvradiocbs911htmlgt

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catastrophies where the whole point is to produce a scoop ofsome gruesome detail Somalis dying of hunger raped Bosnianwomen men with their throats cut Is this not yet furtherproof of how even in this tragic moment the distance whichseparates Us from Them from their reality is maintained thereal horror happens there not here (13)4

If this ideological (self-)censorship reduces the traumatic impact ofthe events of 11 September their incorporation into a familiarnarrative form only reinforces this effect At the beginning of thedocumentary James Hanlon the Naudet brothersrsquo fire-fighterfriend who acts as the filmrsquos narrator and co-director suggeststhat the events of 11 September caused the filmmakers to abandontheir original plan of making lsquolsquoa documentary about a fire-fighterrsquorsquoThe film they ended up making so Hanlon asserts is lsquolsquoa documen-tary about 911rsquorsquo Remarkably however the radical shift of focusimplied here does not take place Though the unique footage shotby the Naudet brothers at and near the World Trade Center on11 September obviously forms the centrepiece of the documentarythe filmmakers have actually produced the all-American coming-of-age drama they intended to make all along The documentarytakes the form of a rite-of-passage narrative in which Tony Bene-tatos proves himself as a fire-fighter on 11 September thus realizinghis self-declared desire to become a hero5 Nothing it seems isallowed to stand in the way of the fulfilment of this quintessentialAmerican dream The World Trade Center disaster is presented asa test of the probiersquos manhood an obstacle to be overcome Hanlonannounces as much early on in the film when he says about hiscolleagues at the firehouse lsquolsquoSoon theyrsquod face the unthinkableThe question was would Tony be readyrsquorsquo At the end of the filmhe proclaims Benetatos to have passed the test lsquolsquoIt turns out Tonybecame a man [not in nine monthsmdashie the duration of hisprobationary periodmdashbut] in about nine hours trying to help outon 911rsquorsquo

In the spirit of the originally planned documentary the programtakes on the structure of a classical Hollywood film complete withan omniscient narrator a protagonist a carefully crafted storylinea dramatic soundtrack and the obligatory happy ending6 indeednot only does Tony emerge from the scene of the disaster a herobut all the companyrsquos other fire-fighters turn out to have survivedthe ordeal as well7 While it is striking how the events lentthemselves to this formulaic Hollywood treatment it has to besaid that the filmmakers spared no effort in exploiting their

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materialrsquos Hollywood potential This is particularly clear in thebuild-up of suspense in the film which relies partly on brief flash-forwards and foreboding comments by the narrator during the longwait for a real fire and partly also on the absence of the protagonistfrom the interview segments filmed after 11 September an absencemaintained until the finale Unlike the other fire-fighters formost of the film Benetatos only appears in footage from before11 September Thus a further element of tension is added thecentral question becomes whether or not our young unseasonedhero has survived the catastrophe This mystery is not resolveduntil all the other fire-fighters have returned alive and well to thestation where they sit worrying about the probie who is stillunaccounted for suddenly in walks Benetatos lsquolsquolike an urbancowboy appearing alone from the cloudy dust-covered horizonrsquorsquo(Lubin 126) Only now do we get to see the protagonist in after-the-fact interview footage

The filmmakersrsquo decision to frame their documentary as a Holly-wood-style rite-of-passage drama drew mixed responses MarcPeyser a writer for Newsweek notes

At its best lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo is as close to a feel-good movie as it can beconsidering the tragic cloth from which it is made At its bestlsquolsquo911rsquorsquo is much more than a mere document of one of thedeadliest days in American history With its richly drawncharacters its plot twists and its raw emotion lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo oftenplays out like a three-act Hollywood movie The only problemis itrsquos all real

Peyser himself does not seem overly troubled by this problemin fact reading his articlemdashappropriately titled lsquolsquoIf Only It Were Justa Moviersquorsquomdashone gets the impression that the author is more thanhappy to take his wishes for reality8 A very different note issounded by Chris Rylant of TeeVee who in an article that recallsTheodor Adornorsquos famous injunction against writing poetry afterAuschwitz and Elie Wieselrsquos critique of the television miniseriesHolocaust angrily denounces what he sees as lsquolsquothe ridiculouslymanipulative filmmaking of 911rsquorsquo calling it lsquolsquoshamelessrsquorsquo In hisview the documentaryrsquos systematic and exclusive focus on the birthof a hero amounts to a betrayal of the victims whose suffering issmoothed over and ignored

As if we needed to be thinking about the fate of this onehandsome young hero-with-a-capital-H because we couldnrsquot

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really feel the violent deaths of tens of hundreds of namelessoffice workers Just like the sinking of the Titanic and thebombing of Pearl Harbor needed romantic triangles tomake them worthwhile and interesting we needed to wonderif this one Probie fire-fighter would make it out alive Nevermind the destruction of two office buildings and thousandsof people

The Hollywoodization of the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary isunderlined by the inclusion of narration by long-time Tribecaresident Robert De Niro who appears briefly in three segmentsas host His film-star status makes De Niro a paradoxical guarantorof the authenticity of the footage his assurances that the film inwhich he features is a truthful record of reality inevitably producea derealization effect In fact from the other remarks the actormakes it becomes evident that his services have been enlisted forjust this purpose De Niro Hollywoodrsquos archetypal tough guyintroduces the documentary as an epic tale of courage strengthand triumph lsquolsquoThis is the story of how the cityrsquos bravest roseto their greatest challenge on September 11rsquorsquo Just before thesecond act featuring the World Trade Center scenes he returns toannounce that lsquolsquo[w]hat yoursquore about to see is how brave men workunder stress surrounded by chaosrsquorsquo Clearly De Nirorsquos framingremarks are meant to guide the viewerrsquos interpretation of theNaudet brothersrsquo atrocity footage in such a way as to counteractits traumatizing potential Rather than presenting these disturbingimages as testimony to the murderous nightmare of terrorismhe attempts to strip them of their essential horror (however miti-gated) by integrating them into an edifying story of grace underpressure That this is the intention becomes crystal clear when inhis final appearance at the end of the film De Niro claims thatlsquolsquothe moment in historyrsquorsquo that the viewer has just witnessed is lsquolsquo[n]ota moment of terror but one of strength when good men did greatthings Tens of thousands were saved by simple acts of courageWe hope that will be the true legacy of the men from Engine 7Ladder 1rsquorsquo9 In substituting heroism for terror this passage effec-tively dramatizes the lsquolsquostrange movement of languagersquorsquo observed byJames Berger in the aftermath of 11 September lsquolsquothe transformationof overwhelming loss into a kind of victory The media soon spokemore about the heroes of September 11 than of the deadrsquorsquo (55)10

A tropological movement takes place in which the traumatic excessof a deathly disaster is domesticated through anthropomorphiza-tion and reversal into life-saving heroism

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Interestingly De Nirorsquos representation of the fire-fighters as for-midable heroes performing extraordinary feats is radically at oddswith the menrsquos self-representation and with their own experience ofthe events of 11 September as they describe it in the retrospectiveinterview segments One of them evokes an overwhelming sense ofloss and powerlessness lsquolsquoWe lost so much in that two-hour periodWe felt like we got the hell kicked out of usrsquorsquo James Hanlonmentions his surprise at being treated like a hero by people in thestreets lsquolsquoIt was weird in a way walking back to the firehousePeople were cheering us but we sure didnrsquot feel like heroesrsquorsquo In theadditional interviews on the DVD which did not make the finalcut of the film other men of Engine 7 Ladder 1 speak of feelinglsquolsquohelplessrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoterrifiedrsquorsquo and admit that lsquolsquoThere was not muchyou could dorsquorsquo This is also the impression one gets from watchingthe footage shot by Jules inside the lobby of Tower 1 which showsscenes of chaos and indecision and captures the look of utterdisbelief and confusion on the fire-fightersrsquo faces Apparentlymaking heroes of the fire-fighters is demanded not so much bythe facts of the case as by the conventional narrative form intowhich those facts have been inserted11

Another way in which De Niro seeks to soften the impact of thedocumentary materials has to do with the numerous expletivesused by the witnesses At the beginning of the program he warnsthe viewer that although what he or she is about to see has beenlsquolsquoedited with great carersquorsquo still lsquolsquosome of the language is roughrsquorsquoAfter all he explains lsquolsquo[T]hese men had never been tested likethis beforersquorsquo In the course of the documentary we do indeedfrequently hear people curse lsquolsquoHoly shitrsquorsquo lsquolsquoTherersquos another fuck-ing planersquorsquo lsquolsquoAnd you know the fucking Pentagon is burningnowrsquorsquo and so on In fact it has been claimed that the amount ofunderstandable profanity spoken by the fire-fighters in 911 wasunprecedented for American network television which is notor-iously squeamish about this issue (Erickson) Trauma pushes peo-ple beyond the boundaries of normal socially acceptable speechan excessive event it seems can only be matched by excessivelanguage The filmmakers apparently felt that editing out swearwords would have been too intrusive an intervention howeverto cushion the supposed shock to the viewer they decided to haveDe Niro give him or her advance warning of what was aboutto assail his or her ears Thus the confrontation with foul languageis prevented from having anything even remotely resembling atraumatic effectmdashafter all for something to be traumatic it has to

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191

catch one off-guard and unprepared Still the decision not to tonedown the language used by the fire-fighters managed to attract agreat deal of media attention a fact which as Claudia Rosettobserves can only be accounted for by the extreme care withwhich the genuinely shocking aspects of the project had beenhandled

While De Nirorsquos narration is mostly concerned with the creation ofheroism the greatest good resulting from the World Trade Centerdisaster according to the documentary is the strengthening ofcommunity ties The focus in this film made by two brothers isnot only on heroism but also on brotherhood An important sub-plot with strong mythological overtones12 recounts the story of theNaudet brothersrsquo separation by the events their agonizing overeach otherrsquos fate (both of them fear that the other one may be dead)and their emotional reunion at the fire station (which curiously isfilmed by a third person) Gedeon tells us how when the secondtower came down lsquolsquothe only thing I could think about was Julesrsquorsquoand how he vowed to himself that lsquolsquo[i]f I would survive thatI would be a better brother [sic]rsquorsquo The documentary also highlightsthe bonds of brotherhood between the fire-fighters The men ofEngine 7 Ladder 1 are pictured as forming a tight-knit communitywhich closely resembles a family The film not only documents theprobiersquos integration into the firemenrsquos community but also showshow the filmmakers themselves gradually become accepted asmembers of this fraternity While reminiscing about the eveningof 10 September when he and his brother had cooked a meal for theother men Gedeon points out that lsquolsquowe were getting acceptedrsquorsquoThis process is completed when back at the firehouse after thetraumatic events they have lived through together one of the fire-men tells Jules lsquolsquoYesterday you had one brother Today youhave 50rsquorsquo At the end of the program the viewer is invited toshare in the community experience by donating money to a fire-fighterndashrelated charity the Uniformed Firefighters AssociationScholarship Fund The documentary thus shifts attention awayfrom the traumatic events to focus on the sense of caring andkinship forged in the shared disaster Community as Orly Lubinpoints out becomes lsquolsquothe tool of the containment of the traumarsquorsquo(124) The emphasis placed on the sense of community andtogetherness born at the moment of the traumatic event amountsto a form of denialmdashlsquolsquodenialrsquorsquo as Berger explains lsquolsquoin a specificallypsychoanalytic sense not a repression of the trauma or a claim thatit didnrsquot happen but a claim that the traumarsquos consequences will

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not be traumatic that it will not have symptoms but ratheronly beneficial lessons and varieties of redemptionrsquorsquo (55)

The community rhetoric mobilized in 911 is highly ideologicallycharged Though Jules Naudet told reporters that lsquolsquothe film is meantto be seen solely as a tribute to the firemen not as an argumentfor warrsquorsquo (Dreher) the documentary confirms preconceptions andassumptions that enabled a discourse of revenge and militaryaction to take root13 Indeed the film taps into the rhetoric offoundational innocence on which Americans have traditionallyestablished their public identity (but which has always hiddena more rapacious reality) the belief that they are the chosen peoplea nation founded in innocence and godliness The story recountedin the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary purports to represent thenational experience of the events of 11 September In fact the filmcan be seen to claim wider validity for the experience it documentsthrough its title which promises to tell us not a particular story butthe whole story of 11 September The viewer is led to interpret theprobiersquos journey from innocence to experience as an allegory of thefate of the entire nation The fire-fightersrsquo community in generaland Benetatos in particular metonymically and metaphoricallyrepresent the United States a nation that sees itself as a forcefor good the worldrsquos fireman14 The probiersquos self-description aslsquolsquoa person who tries to do good just like every other person in thefire departmentrsquorsquo is entirely consistent with this benign nationalself-image As a fire-fighter adds James Hanlon lsquolsquoYou do your jobyou risk your life to help peoplersquorsquo This notion is echoed by RobertDe Niro lsquolsquoFiremen live to help others live itrsquos that simplersquorsquo15

With the premise of US benevolence firmly in place the film canonly present the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center as an actof pure and inexplicable evil In an apparent effort to avoid politicalcontroversy the filmmakers provide little or no context for whattranspired that day The documentary does not reach beyond thestory of the men of Engine 7 Ladder 1 it refrains from placingthe disaster in a broader political or social context In so doingit effectively buys into the myth of American exceptionalismAfter all the viewer is given no way of framing the attack asanything other than a completely irrational and totally undeservedact of aggression We learn from one of the fire-fighters thatthat day made him realize lsquolsquohow evil evil can bersquorsquo no furtherexplanation is offered The appropriate response to 11 Septemberis voiced by the probie whomdashlsquolsquoexpressing what we all feltrsquorsquo

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(Gedeon)mdashimmediately defines the events as a declaration of waras he watches them unfold on TV Hearing that a plane has crashedinto the Pentagon he exclaims lsquolsquoThe Pentagonrsquos on fucking fireWar This is warrsquorsquo In a postndash11 September interview fragmentBenetatos wise from experience reflects lsquolsquoI know itrsquos either this orthe army now And I like saving lives I donrsquot like taking themBut after what I saw if my country decides to send me to go kill Irsquolldo it nowrsquorsquo This view expressed by a confirmed hero is in no waychallenged in the film which leaves little or no room for alternativeinterpretations Throughout the documentary maintains the inno-cence of the victim-nation suffering an unjust injury inflicted on itfor reasons that are left entirely unclear From this perspective themilitary responsemdashthe only one conceivablemdashappears as a legit-imate act of self-defence16

In Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence Judith Butleraddresses the passage from the experience of vulnerability and lossto military violence and retribution in a way that helps to shedfurther light on the ideological underpinnings of 911 Discussingthe aftermath of the 11 September attacks Butler points out that lsquolsquoitis one matter to suffer violence and quite another to use that fact toground a framework in which onersquos injury authorizes limitlessaggression against targets that may or may not be related to thesources of onersquos own sufferingrsquorsquo (4) This explanatory frameworkwhich has emerged in tandem with the experience of violenceworks lsquolsquoboth to preclude certain kinds of questions certain kinds ofhistorical inquiries and to function as a moral justification forretaliationrsquorsquo (4) Moreover it is said to have a narrative dimensionIn the United States Butler observes the story is typically told froma first-person narrative point of view and begins with the events of11 September events that have no relevant prehistorymdashafter all totell the story another way to ask how things came to such a pass islsquolsquoto complicate the question of agencyrsquorsquo which leads to lsquolsquothe fear ofmoral equivocationrsquorsquo lsquolsquoIn order to condemn these acts as inexcu-sable absolutely wrong in order to sustain the affective structure inwhich we are on the one hand victimized and on the otherengaged in a righteous cause of rooting out terror we have tobegin the story with the experience of violence we sufferedrsquorsquo (6)There is a strong desire to shore up the first-person point of viewand to preclude from the telling accounts that might involve adecentring of the narrative lsquolsquoIrsquorsquo within the international politicaldomain lsquolsquoThis decentering is precisely what we seek to rectifythrough a recentering A narrative form emerges to compensate

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for the enormous narcissistic wound opened up by the publicdisplay of our physical vulnerabilityrsquorsquo (7) This is of course exactlythe form taken by the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary as it attemptsto convert a lsquolsquodecentringrsquorsquo tale of terror into a lsquolsquore-centringrsquorsquo story ofheroism and community spirit Butler insists on the urgent needto decentre this first-person narrative if the world is to be sparedstill worse disasters She sees the temporary dislocation fromFirst World privilege caused by the 11 September attacks as offeringa chance to begin to imagine a world in which such violence mightbe minimized a world in which lsquolsquoan inevitable interdependencybecomes acknowledged as the basis for global political communityrsquorsquo(xiindashxiii) For this vision to become reality she writes lsquolsquowe will needto emerge from the narrative perspective of US unilateralism andas it were its defensive structures to consider the ways in whichour lives are profoundly implicated in the lives of othersrsquorsquo (7)

Butlerrsquos ideal of narrative decentring is strikingly realized in AlainBrigandrsquos 11rsquo0901 another 11 September film produced by aFrenchman that came out in 2002 However this is where thesimilarities between 911 and 11rsquo0901 stop Commissioned byBrigand as a response to the terrorist attacks 11rsquo0901 bringstogether eleven directors from as many countries each contributinga film lasting eleven minutes nine seconds and one frame The titlerefers to this duration as well as to the date of the attacks as itwould appear on a European calendar Hence the decentring of thecustomary first-person point of view that Brigandrsquos omnibus filmenacts is already signalled by its title which suggests foreignness17

The Naudetsrsquo film by contrast is content to use the Americannotation of the date for its title Varying enormously in style scopeand content the eleven segments of 11rsquo0901 testify to the reso-nance of the 11 September attacks around the world Unlike 911which places the events in a political and historical vacuum andthus ends up echoing the official discourse many of the filmsmaking up 11rsquo0901 insist on the interconnectedness of 11 Septem-ber with tragedies taking place elsewhere for which the UnitedStates is seen to be at least partially responsible British director KenLoach for example links 11 September 2001 with 11 September1973 when Chilean president Salvador Allende was killed duringa CIA-backed coup drsquoetat that put dictator Augusto Pinochet inpower In the episode contributed by Egyptian director YoussefChahine the ghost of a US marine is lectured on various interna-tional atrocities carried out in the name of American foreign policyHowever while it clearly distances itself from the American

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patriotic narrative of innocence under siege 11rsquo09rsquorsquo01 at no pointrefuses empathy with or denigrates the suffering of the victims ofthe World Trade Center attacks Rather than playing the who-suffered-most game or getting involved in lsquolsquothe moralizing mathe-matics of guilt and horrorrsquorsquo the film adopts what Zizek callslsquolsquothe only appropriate stancersquorsquo namely lsquolsquounconditional solidaritywith all victimsrsquorsquo (51)18

In contrast with 11rsquo0901 911 carefully avoids the subject of USresponsibility for Third-World poverty and political repressionIn fact the New York Fire Department is a highly appropriatesubject for this film as the make-up of its workforce reveals asimilar kind of blindness to issues of equality inclusion andsolidarity It is a matter of public record that the fire departmentof the multicultural melange that is New York has a serious mino-rities problem lsquolsquoThere are approximately 11500 firefighters andofficers in the FDNY of whom about 300 are black thatrsquos about 3per cent The department which is 92 per cent white has beenhistorically dominated by the cityrsquos Irish and Italian communitiesand is the least diverse fire department of any big city in Americarsquorsquo(Knight) Like African Americans Hispanics make up only3 per cent of New York City fire-fighters and women even lessthan 03 per cent (Latour) In May 2001 the cityrsquos Equal Employ-ment Practices Commission found that the severe under-representation of these groups far from being accidental couldbe attributed to the fire departmentrsquos having lsquolsquocreated barriers tothe hiring of minorities women and the poorrsquorsquo (Latour)19 Thisdramatic lack of diversitymdasha long-standing problem for which theNew York Fire Department has been much criticizedmdashis reflectedin 911 which shows only one African American and not a singleHispanic or woman employed at the Engine 7 Ladder 1 firehouseOnly a handful of African American and Hispanic fire-fighters andno women fire-fighters are shown working in or near the WorldTrade Center on 11 September and the dead fire-fighters whosepictures are displayed at the end of the film are overwhelminglywhite and without exception male The fire-fighting communitythat is held up in the Naudetsrsquo documentary as a model for the USas a nation thus turns out to be a privileged and exclusionary whitebrotherhood Not only then does 911 turn a blind eye to issues ofsocial justice at the international level by maintaining an overlysimplistic good (us) versus evil (them) philosophy but it alsowilfully ignores the demands of social justice closer to home bysinging the praises of an insular defensive and intransigent

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type of community Evidently we are a long way here from theideal of an inclusive and equitable global community as envisagedby Butler an ideal that appears to underlie Brigandrsquos 11rsquo090120

Remarkably in tune with the dominant political discourse of itstime 911 provides us with an example of what Eric Santner hascalled lsquolsquonarrative fetishismrsquorsquo lsquolsquothe construction and deployment ofa narrative consciously or unconsciously designed to expunge thetraces of the trauma that called that narrative into being in the firstplacersquorsquo (144) The film superimposes a linear narrative of heroismand community upon the traumatic reality of the attacks in order todeprive it of its potential significance As we have seen 911 doesnot shirk from suppressing evidence of trauma by excluding orsanitizing graphic footage nor from undermining the authority ofeye-witness testimony by frequently contradicting the fire-fightersrsquoown experience and by adopting an attitude of patronizing toler-ance towards linguistic excesses Viewed from a different anglehowever 911 offers a critique rather than an instantiation of theway in which 11 September is officially remembered In its veryattempt to marginalize trauma and testimony the film actuallyshows how trauma overflows the limits of the memorializingstrategies deployed to contain it thereby demonstrating theirinadequacy and tenuousness Its attempted portrayal of traumaas a discrete past event locatable representable and curable isbelied by traces of trauma seeping through the manifest narrativeresisting processes of identification comprehension and facileredemption

One of these traces is the moment in the film when Tower 2collapses covering the lobby of Tower 1 with debris As JulesNaudet runs up an escalator for shelter not knowing what hashappened his camera keeps rolling We hear a deafening rumblewhich drowns out all other sounds to the point of doing actualdamage to the soundtrack the lens is covered with grit and theneverything becomes pitch black Something similar happens afterthe collapse of Tower 1 which both Jules and Gedeon were filmingfrom nearby streets As the streets fill up with dust and debris theystart running for their lives but eventually fall to the ground Againthe cameras keep rolling recording the loud noise and the onset ofdarkness as the lenses turn brown and gritty Together with thesound of people falling to their deaths these three scenes representthe most direct intrusions of reality in the documentary As ifcaught in a repetition compulsion the film keeps returning to

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these extraordinary images which stand out by their indexicalquality reality physically imprints itself upon the camera insteadof merely being recorded by it in much the same way as atraumatic event falls directly into the psyche bypassing perceptionand consciousness While the filmrsquos apparent objective is to maketrauma visible and narratable in these haunting scenes traumareveals itself as an impossibility of seeing hearing and knowing

That the truth of trauma resides in its resistance to perception andunderstanding is borne out by the testimony of the survivors fromwhich we learn that the fire-fighters on the scene were almosttotally oblivious to the reality of what was going on For examplewhile the whole world had seen Tower 2 collapse on live televisionthe people trapped inside the lobby of Tower 1 did not have a clueas to what had happenedmdashwhich explains why having finallymade their way out they kept standing in the immediate vicinityof the doomed tower In an interview recently made public as partof the 911 records Joseph Pfeifer the battalion chief whom Juleshad found himself shadowing for most of the day recalls lsquolsquoWe gotout there and then we were standing under the bridge trying to seewhat was going on I couldnrsquot see what was going on Everythingwas covered with smoke I couldnrsquot see what collapsed Our eyeswere full of garbage Wersquore standing on the street and still notknowing the full implication of what took place because youcouldnrsquot seersquorsquo The film shows how the fire-fighters only beganto realize what they had lived through after they had got back tothe firehouse The emphasis placed by various eye-witnesses onthe eventsrsquo defiance of sight and comprehension challenges theassumptions structuring the filmrsquos conventional narrative in parti-cular the view that there is an intact history out there waiting to belured into vision and spoken as pure meaning In fact no soonerdoes 911 assert its claim to total visual mastery over the events of11 September than this claim is rebutted by the very footageintended to substantiate it James Hanlonrsquos promise at the begin-ning of the film that the viewer lsquolsquowill see all of itrsquorsquo lsquolsquobeginning toendrsquorsquo is immediately followed by a flash-forward to the dust- anddebris-filled images shot by Jules during the collapse of Tower 2With the picture going black it becomes impossible for the viewerto see anything at all

It is precisely this tension between the desire to know the subjectbeing represented and themdashimplicitmdashrecognition of the limits ofthat knowing that makes 911 so compelling With one hand the

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film offers the familiar gesture of memory as forgettingmdashtheincorporation of trauma into a reassuring narrative of nationalgreatnessmdashand with the other hand it takes away the comfort ofresting in this narrative Whatever ethical value the documentarycan be said to possess lies in the tension between these twogestures which if nothing more at least complicates the returnto the lsquolsquodogmatic slumberrsquorsquo (Derrida qtd in Borradori 100) fromwhich 11 September had awakened us

Notes

1 This is especially true of the televised version of the documentarywhich differs in several respects from the DVD edition released byParamount Pictures in 2002 under the title 911 The FilmmakersrsquoCommemorative Edition Most notably Robert De Niro who hosted theCBS program does not appear on the DVD edition Yet with a runningtime of 129 minutes the DVD edition is about a quarter of an hourlonger than the CBS broadcast Some footage has been added thatexpands on the original material for example scenes from the trainingof new recruits scenes from within the firehouse and scenes from therecovery effort As a result the tight narrative structure undergirdingthe TV version is loosened somewhat By way of bonus materialthe DVD features a 53-minute interview section containing furthercommentary from the fire-fighters

2 In fact the only visual evidence of death in the documentary comes inthe form of two still images of the intact body of Father Mychal Judgethe fire departmentrsquos chaplain being carried to a nearby church Hisdeathmdashdistanced as it is through the use of still rather than movingimagesmdashcan hardly be called representative as the vast majority of thevictims of 11 September were denied such dignity their bodies beingall but obliterated and therefore hard (if not impossible) to identify Asone of the fire-fighters testifies in the additional interview section onthe DVD lsquolsquoThere were many there were many eh it wasnrsquot manybodies but it was many pieces body parts There was I saw one ortwo whole bodies but not it wasnrsquot many I imagine thepeople were the same as the building nothing leftrsquorsquo Moreover thechaplainrsquos death is rescued from meaninglessness by the uncannyresemblance between the scene captured in the two photographs andtraditional pictorial representations of the descent from the crosswhich has the effect of turning the clergyman into a Christ-likesacrificial victim (I owe this point to my colleague Kristiaan Versluys)

3 One might argue as many have that the noise of the impact of thebodies on the glass and metal awning outside Tower 1 is disturbingenough While these sounds are definitely chilling as are the screamswe hear of terrified burn victims inside the lobby it should be pointedout that the original soundtrack recorded by Julesrsquos on-camera

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microphone was manipulated so as to soften the shock effectAppearances notwithstanding what we get to hear is a diluted andsanitized version of the original soundtrack as executive producerSusan Zirinsky explained at the press screening most of the crasheswere edited out on the grounds that lsquolsquo[t]o have that incredible crushof sound every 20 or 30 seconds would have been very tough for theaudiencersquorsquo (qtd in Laurence)

4 A similar point is made by Susan Sontag in Regarding the Pain of Others

Staying within the bounds of good taste was the primary reasongiven for not showing any of the horrific pictures of the deadtaken at the site of the World Trade Center in the immediateaftermath of the attack on September 11 2001 This novelinsistence on good taste in a culture saturated with commercialincentives to lower standards of taste may be puzzling But itmakes sense if understood as obscuring a host of concerns andanxieties about public order and public morale that cannotbe named as well as pointing to the inability otherwise toformulate or defend traditional conventions of how to mourn(68ndash9)

5 In an interview segment filmed at the Fire Academy in June 2001 andshown at the beginning of the documentary Benetatos says lsquolsquoIt soundskind of cheesy but I always kind of wanted to be a hero and this isreally the only thing you can do that you can do that [sic]rsquorsquo

6 See also Orly Lubinrsquos discussion of the documentaryrsquos compliancewith Hollywood conventions (125ndash7)

7 In view of the documentaryrsquos own affinity with mainstream disasterfilms the Hollywood comparisons invoked by some of the witnessesto convey the magnitude of the events take on an ironic ring A newscorrespondent reports from on the ground that lsquolsquo[t]he scene here is justone right out of one of those movies you would see in Hollywoodrsquorsquoand in the DVD version a passer-by is heard saying lsquolsquoLike somethingout of The Towering Inferno like a moviersquorsquo

8 Not only does Peyser speak of lsquolsquorichly drawn charactersrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoplottwistsrsquorsquo in the above passage but he also uses film vocabulary todescribe the thumps of bodies hitting the roof of the lobby callingthem lsquolsquothe most chilling sound effects ever heard on televisionrsquorsquo

9 De Nirorsquos words were echoed by Susan Zirinsky at the pre-screeningpress meeting Responding to Zirinskyrsquos claim in an article titledlsquolsquoShield Us on Sunday Night No Just Show Us Airing the Cultureof Denial on CBSrsquorsquo Claudia Rosett puts her finger on the problemlsquolsquoMoment of strength Well yes unquestionably there was valorBut given that the overwhelming event this bravery sought to addresswas actually terror this amounts to a cleaned up version of therealities of that dayrsquorsquo

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10 lsquolsquoOrrsquorsquo Berger continues lsquolsquothe dead were spoken of now as heroesrsquorsquo (55)Extending the creation of heroes to include the dead is also noticeablein the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary By way of an epilogue photo-graphs of the 344 fire-fighters who lost their lives on 11 September aredisplayed four by four against the background of the Stars and StripesThey are commemorated as national heroes who made the ultimatesacrifice in the service of their country By conceiving the catastropheas a purposive and meaningful sacrificial operation the documentaryeffectively softens its traumatic core

11 As a cinematic tribute to fire-fighters 911 stands in a long traditionof adulatory films about the fire-fighting profession stretching fromLife of an American Fireman (1903) to The Towering Inferno (1974) andfrom Backdraft (1991) to The Guys (2002) and Ladder 49 (2004)

12 While there are numerous myths featuring two brothers one isparticularly reminded of the legendary love of Castor and Polluxthe twin sons of Jupiter and Leda

13 That the documentary promotes a pro-war political agenda wasrecognized at the press meeting by Susan Zirinsky who defended thetiming of the broadcast as follows lsquolsquoThis is the right time We canrsquotforget what drove this country to be at war It is really important to notforget what happenedrsquorsquo (qtd in Long) Appearing on Foxrsquos The OrsquoReillyFactor later that week Zirinsky again invoked the war being fought inAfghanistan and stressed the supposed need lsquolsquoto keep that missionaliversquorsquo As Chris Fitzpatrick points out Zirinskyrsquos attitude lsquolsquoborrowedfrom John Ashcroftrsquorsquo suggests that lsquolsquothe true function of 911 may begetting Americarsquos jingoistic blood boilingrsquorsquo The Naudetsrsquo andZirinskyrsquos apparent disagreement about the purpose of thedocumentary is a rare breach of Franco-American unity judging frominterviews with directors and producers there was a completeconsensus among the different parties involved on just about everyother aspect of the film

14 A similar observation is made by Andre Habib in lsquolsquoAutour de 911 mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelle ou dommages au reelrsquorsquo one ofthe most insightful articles on the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary that Ihave come across Habib also regards the probie as lsquolsquoune metonymie desEtats-Unis en entierrsquorsquo (lsquolsquoa metonymy of the United States as a wholersquorsquo)

Tony crsquoest les Etats-Unis jusque la menages par lrsquoHistoireassoiffes drsquoheroısme mais maintenus a lrsquoecart de toute epreuveveritable Crsquoest comme si tout le pays avait ete jusqursquoa cette datefatidique en probation et que apres le 11 septembre elle avaitsubi son initiation devenant du coup mure pour lrsquoHistoire

(Tony is the United States until then spared by History thirstyfor heroism but kept away from any real challenge It is as if thewhole country had until that fateful date been on probation

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and as if after September 11 it had undergone its initiation andthereby become ripe for History)

15 Compare Zizek lsquolsquo[i]s not the surprise at why are they not loved [sic] forwhat they are doing to the world the most fundamental Americanreaction (at least) since the Vietnam war We just try to be good to helpothers to bring peace and prosperity and look what we get in returnrsquorsquo(145ndash6)

16 In this respect the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary is of a piece withother postndash11 September mass-audience films As Wheeler WinstonDixon observes lsquolsquo[T]he bulk of mainstream American cinema since911 whether the films were in production before or not seemscentered on a desire to replicate the idea of the lsquojust warrsquo in whichmilitary reprisals and the concomitant escalation of warfare seemsimultaneously inevitable and justifiedrsquorsquo (1)

17 In the United States however Brigandrsquos film was released(belatedly in 2003) under the name September 11 in an apparenteffort to counteract this disorienting effect

18 However this did not stop Variety from calling the film lsquolsquostridentlyanti-Americanrsquorsquo (Godard 1) Dixon correctly points out that 11rsquo0901lsquolsquofar from being anti-American is more accurately critical of Americanpolicy in the wake of 911 a very different matterrsquorsquo (5) In his viewthe contested episodes of Brigandrsquos film lsquolsquobring a welcome breath ofdissenting opinion to current cinematic discourse on the attacks of911rsquorsquo (5)

19 Efforts to get the department to comply with the commissionrsquosrecommendations were suspended indefinitely in the wake of the11 September attacks (Latour)

20 In 11rsquo0901 the reality of racism and xenophobia in New York ispoignantly evoked by the Indian director Mira Nair whose segmentdeals with the chilling effects of 11 September on the American Muslimcommunity Set in New York City Nairrsquos film recounts the story (basedon actual events) of a Pakistani American family whose eldest son goesmissing on the morning of 11 September For several months the FBIand the media keep claiming that he was a terrorist causing his familyto be shunned and ostracized by their initially supportive neighboursEventually however it emerges that the young man a medic waskilled while attempting to rescue people at the World Trade CenterOnce the truth is known he is hailed as a hero

Works Cited

Adorno Theodor lsquolsquoCultural Criticism and Societyrsquorsquo Prisms Trans SamuelWeber and Shierry Weber Cambridge MA MIT Press 1984 17ndash34

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Anderson Lisa and Stevenson Swanson lsquolsquoFilm Goes inside World TradeCenter Gripping Sept 11 Footage Followed NYC Firefightersrsquorsquo ChicagoTribune 5 Mar 2002 Advocate 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwstamfordadvo-catecomclassifiedjobssns-worldtrade-filmfootage-ctstorygt

Berger James lsquolsquolsquoTherersquos No Backhand to Thisrsquorsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911Ed Judith Greenberg Lincoln U of Nebraska P 2003 52ndash9

Borradori Giovanna Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with JurgenHabermas and Jacques Derrida Chicago U of Chicago P 2003

Butler Judith Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence LondonVerso 2004

Caruth Cathy lsquolsquoRecapturing the Pastrsquorsquo Introduction Trauma Explorations inMemory Ed Cathy Caruth Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP 1995 151ndash7

Dixon Wheeler Winston lsquolsquoSomething LostmdashFilm after 911rsquorsquo IntroductionFilm and Television after 911 Ed Wheeler Winston Dixon CarbondaleSouthern Illinois UP 2004 1ndash28

Dreher Rod lsquolsquoInside the Inferno The 911 Documentaryrsquorsquo National ReviewOnline 7 Mar 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwnationalreviewcomdreherdreher030702shtmlgt

11rsquo0901 Dir Youssef Chahine et al Prod Alain Brigand DVD GalateeFilms Studio Canal 2002

Erickson Hal lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo All-Movie Guide 22 Sept 2005 lthttpallmoviecomcgavgdllpfrac14avgampsqlfrac141265838gt

Fitzpatrick Chris lsquolsquo911 Happy Anniversaryrsquorsquo PopMatterscom 23 July 2005lthttpwwwpopmatterscomtvreviewsn9ndash11shtmlgt

Godard Francois lsquolsquoCanal Plus 911 Pic Courts Controversyrsquorsquo Daily Variety21 Aug 2002 1 20

Habib Andre lsquolsquoAutour de 911mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelleou dommages au reelrsquorsquo Hors Champs June 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwhorschampqccaarticlephp3id_articlefrac1481gt

Hope Gloves and Redemption Dir Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet 1999DVD Pathfinder 2003

Knight Sam lsquolsquoNew Yorkrsquos Whitestrsquorsquo Slices of New York Times Online 21Feb 2005 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwtimesonlinecoukarticle018391ndash149383700htmlgt

Latour Jane lsquolsquoLooking for a Fire Department That Looks like New YorkrsquorsquoGotham Gazette 3 Dec 2001 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwgothamgazettecomiotwfiredepartmentdoc1shtmlgt

Laurence Robert P lsquolsquoTwo-Hour Special 911 Conveys Horror withoutBeing Graphicrsquorsquo San Diego Union-Tribune 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwsignonsandiegocomtvradiocbs911htmlgt

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materialrsquos Hollywood potential This is particularly clear in thebuild-up of suspense in the film which relies partly on brief flash-forwards and foreboding comments by the narrator during the longwait for a real fire and partly also on the absence of the protagonistfrom the interview segments filmed after 11 September an absencemaintained until the finale Unlike the other fire-fighters formost of the film Benetatos only appears in footage from before11 September Thus a further element of tension is added thecentral question becomes whether or not our young unseasonedhero has survived the catastrophe This mystery is not resolveduntil all the other fire-fighters have returned alive and well to thestation where they sit worrying about the probie who is stillunaccounted for suddenly in walks Benetatos lsquolsquolike an urbancowboy appearing alone from the cloudy dust-covered horizonrsquorsquo(Lubin 126) Only now do we get to see the protagonist in after-the-fact interview footage

The filmmakersrsquo decision to frame their documentary as a Holly-wood-style rite-of-passage drama drew mixed responses MarcPeyser a writer for Newsweek notes

At its best lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo is as close to a feel-good movie as it can beconsidering the tragic cloth from which it is made At its bestlsquolsquo911rsquorsquo is much more than a mere document of one of thedeadliest days in American history With its richly drawncharacters its plot twists and its raw emotion lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo oftenplays out like a three-act Hollywood movie The only problemis itrsquos all real

Peyser himself does not seem overly troubled by this problemin fact reading his articlemdashappropriately titled lsquolsquoIf Only It Were Justa Moviersquorsquomdashone gets the impression that the author is more thanhappy to take his wishes for reality8 A very different note issounded by Chris Rylant of TeeVee who in an article that recallsTheodor Adornorsquos famous injunction against writing poetry afterAuschwitz and Elie Wieselrsquos critique of the television miniseriesHolocaust angrily denounces what he sees as lsquolsquothe ridiculouslymanipulative filmmaking of 911rsquorsquo calling it lsquolsquoshamelessrsquorsquo In hisview the documentaryrsquos systematic and exclusive focus on the birthof a hero amounts to a betrayal of the victims whose suffering issmoothed over and ignored

As if we needed to be thinking about the fate of this onehandsome young hero-with-a-capital-H because we couldnrsquot

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really feel the violent deaths of tens of hundreds of namelessoffice workers Just like the sinking of the Titanic and thebombing of Pearl Harbor needed romantic triangles tomake them worthwhile and interesting we needed to wonderif this one Probie fire-fighter would make it out alive Nevermind the destruction of two office buildings and thousandsof people

The Hollywoodization of the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary isunderlined by the inclusion of narration by long-time Tribecaresident Robert De Niro who appears briefly in three segmentsas host His film-star status makes De Niro a paradoxical guarantorof the authenticity of the footage his assurances that the film inwhich he features is a truthful record of reality inevitably producea derealization effect In fact from the other remarks the actormakes it becomes evident that his services have been enlisted forjust this purpose De Niro Hollywoodrsquos archetypal tough guyintroduces the documentary as an epic tale of courage strengthand triumph lsquolsquoThis is the story of how the cityrsquos bravest roseto their greatest challenge on September 11rsquorsquo Just before thesecond act featuring the World Trade Center scenes he returns toannounce that lsquolsquo[w]hat yoursquore about to see is how brave men workunder stress surrounded by chaosrsquorsquo Clearly De Nirorsquos framingremarks are meant to guide the viewerrsquos interpretation of theNaudet brothersrsquo atrocity footage in such a way as to counteractits traumatizing potential Rather than presenting these disturbingimages as testimony to the murderous nightmare of terrorismhe attempts to strip them of their essential horror (however miti-gated) by integrating them into an edifying story of grace underpressure That this is the intention becomes crystal clear when inhis final appearance at the end of the film De Niro claims thatlsquolsquothe moment in historyrsquorsquo that the viewer has just witnessed is lsquolsquo[n]ota moment of terror but one of strength when good men did greatthings Tens of thousands were saved by simple acts of courageWe hope that will be the true legacy of the men from Engine 7Ladder 1rsquorsquo9 In substituting heroism for terror this passage effec-tively dramatizes the lsquolsquostrange movement of languagersquorsquo observed byJames Berger in the aftermath of 11 September lsquolsquothe transformationof overwhelming loss into a kind of victory The media soon spokemore about the heroes of September 11 than of the deadrsquorsquo (55)10

A tropological movement takes place in which the traumatic excessof a deathly disaster is domesticated through anthropomorphiza-tion and reversal into life-saving heroism

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Interestingly De Nirorsquos representation of the fire-fighters as for-midable heroes performing extraordinary feats is radically at oddswith the menrsquos self-representation and with their own experience ofthe events of 11 September as they describe it in the retrospectiveinterview segments One of them evokes an overwhelming sense ofloss and powerlessness lsquolsquoWe lost so much in that two-hour periodWe felt like we got the hell kicked out of usrsquorsquo James Hanlonmentions his surprise at being treated like a hero by people in thestreets lsquolsquoIt was weird in a way walking back to the firehousePeople were cheering us but we sure didnrsquot feel like heroesrsquorsquo In theadditional interviews on the DVD which did not make the finalcut of the film other men of Engine 7 Ladder 1 speak of feelinglsquolsquohelplessrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoterrifiedrsquorsquo and admit that lsquolsquoThere was not muchyou could dorsquorsquo This is also the impression one gets from watchingthe footage shot by Jules inside the lobby of Tower 1 which showsscenes of chaos and indecision and captures the look of utterdisbelief and confusion on the fire-fightersrsquo faces Apparentlymaking heroes of the fire-fighters is demanded not so much bythe facts of the case as by the conventional narrative form intowhich those facts have been inserted11

Another way in which De Niro seeks to soften the impact of thedocumentary materials has to do with the numerous expletivesused by the witnesses At the beginning of the program he warnsthe viewer that although what he or she is about to see has beenlsquolsquoedited with great carersquorsquo still lsquolsquosome of the language is roughrsquorsquoAfter all he explains lsquolsquo[T]hese men had never been tested likethis beforersquorsquo In the course of the documentary we do indeedfrequently hear people curse lsquolsquoHoly shitrsquorsquo lsquolsquoTherersquos another fuck-ing planersquorsquo lsquolsquoAnd you know the fucking Pentagon is burningnowrsquorsquo and so on In fact it has been claimed that the amount ofunderstandable profanity spoken by the fire-fighters in 911 wasunprecedented for American network television which is notor-iously squeamish about this issue (Erickson) Trauma pushes peo-ple beyond the boundaries of normal socially acceptable speechan excessive event it seems can only be matched by excessivelanguage The filmmakers apparently felt that editing out swearwords would have been too intrusive an intervention howeverto cushion the supposed shock to the viewer they decided to haveDe Niro give him or her advance warning of what was aboutto assail his or her ears Thus the confrontation with foul languageis prevented from having anything even remotely resembling atraumatic effectmdashafter all for something to be traumatic it has to

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catch one off-guard and unprepared Still the decision not to tonedown the language used by the fire-fighters managed to attract agreat deal of media attention a fact which as Claudia Rosettobserves can only be accounted for by the extreme care withwhich the genuinely shocking aspects of the project had beenhandled

While De Nirorsquos narration is mostly concerned with the creation ofheroism the greatest good resulting from the World Trade Centerdisaster according to the documentary is the strengthening ofcommunity ties The focus in this film made by two brothers isnot only on heroism but also on brotherhood An important sub-plot with strong mythological overtones12 recounts the story of theNaudet brothersrsquo separation by the events their agonizing overeach otherrsquos fate (both of them fear that the other one may be dead)and their emotional reunion at the fire station (which curiously isfilmed by a third person) Gedeon tells us how when the secondtower came down lsquolsquothe only thing I could think about was Julesrsquorsquoand how he vowed to himself that lsquolsquo[i]f I would survive thatI would be a better brother [sic]rsquorsquo The documentary also highlightsthe bonds of brotherhood between the fire-fighters The men ofEngine 7 Ladder 1 are pictured as forming a tight-knit communitywhich closely resembles a family The film not only documents theprobiersquos integration into the firemenrsquos community but also showshow the filmmakers themselves gradually become accepted asmembers of this fraternity While reminiscing about the eveningof 10 September when he and his brother had cooked a meal for theother men Gedeon points out that lsquolsquowe were getting acceptedrsquorsquoThis process is completed when back at the firehouse after thetraumatic events they have lived through together one of the fire-men tells Jules lsquolsquoYesterday you had one brother Today youhave 50rsquorsquo At the end of the program the viewer is invited toshare in the community experience by donating money to a fire-fighterndashrelated charity the Uniformed Firefighters AssociationScholarship Fund The documentary thus shifts attention awayfrom the traumatic events to focus on the sense of caring andkinship forged in the shared disaster Community as Orly Lubinpoints out becomes lsquolsquothe tool of the containment of the traumarsquorsquo(124) The emphasis placed on the sense of community andtogetherness born at the moment of the traumatic event amountsto a form of denialmdashlsquolsquodenialrsquorsquo as Berger explains lsquolsquoin a specificallypsychoanalytic sense not a repression of the trauma or a claim thatit didnrsquot happen but a claim that the traumarsquos consequences will

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not be traumatic that it will not have symptoms but ratheronly beneficial lessons and varieties of redemptionrsquorsquo (55)

The community rhetoric mobilized in 911 is highly ideologicallycharged Though Jules Naudet told reporters that lsquolsquothe film is meantto be seen solely as a tribute to the firemen not as an argumentfor warrsquorsquo (Dreher) the documentary confirms preconceptions andassumptions that enabled a discourse of revenge and militaryaction to take root13 Indeed the film taps into the rhetoric offoundational innocence on which Americans have traditionallyestablished their public identity (but which has always hiddena more rapacious reality) the belief that they are the chosen peoplea nation founded in innocence and godliness The story recountedin the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary purports to represent thenational experience of the events of 11 September In fact the filmcan be seen to claim wider validity for the experience it documentsthrough its title which promises to tell us not a particular story butthe whole story of 11 September The viewer is led to interpret theprobiersquos journey from innocence to experience as an allegory of thefate of the entire nation The fire-fightersrsquo community in generaland Benetatos in particular metonymically and metaphoricallyrepresent the United States a nation that sees itself as a forcefor good the worldrsquos fireman14 The probiersquos self-description aslsquolsquoa person who tries to do good just like every other person in thefire departmentrsquorsquo is entirely consistent with this benign nationalself-image As a fire-fighter adds James Hanlon lsquolsquoYou do your jobyou risk your life to help peoplersquorsquo This notion is echoed by RobertDe Niro lsquolsquoFiremen live to help others live itrsquos that simplersquorsquo15

With the premise of US benevolence firmly in place the film canonly present the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center as an actof pure and inexplicable evil In an apparent effort to avoid politicalcontroversy the filmmakers provide little or no context for whattranspired that day The documentary does not reach beyond thestory of the men of Engine 7 Ladder 1 it refrains from placingthe disaster in a broader political or social context In so doingit effectively buys into the myth of American exceptionalismAfter all the viewer is given no way of framing the attack asanything other than a completely irrational and totally undeservedact of aggression We learn from one of the fire-fighters thatthat day made him realize lsquolsquohow evil evil can bersquorsquo no furtherexplanation is offered The appropriate response to 11 Septemberis voiced by the probie whomdashlsquolsquoexpressing what we all feltrsquorsquo

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(Gedeon)mdashimmediately defines the events as a declaration of waras he watches them unfold on TV Hearing that a plane has crashedinto the Pentagon he exclaims lsquolsquoThe Pentagonrsquos on fucking fireWar This is warrsquorsquo In a postndash11 September interview fragmentBenetatos wise from experience reflects lsquolsquoI know itrsquos either this orthe army now And I like saving lives I donrsquot like taking themBut after what I saw if my country decides to send me to go kill Irsquolldo it nowrsquorsquo This view expressed by a confirmed hero is in no waychallenged in the film which leaves little or no room for alternativeinterpretations Throughout the documentary maintains the inno-cence of the victim-nation suffering an unjust injury inflicted on itfor reasons that are left entirely unclear From this perspective themilitary responsemdashthe only one conceivablemdashappears as a legit-imate act of self-defence16

In Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence Judith Butleraddresses the passage from the experience of vulnerability and lossto military violence and retribution in a way that helps to shedfurther light on the ideological underpinnings of 911 Discussingthe aftermath of the 11 September attacks Butler points out that lsquolsquoitis one matter to suffer violence and quite another to use that fact toground a framework in which onersquos injury authorizes limitlessaggression against targets that may or may not be related to thesources of onersquos own sufferingrsquorsquo (4) This explanatory frameworkwhich has emerged in tandem with the experience of violenceworks lsquolsquoboth to preclude certain kinds of questions certain kinds ofhistorical inquiries and to function as a moral justification forretaliationrsquorsquo (4) Moreover it is said to have a narrative dimensionIn the United States Butler observes the story is typically told froma first-person narrative point of view and begins with the events of11 September events that have no relevant prehistorymdashafter all totell the story another way to ask how things came to such a pass islsquolsquoto complicate the question of agencyrsquorsquo which leads to lsquolsquothe fear ofmoral equivocationrsquorsquo lsquolsquoIn order to condemn these acts as inexcu-sable absolutely wrong in order to sustain the affective structure inwhich we are on the one hand victimized and on the otherengaged in a righteous cause of rooting out terror we have tobegin the story with the experience of violence we sufferedrsquorsquo (6)There is a strong desire to shore up the first-person point of viewand to preclude from the telling accounts that might involve adecentring of the narrative lsquolsquoIrsquorsquo within the international politicaldomain lsquolsquoThis decentering is precisely what we seek to rectifythrough a recentering A narrative form emerges to compensate

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for the enormous narcissistic wound opened up by the publicdisplay of our physical vulnerabilityrsquorsquo (7) This is of course exactlythe form taken by the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary as it attemptsto convert a lsquolsquodecentringrsquorsquo tale of terror into a lsquolsquore-centringrsquorsquo story ofheroism and community spirit Butler insists on the urgent needto decentre this first-person narrative if the world is to be sparedstill worse disasters She sees the temporary dislocation fromFirst World privilege caused by the 11 September attacks as offeringa chance to begin to imagine a world in which such violence mightbe minimized a world in which lsquolsquoan inevitable interdependencybecomes acknowledged as the basis for global political communityrsquorsquo(xiindashxiii) For this vision to become reality she writes lsquolsquowe will needto emerge from the narrative perspective of US unilateralism andas it were its defensive structures to consider the ways in whichour lives are profoundly implicated in the lives of othersrsquorsquo (7)

Butlerrsquos ideal of narrative decentring is strikingly realized in AlainBrigandrsquos 11rsquo0901 another 11 September film produced by aFrenchman that came out in 2002 However this is where thesimilarities between 911 and 11rsquo0901 stop Commissioned byBrigand as a response to the terrorist attacks 11rsquo0901 bringstogether eleven directors from as many countries each contributinga film lasting eleven minutes nine seconds and one frame The titlerefers to this duration as well as to the date of the attacks as itwould appear on a European calendar Hence the decentring of thecustomary first-person point of view that Brigandrsquos omnibus filmenacts is already signalled by its title which suggests foreignness17

The Naudetsrsquo film by contrast is content to use the Americannotation of the date for its title Varying enormously in style scopeand content the eleven segments of 11rsquo0901 testify to the reso-nance of the 11 September attacks around the world Unlike 911which places the events in a political and historical vacuum andthus ends up echoing the official discourse many of the filmsmaking up 11rsquo0901 insist on the interconnectedness of 11 Septem-ber with tragedies taking place elsewhere for which the UnitedStates is seen to be at least partially responsible British director KenLoach for example links 11 September 2001 with 11 September1973 when Chilean president Salvador Allende was killed duringa CIA-backed coup drsquoetat that put dictator Augusto Pinochet inpower In the episode contributed by Egyptian director YoussefChahine the ghost of a US marine is lectured on various interna-tional atrocities carried out in the name of American foreign policyHowever while it clearly distances itself from the American

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patriotic narrative of innocence under siege 11rsquo09rsquorsquo01 at no pointrefuses empathy with or denigrates the suffering of the victims ofthe World Trade Center attacks Rather than playing the who-suffered-most game or getting involved in lsquolsquothe moralizing mathe-matics of guilt and horrorrsquorsquo the film adopts what Zizek callslsquolsquothe only appropriate stancersquorsquo namely lsquolsquounconditional solidaritywith all victimsrsquorsquo (51)18

In contrast with 11rsquo0901 911 carefully avoids the subject of USresponsibility for Third-World poverty and political repressionIn fact the New York Fire Department is a highly appropriatesubject for this film as the make-up of its workforce reveals asimilar kind of blindness to issues of equality inclusion andsolidarity It is a matter of public record that the fire departmentof the multicultural melange that is New York has a serious mino-rities problem lsquolsquoThere are approximately 11500 firefighters andofficers in the FDNY of whom about 300 are black thatrsquos about 3per cent The department which is 92 per cent white has beenhistorically dominated by the cityrsquos Irish and Italian communitiesand is the least diverse fire department of any big city in Americarsquorsquo(Knight) Like African Americans Hispanics make up only3 per cent of New York City fire-fighters and women even lessthan 03 per cent (Latour) In May 2001 the cityrsquos Equal Employ-ment Practices Commission found that the severe under-representation of these groups far from being accidental couldbe attributed to the fire departmentrsquos having lsquolsquocreated barriers tothe hiring of minorities women and the poorrsquorsquo (Latour)19 Thisdramatic lack of diversitymdasha long-standing problem for which theNew York Fire Department has been much criticizedmdashis reflectedin 911 which shows only one African American and not a singleHispanic or woman employed at the Engine 7 Ladder 1 firehouseOnly a handful of African American and Hispanic fire-fighters andno women fire-fighters are shown working in or near the WorldTrade Center on 11 September and the dead fire-fighters whosepictures are displayed at the end of the film are overwhelminglywhite and without exception male The fire-fighting communitythat is held up in the Naudetsrsquo documentary as a model for the USas a nation thus turns out to be a privileged and exclusionary whitebrotherhood Not only then does 911 turn a blind eye to issues ofsocial justice at the international level by maintaining an overlysimplistic good (us) versus evil (them) philosophy but it alsowilfully ignores the demands of social justice closer to home bysinging the praises of an insular defensive and intransigent

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type of community Evidently we are a long way here from theideal of an inclusive and equitable global community as envisagedby Butler an ideal that appears to underlie Brigandrsquos 11rsquo090120

Remarkably in tune with the dominant political discourse of itstime 911 provides us with an example of what Eric Santner hascalled lsquolsquonarrative fetishismrsquorsquo lsquolsquothe construction and deployment ofa narrative consciously or unconsciously designed to expunge thetraces of the trauma that called that narrative into being in the firstplacersquorsquo (144) The film superimposes a linear narrative of heroismand community upon the traumatic reality of the attacks in order todeprive it of its potential significance As we have seen 911 doesnot shirk from suppressing evidence of trauma by excluding orsanitizing graphic footage nor from undermining the authority ofeye-witness testimony by frequently contradicting the fire-fightersrsquoown experience and by adopting an attitude of patronizing toler-ance towards linguistic excesses Viewed from a different anglehowever 911 offers a critique rather than an instantiation of theway in which 11 September is officially remembered In its veryattempt to marginalize trauma and testimony the film actuallyshows how trauma overflows the limits of the memorializingstrategies deployed to contain it thereby demonstrating theirinadequacy and tenuousness Its attempted portrayal of traumaas a discrete past event locatable representable and curable isbelied by traces of trauma seeping through the manifest narrativeresisting processes of identification comprehension and facileredemption

One of these traces is the moment in the film when Tower 2collapses covering the lobby of Tower 1 with debris As JulesNaudet runs up an escalator for shelter not knowing what hashappened his camera keeps rolling We hear a deafening rumblewhich drowns out all other sounds to the point of doing actualdamage to the soundtrack the lens is covered with grit and theneverything becomes pitch black Something similar happens afterthe collapse of Tower 1 which both Jules and Gedeon were filmingfrom nearby streets As the streets fill up with dust and debris theystart running for their lives but eventually fall to the ground Againthe cameras keep rolling recording the loud noise and the onset ofdarkness as the lenses turn brown and gritty Together with thesound of people falling to their deaths these three scenes representthe most direct intrusions of reality in the documentary As ifcaught in a repetition compulsion the film keeps returning to

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these extraordinary images which stand out by their indexicalquality reality physically imprints itself upon the camera insteadof merely being recorded by it in much the same way as atraumatic event falls directly into the psyche bypassing perceptionand consciousness While the filmrsquos apparent objective is to maketrauma visible and narratable in these haunting scenes traumareveals itself as an impossibility of seeing hearing and knowing

That the truth of trauma resides in its resistance to perception andunderstanding is borne out by the testimony of the survivors fromwhich we learn that the fire-fighters on the scene were almosttotally oblivious to the reality of what was going on For examplewhile the whole world had seen Tower 2 collapse on live televisionthe people trapped inside the lobby of Tower 1 did not have a clueas to what had happenedmdashwhich explains why having finallymade their way out they kept standing in the immediate vicinityof the doomed tower In an interview recently made public as partof the 911 records Joseph Pfeifer the battalion chief whom Juleshad found himself shadowing for most of the day recalls lsquolsquoWe gotout there and then we were standing under the bridge trying to seewhat was going on I couldnrsquot see what was going on Everythingwas covered with smoke I couldnrsquot see what collapsed Our eyeswere full of garbage Wersquore standing on the street and still notknowing the full implication of what took place because youcouldnrsquot seersquorsquo The film shows how the fire-fighters only beganto realize what they had lived through after they had got back tothe firehouse The emphasis placed by various eye-witnesses onthe eventsrsquo defiance of sight and comprehension challenges theassumptions structuring the filmrsquos conventional narrative in parti-cular the view that there is an intact history out there waiting to belured into vision and spoken as pure meaning In fact no soonerdoes 911 assert its claim to total visual mastery over the events of11 September than this claim is rebutted by the very footageintended to substantiate it James Hanlonrsquos promise at the begin-ning of the film that the viewer lsquolsquowill see all of itrsquorsquo lsquolsquobeginning toendrsquorsquo is immediately followed by a flash-forward to the dust- anddebris-filled images shot by Jules during the collapse of Tower 2With the picture going black it becomes impossible for the viewerto see anything at all

It is precisely this tension between the desire to know the subjectbeing represented and themdashimplicitmdashrecognition of the limits ofthat knowing that makes 911 so compelling With one hand the

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film offers the familiar gesture of memory as forgettingmdashtheincorporation of trauma into a reassuring narrative of nationalgreatnessmdashand with the other hand it takes away the comfort ofresting in this narrative Whatever ethical value the documentarycan be said to possess lies in the tension between these twogestures which if nothing more at least complicates the returnto the lsquolsquodogmatic slumberrsquorsquo (Derrida qtd in Borradori 100) fromwhich 11 September had awakened us

Notes

1 This is especially true of the televised version of the documentarywhich differs in several respects from the DVD edition released byParamount Pictures in 2002 under the title 911 The FilmmakersrsquoCommemorative Edition Most notably Robert De Niro who hosted theCBS program does not appear on the DVD edition Yet with a runningtime of 129 minutes the DVD edition is about a quarter of an hourlonger than the CBS broadcast Some footage has been added thatexpands on the original material for example scenes from the trainingof new recruits scenes from within the firehouse and scenes from therecovery effort As a result the tight narrative structure undergirdingthe TV version is loosened somewhat By way of bonus materialthe DVD features a 53-minute interview section containing furthercommentary from the fire-fighters

2 In fact the only visual evidence of death in the documentary comes inthe form of two still images of the intact body of Father Mychal Judgethe fire departmentrsquos chaplain being carried to a nearby church Hisdeathmdashdistanced as it is through the use of still rather than movingimagesmdashcan hardly be called representative as the vast majority of thevictims of 11 September were denied such dignity their bodies beingall but obliterated and therefore hard (if not impossible) to identify Asone of the fire-fighters testifies in the additional interview section onthe DVD lsquolsquoThere were many there were many eh it wasnrsquot manybodies but it was many pieces body parts There was I saw one ortwo whole bodies but not it wasnrsquot many I imagine thepeople were the same as the building nothing leftrsquorsquo Moreover thechaplainrsquos death is rescued from meaninglessness by the uncannyresemblance between the scene captured in the two photographs andtraditional pictorial representations of the descent from the crosswhich has the effect of turning the clergyman into a Christ-likesacrificial victim (I owe this point to my colleague Kristiaan Versluys)

3 One might argue as many have that the noise of the impact of thebodies on the glass and metal awning outside Tower 1 is disturbingenough While these sounds are definitely chilling as are the screamswe hear of terrified burn victims inside the lobby it should be pointedout that the original soundtrack recorded by Julesrsquos on-camera

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microphone was manipulated so as to soften the shock effectAppearances notwithstanding what we get to hear is a diluted andsanitized version of the original soundtrack as executive producerSusan Zirinsky explained at the press screening most of the crasheswere edited out on the grounds that lsquolsquo[t]o have that incredible crushof sound every 20 or 30 seconds would have been very tough for theaudiencersquorsquo (qtd in Laurence)

4 A similar point is made by Susan Sontag in Regarding the Pain of Others

Staying within the bounds of good taste was the primary reasongiven for not showing any of the horrific pictures of the deadtaken at the site of the World Trade Center in the immediateaftermath of the attack on September 11 2001 This novelinsistence on good taste in a culture saturated with commercialincentives to lower standards of taste may be puzzling But itmakes sense if understood as obscuring a host of concerns andanxieties about public order and public morale that cannotbe named as well as pointing to the inability otherwise toformulate or defend traditional conventions of how to mourn(68ndash9)

5 In an interview segment filmed at the Fire Academy in June 2001 andshown at the beginning of the documentary Benetatos says lsquolsquoIt soundskind of cheesy but I always kind of wanted to be a hero and this isreally the only thing you can do that you can do that [sic]rsquorsquo

6 See also Orly Lubinrsquos discussion of the documentaryrsquos compliancewith Hollywood conventions (125ndash7)

7 In view of the documentaryrsquos own affinity with mainstream disasterfilms the Hollywood comparisons invoked by some of the witnessesto convey the magnitude of the events take on an ironic ring A newscorrespondent reports from on the ground that lsquolsquo[t]he scene here is justone right out of one of those movies you would see in Hollywoodrsquorsquoand in the DVD version a passer-by is heard saying lsquolsquoLike somethingout of The Towering Inferno like a moviersquorsquo

8 Not only does Peyser speak of lsquolsquorichly drawn charactersrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoplottwistsrsquorsquo in the above passage but he also uses film vocabulary todescribe the thumps of bodies hitting the roof of the lobby callingthem lsquolsquothe most chilling sound effects ever heard on televisionrsquorsquo

9 De Nirorsquos words were echoed by Susan Zirinsky at the pre-screeningpress meeting Responding to Zirinskyrsquos claim in an article titledlsquolsquoShield Us on Sunday Night No Just Show Us Airing the Cultureof Denial on CBSrsquorsquo Claudia Rosett puts her finger on the problemlsquolsquoMoment of strength Well yes unquestionably there was valorBut given that the overwhelming event this bravery sought to addresswas actually terror this amounts to a cleaned up version of therealities of that dayrsquorsquo

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10 lsquolsquoOrrsquorsquo Berger continues lsquolsquothe dead were spoken of now as heroesrsquorsquo (55)Extending the creation of heroes to include the dead is also noticeablein the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary By way of an epilogue photo-graphs of the 344 fire-fighters who lost their lives on 11 September aredisplayed four by four against the background of the Stars and StripesThey are commemorated as national heroes who made the ultimatesacrifice in the service of their country By conceiving the catastropheas a purposive and meaningful sacrificial operation the documentaryeffectively softens its traumatic core

11 As a cinematic tribute to fire-fighters 911 stands in a long traditionof adulatory films about the fire-fighting profession stretching fromLife of an American Fireman (1903) to The Towering Inferno (1974) andfrom Backdraft (1991) to The Guys (2002) and Ladder 49 (2004)

12 While there are numerous myths featuring two brothers one isparticularly reminded of the legendary love of Castor and Polluxthe twin sons of Jupiter and Leda

13 That the documentary promotes a pro-war political agenda wasrecognized at the press meeting by Susan Zirinsky who defended thetiming of the broadcast as follows lsquolsquoThis is the right time We canrsquotforget what drove this country to be at war It is really important to notforget what happenedrsquorsquo (qtd in Long) Appearing on Foxrsquos The OrsquoReillyFactor later that week Zirinsky again invoked the war being fought inAfghanistan and stressed the supposed need lsquolsquoto keep that missionaliversquorsquo As Chris Fitzpatrick points out Zirinskyrsquos attitude lsquolsquoborrowedfrom John Ashcroftrsquorsquo suggests that lsquolsquothe true function of 911 may begetting Americarsquos jingoistic blood boilingrsquorsquo The Naudetsrsquo andZirinskyrsquos apparent disagreement about the purpose of thedocumentary is a rare breach of Franco-American unity judging frominterviews with directors and producers there was a completeconsensus among the different parties involved on just about everyother aspect of the film

14 A similar observation is made by Andre Habib in lsquolsquoAutour de 911 mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelle ou dommages au reelrsquorsquo one ofthe most insightful articles on the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary that Ihave come across Habib also regards the probie as lsquolsquoune metonymie desEtats-Unis en entierrsquorsquo (lsquolsquoa metonymy of the United States as a wholersquorsquo)

Tony crsquoest les Etats-Unis jusque la menages par lrsquoHistoireassoiffes drsquoheroısme mais maintenus a lrsquoecart de toute epreuveveritable Crsquoest comme si tout le pays avait ete jusqursquoa cette datefatidique en probation et que apres le 11 septembre elle avaitsubi son initiation devenant du coup mure pour lrsquoHistoire

(Tony is the United States until then spared by History thirstyfor heroism but kept away from any real challenge It is as if thewhole country had until that fateful date been on probation

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and as if after September 11 it had undergone its initiation andthereby become ripe for History)

15 Compare Zizek lsquolsquo[i]s not the surprise at why are they not loved [sic] forwhat they are doing to the world the most fundamental Americanreaction (at least) since the Vietnam war We just try to be good to helpothers to bring peace and prosperity and look what we get in returnrsquorsquo(145ndash6)

16 In this respect the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary is of a piece withother postndash11 September mass-audience films As Wheeler WinstonDixon observes lsquolsquo[T]he bulk of mainstream American cinema since911 whether the films were in production before or not seemscentered on a desire to replicate the idea of the lsquojust warrsquo in whichmilitary reprisals and the concomitant escalation of warfare seemsimultaneously inevitable and justifiedrsquorsquo (1)

17 In the United States however Brigandrsquos film was released(belatedly in 2003) under the name September 11 in an apparenteffort to counteract this disorienting effect

18 However this did not stop Variety from calling the film lsquolsquostridentlyanti-Americanrsquorsquo (Godard 1) Dixon correctly points out that 11rsquo0901lsquolsquofar from being anti-American is more accurately critical of Americanpolicy in the wake of 911 a very different matterrsquorsquo (5) In his viewthe contested episodes of Brigandrsquos film lsquolsquobring a welcome breath ofdissenting opinion to current cinematic discourse on the attacks of911rsquorsquo (5)

19 Efforts to get the department to comply with the commissionrsquosrecommendations were suspended indefinitely in the wake of the11 September attacks (Latour)

20 In 11rsquo0901 the reality of racism and xenophobia in New York ispoignantly evoked by the Indian director Mira Nair whose segmentdeals with the chilling effects of 11 September on the American Muslimcommunity Set in New York City Nairrsquos film recounts the story (basedon actual events) of a Pakistani American family whose eldest son goesmissing on the morning of 11 September For several months the FBIand the media keep claiming that he was a terrorist causing his familyto be shunned and ostracized by their initially supportive neighboursEventually however it emerges that the young man a medic waskilled while attempting to rescue people at the World Trade CenterOnce the truth is known he is hailed as a hero

Works Cited

Adorno Theodor lsquolsquoCultural Criticism and Societyrsquorsquo Prisms Trans SamuelWeber and Shierry Weber Cambridge MA MIT Press 1984 17ndash34

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Anderson Lisa and Stevenson Swanson lsquolsquoFilm Goes inside World TradeCenter Gripping Sept 11 Footage Followed NYC Firefightersrsquorsquo ChicagoTribune 5 Mar 2002 Advocate 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwstamfordadvo-catecomclassifiedjobssns-worldtrade-filmfootage-ctstorygt

Berger James lsquolsquolsquoTherersquos No Backhand to Thisrsquorsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911Ed Judith Greenberg Lincoln U of Nebraska P 2003 52ndash9

Borradori Giovanna Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with JurgenHabermas and Jacques Derrida Chicago U of Chicago P 2003

Butler Judith Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence LondonVerso 2004

Caruth Cathy lsquolsquoRecapturing the Pastrsquorsquo Introduction Trauma Explorations inMemory Ed Cathy Caruth Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP 1995 151ndash7

Dixon Wheeler Winston lsquolsquoSomething LostmdashFilm after 911rsquorsquo IntroductionFilm and Television after 911 Ed Wheeler Winston Dixon CarbondaleSouthern Illinois UP 2004 1ndash28

Dreher Rod lsquolsquoInside the Inferno The 911 Documentaryrsquorsquo National ReviewOnline 7 Mar 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwnationalreviewcomdreherdreher030702shtmlgt

11rsquo0901 Dir Youssef Chahine et al Prod Alain Brigand DVD GalateeFilms Studio Canal 2002

Erickson Hal lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo All-Movie Guide 22 Sept 2005 lthttpallmoviecomcgavgdllpfrac14avgampsqlfrac141265838gt

Fitzpatrick Chris lsquolsquo911 Happy Anniversaryrsquorsquo PopMatterscom 23 July 2005lthttpwwwpopmatterscomtvreviewsn9ndash11shtmlgt

Godard Francois lsquolsquoCanal Plus 911 Pic Courts Controversyrsquorsquo Daily Variety21 Aug 2002 1 20

Habib Andre lsquolsquoAutour de 911mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelleou dommages au reelrsquorsquo Hors Champs June 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwhorschampqccaarticlephp3id_articlefrac1481gt

Hope Gloves and Redemption Dir Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet 1999DVD Pathfinder 2003

Knight Sam lsquolsquoNew Yorkrsquos Whitestrsquorsquo Slices of New York Times Online 21Feb 2005 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwtimesonlinecoukarticle018391ndash149383700htmlgt

Latour Jane lsquolsquoLooking for a Fire Department That Looks like New YorkrsquorsquoGotham Gazette 3 Dec 2001 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwgothamgazettecomiotwfiredepartmentdoc1shtmlgt

Laurence Robert P lsquolsquoTwo-Hour Special 911 Conveys Horror withoutBeing Graphicrsquorsquo San Diego Union-Tribune 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwsignonsandiegocomtvradiocbs911htmlgt

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really feel the violent deaths of tens of hundreds of namelessoffice workers Just like the sinking of the Titanic and thebombing of Pearl Harbor needed romantic triangles tomake them worthwhile and interesting we needed to wonderif this one Probie fire-fighter would make it out alive Nevermind the destruction of two office buildings and thousandsof people

The Hollywoodization of the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary isunderlined by the inclusion of narration by long-time Tribecaresident Robert De Niro who appears briefly in three segmentsas host His film-star status makes De Niro a paradoxical guarantorof the authenticity of the footage his assurances that the film inwhich he features is a truthful record of reality inevitably producea derealization effect In fact from the other remarks the actormakes it becomes evident that his services have been enlisted forjust this purpose De Niro Hollywoodrsquos archetypal tough guyintroduces the documentary as an epic tale of courage strengthand triumph lsquolsquoThis is the story of how the cityrsquos bravest roseto their greatest challenge on September 11rsquorsquo Just before thesecond act featuring the World Trade Center scenes he returns toannounce that lsquolsquo[w]hat yoursquore about to see is how brave men workunder stress surrounded by chaosrsquorsquo Clearly De Nirorsquos framingremarks are meant to guide the viewerrsquos interpretation of theNaudet brothersrsquo atrocity footage in such a way as to counteractits traumatizing potential Rather than presenting these disturbingimages as testimony to the murderous nightmare of terrorismhe attempts to strip them of their essential horror (however miti-gated) by integrating them into an edifying story of grace underpressure That this is the intention becomes crystal clear when inhis final appearance at the end of the film De Niro claims thatlsquolsquothe moment in historyrsquorsquo that the viewer has just witnessed is lsquolsquo[n]ota moment of terror but one of strength when good men did greatthings Tens of thousands were saved by simple acts of courageWe hope that will be the true legacy of the men from Engine 7Ladder 1rsquorsquo9 In substituting heroism for terror this passage effec-tively dramatizes the lsquolsquostrange movement of languagersquorsquo observed byJames Berger in the aftermath of 11 September lsquolsquothe transformationof overwhelming loss into a kind of victory The media soon spokemore about the heroes of September 11 than of the deadrsquorsquo (55)10

A tropological movement takes place in which the traumatic excessof a deathly disaster is domesticated through anthropomorphiza-tion and reversal into life-saving heroism

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Interestingly De Nirorsquos representation of the fire-fighters as for-midable heroes performing extraordinary feats is radically at oddswith the menrsquos self-representation and with their own experience ofthe events of 11 September as they describe it in the retrospectiveinterview segments One of them evokes an overwhelming sense ofloss and powerlessness lsquolsquoWe lost so much in that two-hour periodWe felt like we got the hell kicked out of usrsquorsquo James Hanlonmentions his surprise at being treated like a hero by people in thestreets lsquolsquoIt was weird in a way walking back to the firehousePeople were cheering us but we sure didnrsquot feel like heroesrsquorsquo In theadditional interviews on the DVD which did not make the finalcut of the film other men of Engine 7 Ladder 1 speak of feelinglsquolsquohelplessrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoterrifiedrsquorsquo and admit that lsquolsquoThere was not muchyou could dorsquorsquo This is also the impression one gets from watchingthe footage shot by Jules inside the lobby of Tower 1 which showsscenes of chaos and indecision and captures the look of utterdisbelief and confusion on the fire-fightersrsquo faces Apparentlymaking heroes of the fire-fighters is demanded not so much bythe facts of the case as by the conventional narrative form intowhich those facts have been inserted11

Another way in which De Niro seeks to soften the impact of thedocumentary materials has to do with the numerous expletivesused by the witnesses At the beginning of the program he warnsthe viewer that although what he or she is about to see has beenlsquolsquoedited with great carersquorsquo still lsquolsquosome of the language is roughrsquorsquoAfter all he explains lsquolsquo[T]hese men had never been tested likethis beforersquorsquo In the course of the documentary we do indeedfrequently hear people curse lsquolsquoHoly shitrsquorsquo lsquolsquoTherersquos another fuck-ing planersquorsquo lsquolsquoAnd you know the fucking Pentagon is burningnowrsquorsquo and so on In fact it has been claimed that the amount ofunderstandable profanity spoken by the fire-fighters in 911 wasunprecedented for American network television which is notor-iously squeamish about this issue (Erickson) Trauma pushes peo-ple beyond the boundaries of normal socially acceptable speechan excessive event it seems can only be matched by excessivelanguage The filmmakers apparently felt that editing out swearwords would have been too intrusive an intervention howeverto cushion the supposed shock to the viewer they decided to haveDe Niro give him or her advance warning of what was aboutto assail his or her ears Thus the confrontation with foul languageis prevented from having anything even remotely resembling atraumatic effectmdashafter all for something to be traumatic it has to

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catch one off-guard and unprepared Still the decision not to tonedown the language used by the fire-fighters managed to attract agreat deal of media attention a fact which as Claudia Rosettobserves can only be accounted for by the extreme care withwhich the genuinely shocking aspects of the project had beenhandled

While De Nirorsquos narration is mostly concerned with the creation ofheroism the greatest good resulting from the World Trade Centerdisaster according to the documentary is the strengthening ofcommunity ties The focus in this film made by two brothers isnot only on heroism but also on brotherhood An important sub-plot with strong mythological overtones12 recounts the story of theNaudet brothersrsquo separation by the events their agonizing overeach otherrsquos fate (both of them fear that the other one may be dead)and their emotional reunion at the fire station (which curiously isfilmed by a third person) Gedeon tells us how when the secondtower came down lsquolsquothe only thing I could think about was Julesrsquorsquoand how he vowed to himself that lsquolsquo[i]f I would survive thatI would be a better brother [sic]rsquorsquo The documentary also highlightsthe bonds of brotherhood between the fire-fighters The men ofEngine 7 Ladder 1 are pictured as forming a tight-knit communitywhich closely resembles a family The film not only documents theprobiersquos integration into the firemenrsquos community but also showshow the filmmakers themselves gradually become accepted asmembers of this fraternity While reminiscing about the eveningof 10 September when he and his brother had cooked a meal for theother men Gedeon points out that lsquolsquowe were getting acceptedrsquorsquoThis process is completed when back at the firehouse after thetraumatic events they have lived through together one of the fire-men tells Jules lsquolsquoYesterday you had one brother Today youhave 50rsquorsquo At the end of the program the viewer is invited toshare in the community experience by donating money to a fire-fighterndashrelated charity the Uniformed Firefighters AssociationScholarship Fund The documentary thus shifts attention awayfrom the traumatic events to focus on the sense of caring andkinship forged in the shared disaster Community as Orly Lubinpoints out becomes lsquolsquothe tool of the containment of the traumarsquorsquo(124) The emphasis placed on the sense of community andtogetherness born at the moment of the traumatic event amountsto a form of denialmdashlsquolsquodenialrsquorsquo as Berger explains lsquolsquoin a specificallypsychoanalytic sense not a repression of the trauma or a claim thatit didnrsquot happen but a claim that the traumarsquos consequences will

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not be traumatic that it will not have symptoms but ratheronly beneficial lessons and varieties of redemptionrsquorsquo (55)

The community rhetoric mobilized in 911 is highly ideologicallycharged Though Jules Naudet told reporters that lsquolsquothe film is meantto be seen solely as a tribute to the firemen not as an argumentfor warrsquorsquo (Dreher) the documentary confirms preconceptions andassumptions that enabled a discourse of revenge and militaryaction to take root13 Indeed the film taps into the rhetoric offoundational innocence on which Americans have traditionallyestablished their public identity (but which has always hiddena more rapacious reality) the belief that they are the chosen peoplea nation founded in innocence and godliness The story recountedin the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary purports to represent thenational experience of the events of 11 September In fact the filmcan be seen to claim wider validity for the experience it documentsthrough its title which promises to tell us not a particular story butthe whole story of 11 September The viewer is led to interpret theprobiersquos journey from innocence to experience as an allegory of thefate of the entire nation The fire-fightersrsquo community in generaland Benetatos in particular metonymically and metaphoricallyrepresent the United States a nation that sees itself as a forcefor good the worldrsquos fireman14 The probiersquos self-description aslsquolsquoa person who tries to do good just like every other person in thefire departmentrsquorsquo is entirely consistent with this benign nationalself-image As a fire-fighter adds James Hanlon lsquolsquoYou do your jobyou risk your life to help peoplersquorsquo This notion is echoed by RobertDe Niro lsquolsquoFiremen live to help others live itrsquos that simplersquorsquo15

With the premise of US benevolence firmly in place the film canonly present the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center as an actof pure and inexplicable evil In an apparent effort to avoid politicalcontroversy the filmmakers provide little or no context for whattranspired that day The documentary does not reach beyond thestory of the men of Engine 7 Ladder 1 it refrains from placingthe disaster in a broader political or social context In so doingit effectively buys into the myth of American exceptionalismAfter all the viewer is given no way of framing the attack asanything other than a completely irrational and totally undeservedact of aggression We learn from one of the fire-fighters thatthat day made him realize lsquolsquohow evil evil can bersquorsquo no furtherexplanation is offered The appropriate response to 11 Septemberis voiced by the probie whomdashlsquolsquoexpressing what we all feltrsquorsquo

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(Gedeon)mdashimmediately defines the events as a declaration of waras he watches them unfold on TV Hearing that a plane has crashedinto the Pentagon he exclaims lsquolsquoThe Pentagonrsquos on fucking fireWar This is warrsquorsquo In a postndash11 September interview fragmentBenetatos wise from experience reflects lsquolsquoI know itrsquos either this orthe army now And I like saving lives I donrsquot like taking themBut after what I saw if my country decides to send me to go kill Irsquolldo it nowrsquorsquo This view expressed by a confirmed hero is in no waychallenged in the film which leaves little or no room for alternativeinterpretations Throughout the documentary maintains the inno-cence of the victim-nation suffering an unjust injury inflicted on itfor reasons that are left entirely unclear From this perspective themilitary responsemdashthe only one conceivablemdashappears as a legit-imate act of self-defence16

In Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence Judith Butleraddresses the passage from the experience of vulnerability and lossto military violence and retribution in a way that helps to shedfurther light on the ideological underpinnings of 911 Discussingthe aftermath of the 11 September attacks Butler points out that lsquolsquoitis one matter to suffer violence and quite another to use that fact toground a framework in which onersquos injury authorizes limitlessaggression against targets that may or may not be related to thesources of onersquos own sufferingrsquorsquo (4) This explanatory frameworkwhich has emerged in tandem with the experience of violenceworks lsquolsquoboth to preclude certain kinds of questions certain kinds ofhistorical inquiries and to function as a moral justification forretaliationrsquorsquo (4) Moreover it is said to have a narrative dimensionIn the United States Butler observes the story is typically told froma first-person narrative point of view and begins with the events of11 September events that have no relevant prehistorymdashafter all totell the story another way to ask how things came to such a pass islsquolsquoto complicate the question of agencyrsquorsquo which leads to lsquolsquothe fear ofmoral equivocationrsquorsquo lsquolsquoIn order to condemn these acts as inexcu-sable absolutely wrong in order to sustain the affective structure inwhich we are on the one hand victimized and on the otherengaged in a righteous cause of rooting out terror we have tobegin the story with the experience of violence we sufferedrsquorsquo (6)There is a strong desire to shore up the first-person point of viewand to preclude from the telling accounts that might involve adecentring of the narrative lsquolsquoIrsquorsquo within the international politicaldomain lsquolsquoThis decentering is precisely what we seek to rectifythrough a recentering A narrative form emerges to compensate

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for the enormous narcissistic wound opened up by the publicdisplay of our physical vulnerabilityrsquorsquo (7) This is of course exactlythe form taken by the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary as it attemptsto convert a lsquolsquodecentringrsquorsquo tale of terror into a lsquolsquore-centringrsquorsquo story ofheroism and community spirit Butler insists on the urgent needto decentre this first-person narrative if the world is to be sparedstill worse disasters She sees the temporary dislocation fromFirst World privilege caused by the 11 September attacks as offeringa chance to begin to imagine a world in which such violence mightbe minimized a world in which lsquolsquoan inevitable interdependencybecomes acknowledged as the basis for global political communityrsquorsquo(xiindashxiii) For this vision to become reality she writes lsquolsquowe will needto emerge from the narrative perspective of US unilateralism andas it were its defensive structures to consider the ways in whichour lives are profoundly implicated in the lives of othersrsquorsquo (7)

Butlerrsquos ideal of narrative decentring is strikingly realized in AlainBrigandrsquos 11rsquo0901 another 11 September film produced by aFrenchman that came out in 2002 However this is where thesimilarities between 911 and 11rsquo0901 stop Commissioned byBrigand as a response to the terrorist attacks 11rsquo0901 bringstogether eleven directors from as many countries each contributinga film lasting eleven minutes nine seconds and one frame The titlerefers to this duration as well as to the date of the attacks as itwould appear on a European calendar Hence the decentring of thecustomary first-person point of view that Brigandrsquos omnibus filmenacts is already signalled by its title which suggests foreignness17

The Naudetsrsquo film by contrast is content to use the Americannotation of the date for its title Varying enormously in style scopeand content the eleven segments of 11rsquo0901 testify to the reso-nance of the 11 September attacks around the world Unlike 911which places the events in a political and historical vacuum andthus ends up echoing the official discourse many of the filmsmaking up 11rsquo0901 insist on the interconnectedness of 11 Septem-ber with tragedies taking place elsewhere for which the UnitedStates is seen to be at least partially responsible British director KenLoach for example links 11 September 2001 with 11 September1973 when Chilean president Salvador Allende was killed duringa CIA-backed coup drsquoetat that put dictator Augusto Pinochet inpower In the episode contributed by Egyptian director YoussefChahine the ghost of a US marine is lectured on various interna-tional atrocities carried out in the name of American foreign policyHowever while it clearly distances itself from the American

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patriotic narrative of innocence under siege 11rsquo09rsquorsquo01 at no pointrefuses empathy with or denigrates the suffering of the victims ofthe World Trade Center attacks Rather than playing the who-suffered-most game or getting involved in lsquolsquothe moralizing mathe-matics of guilt and horrorrsquorsquo the film adopts what Zizek callslsquolsquothe only appropriate stancersquorsquo namely lsquolsquounconditional solidaritywith all victimsrsquorsquo (51)18

In contrast with 11rsquo0901 911 carefully avoids the subject of USresponsibility for Third-World poverty and political repressionIn fact the New York Fire Department is a highly appropriatesubject for this film as the make-up of its workforce reveals asimilar kind of blindness to issues of equality inclusion andsolidarity It is a matter of public record that the fire departmentof the multicultural melange that is New York has a serious mino-rities problem lsquolsquoThere are approximately 11500 firefighters andofficers in the FDNY of whom about 300 are black thatrsquos about 3per cent The department which is 92 per cent white has beenhistorically dominated by the cityrsquos Irish and Italian communitiesand is the least diverse fire department of any big city in Americarsquorsquo(Knight) Like African Americans Hispanics make up only3 per cent of New York City fire-fighters and women even lessthan 03 per cent (Latour) In May 2001 the cityrsquos Equal Employ-ment Practices Commission found that the severe under-representation of these groups far from being accidental couldbe attributed to the fire departmentrsquos having lsquolsquocreated barriers tothe hiring of minorities women and the poorrsquorsquo (Latour)19 Thisdramatic lack of diversitymdasha long-standing problem for which theNew York Fire Department has been much criticizedmdashis reflectedin 911 which shows only one African American and not a singleHispanic or woman employed at the Engine 7 Ladder 1 firehouseOnly a handful of African American and Hispanic fire-fighters andno women fire-fighters are shown working in or near the WorldTrade Center on 11 September and the dead fire-fighters whosepictures are displayed at the end of the film are overwhelminglywhite and without exception male The fire-fighting communitythat is held up in the Naudetsrsquo documentary as a model for the USas a nation thus turns out to be a privileged and exclusionary whitebrotherhood Not only then does 911 turn a blind eye to issues ofsocial justice at the international level by maintaining an overlysimplistic good (us) versus evil (them) philosophy but it alsowilfully ignores the demands of social justice closer to home bysinging the praises of an insular defensive and intransigent

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type of community Evidently we are a long way here from theideal of an inclusive and equitable global community as envisagedby Butler an ideal that appears to underlie Brigandrsquos 11rsquo090120

Remarkably in tune with the dominant political discourse of itstime 911 provides us with an example of what Eric Santner hascalled lsquolsquonarrative fetishismrsquorsquo lsquolsquothe construction and deployment ofa narrative consciously or unconsciously designed to expunge thetraces of the trauma that called that narrative into being in the firstplacersquorsquo (144) The film superimposes a linear narrative of heroismand community upon the traumatic reality of the attacks in order todeprive it of its potential significance As we have seen 911 doesnot shirk from suppressing evidence of trauma by excluding orsanitizing graphic footage nor from undermining the authority ofeye-witness testimony by frequently contradicting the fire-fightersrsquoown experience and by adopting an attitude of patronizing toler-ance towards linguistic excesses Viewed from a different anglehowever 911 offers a critique rather than an instantiation of theway in which 11 September is officially remembered In its veryattempt to marginalize trauma and testimony the film actuallyshows how trauma overflows the limits of the memorializingstrategies deployed to contain it thereby demonstrating theirinadequacy and tenuousness Its attempted portrayal of traumaas a discrete past event locatable representable and curable isbelied by traces of trauma seeping through the manifest narrativeresisting processes of identification comprehension and facileredemption

One of these traces is the moment in the film when Tower 2collapses covering the lobby of Tower 1 with debris As JulesNaudet runs up an escalator for shelter not knowing what hashappened his camera keeps rolling We hear a deafening rumblewhich drowns out all other sounds to the point of doing actualdamage to the soundtrack the lens is covered with grit and theneverything becomes pitch black Something similar happens afterthe collapse of Tower 1 which both Jules and Gedeon were filmingfrom nearby streets As the streets fill up with dust and debris theystart running for their lives but eventually fall to the ground Againthe cameras keep rolling recording the loud noise and the onset ofdarkness as the lenses turn brown and gritty Together with thesound of people falling to their deaths these three scenes representthe most direct intrusions of reality in the documentary As ifcaught in a repetition compulsion the film keeps returning to

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these extraordinary images which stand out by their indexicalquality reality physically imprints itself upon the camera insteadof merely being recorded by it in much the same way as atraumatic event falls directly into the psyche bypassing perceptionand consciousness While the filmrsquos apparent objective is to maketrauma visible and narratable in these haunting scenes traumareveals itself as an impossibility of seeing hearing and knowing

That the truth of trauma resides in its resistance to perception andunderstanding is borne out by the testimony of the survivors fromwhich we learn that the fire-fighters on the scene were almosttotally oblivious to the reality of what was going on For examplewhile the whole world had seen Tower 2 collapse on live televisionthe people trapped inside the lobby of Tower 1 did not have a clueas to what had happenedmdashwhich explains why having finallymade their way out they kept standing in the immediate vicinityof the doomed tower In an interview recently made public as partof the 911 records Joseph Pfeifer the battalion chief whom Juleshad found himself shadowing for most of the day recalls lsquolsquoWe gotout there and then we were standing under the bridge trying to seewhat was going on I couldnrsquot see what was going on Everythingwas covered with smoke I couldnrsquot see what collapsed Our eyeswere full of garbage Wersquore standing on the street and still notknowing the full implication of what took place because youcouldnrsquot seersquorsquo The film shows how the fire-fighters only beganto realize what they had lived through after they had got back tothe firehouse The emphasis placed by various eye-witnesses onthe eventsrsquo defiance of sight and comprehension challenges theassumptions structuring the filmrsquos conventional narrative in parti-cular the view that there is an intact history out there waiting to belured into vision and spoken as pure meaning In fact no soonerdoes 911 assert its claim to total visual mastery over the events of11 September than this claim is rebutted by the very footageintended to substantiate it James Hanlonrsquos promise at the begin-ning of the film that the viewer lsquolsquowill see all of itrsquorsquo lsquolsquobeginning toendrsquorsquo is immediately followed by a flash-forward to the dust- anddebris-filled images shot by Jules during the collapse of Tower 2With the picture going black it becomes impossible for the viewerto see anything at all

It is precisely this tension between the desire to know the subjectbeing represented and themdashimplicitmdashrecognition of the limits ofthat knowing that makes 911 so compelling With one hand the

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film offers the familiar gesture of memory as forgettingmdashtheincorporation of trauma into a reassuring narrative of nationalgreatnessmdashand with the other hand it takes away the comfort ofresting in this narrative Whatever ethical value the documentarycan be said to possess lies in the tension between these twogestures which if nothing more at least complicates the returnto the lsquolsquodogmatic slumberrsquorsquo (Derrida qtd in Borradori 100) fromwhich 11 September had awakened us

Notes

1 This is especially true of the televised version of the documentarywhich differs in several respects from the DVD edition released byParamount Pictures in 2002 under the title 911 The FilmmakersrsquoCommemorative Edition Most notably Robert De Niro who hosted theCBS program does not appear on the DVD edition Yet with a runningtime of 129 minutes the DVD edition is about a quarter of an hourlonger than the CBS broadcast Some footage has been added thatexpands on the original material for example scenes from the trainingof new recruits scenes from within the firehouse and scenes from therecovery effort As a result the tight narrative structure undergirdingthe TV version is loosened somewhat By way of bonus materialthe DVD features a 53-minute interview section containing furthercommentary from the fire-fighters

2 In fact the only visual evidence of death in the documentary comes inthe form of two still images of the intact body of Father Mychal Judgethe fire departmentrsquos chaplain being carried to a nearby church Hisdeathmdashdistanced as it is through the use of still rather than movingimagesmdashcan hardly be called representative as the vast majority of thevictims of 11 September were denied such dignity their bodies beingall but obliterated and therefore hard (if not impossible) to identify Asone of the fire-fighters testifies in the additional interview section onthe DVD lsquolsquoThere were many there were many eh it wasnrsquot manybodies but it was many pieces body parts There was I saw one ortwo whole bodies but not it wasnrsquot many I imagine thepeople were the same as the building nothing leftrsquorsquo Moreover thechaplainrsquos death is rescued from meaninglessness by the uncannyresemblance between the scene captured in the two photographs andtraditional pictorial representations of the descent from the crosswhich has the effect of turning the clergyman into a Christ-likesacrificial victim (I owe this point to my colleague Kristiaan Versluys)

3 One might argue as many have that the noise of the impact of thebodies on the glass and metal awning outside Tower 1 is disturbingenough While these sounds are definitely chilling as are the screamswe hear of terrified burn victims inside the lobby it should be pointedout that the original soundtrack recorded by Julesrsquos on-camera

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microphone was manipulated so as to soften the shock effectAppearances notwithstanding what we get to hear is a diluted andsanitized version of the original soundtrack as executive producerSusan Zirinsky explained at the press screening most of the crasheswere edited out on the grounds that lsquolsquo[t]o have that incredible crushof sound every 20 or 30 seconds would have been very tough for theaudiencersquorsquo (qtd in Laurence)

4 A similar point is made by Susan Sontag in Regarding the Pain of Others

Staying within the bounds of good taste was the primary reasongiven for not showing any of the horrific pictures of the deadtaken at the site of the World Trade Center in the immediateaftermath of the attack on September 11 2001 This novelinsistence on good taste in a culture saturated with commercialincentives to lower standards of taste may be puzzling But itmakes sense if understood as obscuring a host of concerns andanxieties about public order and public morale that cannotbe named as well as pointing to the inability otherwise toformulate or defend traditional conventions of how to mourn(68ndash9)

5 In an interview segment filmed at the Fire Academy in June 2001 andshown at the beginning of the documentary Benetatos says lsquolsquoIt soundskind of cheesy but I always kind of wanted to be a hero and this isreally the only thing you can do that you can do that [sic]rsquorsquo

6 See also Orly Lubinrsquos discussion of the documentaryrsquos compliancewith Hollywood conventions (125ndash7)

7 In view of the documentaryrsquos own affinity with mainstream disasterfilms the Hollywood comparisons invoked by some of the witnessesto convey the magnitude of the events take on an ironic ring A newscorrespondent reports from on the ground that lsquolsquo[t]he scene here is justone right out of one of those movies you would see in Hollywoodrsquorsquoand in the DVD version a passer-by is heard saying lsquolsquoLike somethingout of The Towering Inferno like a moviersquorsquo

8 Not only does Peyser speak of lsquolsquorichly drawn charactersrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoplottwistsrsquorsquo in the above passage but he also uses film vocabulary todescribe the thumps of bodies hitting the roof of the lobby callingthem lsquolsquothe most chilling sound effects ever heard on televisionrsquorsquo

9 De Nirorsquos words were echoed by Susan Zirinsky at the pre-screeningpress meeting Responding to Zirinskyrsquos claim in an article titledlsquolsquoShield Us on Sunday Night No Just Show Us Airing the Cultureof Denial on CBSrsquorsquo Claudia Rosett puts her finger on the problemlsquolsquoMoment of strength Well yes unquestionably there was valorBut given that the overwhelming event this bravery sought to addresswas actually terror this amounts to a cleaned up version of therealities of that dayrsquorsquo

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10 lsquolsquoOrrsquorsquo Berger continues lsquolsquothe dead were spoken of now as heroesrsquorsquo (55)Extending the creation of heroes to include the dead is also noticeablein the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary By way of an epilogue photo-graphs of the 344 fire-fighters who lost their lives on 11 September aredisplayed four by four against the background of the Stars and StripesThey are commemorated as national heroes who made the ultimatesacrifice in the service of their country By conceiving the catastropheas a purposive and meaningful sacrificial operation the documentaryeffectively softens its traumatic core

11 As a cinematic tribute to fire-fighters 911 stands in a long traditionof adulatory films about the fire-fighting profession stretching fromLife of an American Fireman (1903) to The Towering Inferno (1974) andfrom Backdraft (1991) to The Guys (2002) and Ladder 49 (2004)

12 While there are numerous myths featuring two brothers one isparticularly reminded of the legendary love of Castor and Polluxthe twin sons of Jupiter and Leda

13 That the documentary promotes a pro-war political agenda wasrecognized at the press meeting by Susan Zirinsky who defended thetiming of the broadcast as follows lsquolsquoThis is the right time We canrsquotforget what drove this country to be at war It is really important to notforget what happenedrsquorsquo (qtd in Long) Appearing on Foxrsquos The OrsquoReillyFactor later that week Zirinsky again invoked the war being fought inAfghanistan and stressed the supposed need lsquolsquoto keep that missionaliversquorsquo As Chris Fitzpatrick points out Zirinskyrsquos attitude lsquolsquoborrowedfrom John Ashcroftrsquorsquo suggests that lsquolsquothe true function of 911 may begetting Americarsquos jingoistic blood boilingrsquorsquo The Naudetsrsquo andZirinskyrsquos apparent disagreement about the purpose of thedocumentary is a rare breach of Franco-American unity judging frominterviews with directors and producers there was a completeconsensus among the different parties involved on just about everyother aspect of the film

14 A similar observation is made by Andre Habib in lsquolsquoAutour de 911 mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelle ou dommages au reelrsquorsquo one ofthe most insightful articles on the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary that Ihave come across Habib also regards the probie as lsquolsquoune metonymie desEtats-Unis en entierrsquorsquo (lsquolsquoa metonymy of the United States as a wholersquorsquo)

Tony crsquoest les Etats-Unis jusque la menages par lrsquoHistoireassoiffes drsquoheroısme mais maintenus a lrsquoecart de toute epreuveveritable Crsquoest comme si tout le pays avait ete jusqursquoa cette datefatidique en probation et que apres le 11 septembre elle avaitsubi son initiation devenant du coup mure pour lrsquoHistoire

(Tony is the United States until then spared by History thirstyfor heroism but kept away from any real challenge It is as if thewhole country had until that fateful date been on probation

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and as if after September 11 it had undergone its initiation andthereby become ripe for History)

15 Compare Zizek lsquolsquo[i]s not the surprise at why are they not loved [sic] forwhat they are doing to the world the most fundamental Americanreaction (at least) since the Vietnam war We just try to be good to helpothers to bring peace and prosperity and look what we get in returnrsquorsquo(145ndash6)

16 In this respect the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary is of a piece withother postndash11 September mass-audience films As Wheeler WinstonDixon observes lsquolsquo[T]he bulk of mainstream American cinema since911 whether the films were in production before or not seemscentered on a desire to replicate the idea of the lsquojust warrsquo in whichmilitary reprisals and the concomitant escalation of warfare seemsimultaneously inevitable and justifiedrsquorsquo (1)

17 In the United States however Brigandrsquos film was released(belatedly in 2003) under the name September 11 in an apparenteffort to counteract this disorienting effect

18 However this did not stop Variety from calling the film lsquolsquostridentlyanti-Americanrsquorsquo (Godard 1) Dixon correctly points out that 11rsquo0901lsquolsquofar from being anti-American is more accurately critical of Americanpolicy in the wake of 911 a very different matterrsquorsquo (5) In his viewthe contested episodes of Brigandrsquos film lsquolsquobring a welcome breath ofdissenting opinion to current cinematic discourse on the attacks of911rsquorsquo (5)

19 Efforts to get the department to comply with the commissionrsquosrecommendations were suspended indefinitely in the wake of the11 September attacks (Latour)

20 In 11rsquo0901 the reality of racism and xenophobia in New York ispoignantly evoked by the Indian director Mira Nair whose segmentdeals with the chilling effects of 11 September on the American Muslimcommunity Set in New York City Nairrsquos film recounts the story (basedon actual events) of a Pakistani American family whose eldest son goesmissing on the morning of 11 September For several months the FBIand the media keep claiming that he was a terrorist causing his familyto be shunned and ostracized by their initially supportive neighboursEventually however it emerges that the young man a medic waskilled while attempting to rescue people at the World Trade CenterOnce the truth is known he is hailed as a hero

Works Cited

Adorno Theodor lsquolsquoCultural Criticism and Societyrsquorsquo Prisms Trans SamuelWeber and Shierry Weber Cambridge MA MIT Press 1984 17ndash34

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Anderson Lisa and Stevenson Swanson lsquolsquoFilm Goes inside World TradeCenter Gripping Sept 11 Footage Followed NYC Firefightersrsquorsquo ChicagoTribune 5 Mar 2002 Advocate 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwstamfordadvo-catecomclassifiedjobssns-worldtrade-filmfootage-ctstorygt

Berger James lsquolsquolsquoTherersquos No Backhand to Thisrsquorsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911Ed Judith Greenberg Lincoln U of Nebraska P 2003 52ndash9

Borradori Giovanna Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with JurgenHabermas and Jacques Derrida Chicago U of Chicago P 2003

Butler Judith Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence LondonVerso 2004

Caruth Cathy lsquolsquoRecapturing the Pastrsquorsquo Introduction Trauma Explorations inMemory Ed Cathy Caruth Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP 1995 151ndash7

Dixon Wheeler Winston lsquolsquoSomething LostmdashFilm after 911rsquorsquo IntroductionFilm and Television after 911 Ed Wheeler Winston Dixon CarbondaleSouthern Illinois UP 2004 1ndash28

Dreher Rod lsquolsquoInside the Inferno The 911 Documentaryrsquorsquo National ReviewOnline 7 Mar 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwnationalreviewcomdreherdreher030702shtmlgt

11rsquo0901 Dir Youssef Chahine et al Prod Alain Brigand DVD GalateeFilms Studio Canal 2002

Erickson Hal lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo All-Movie Guide 22 Sept 2005 lthttpallmoviecomcgavgdllpfrac14avgampsqlfrac141265838gt

Fitzpatrick Chris lsquolsquo911 Happy Anniversaryrsquorsquo PopMatterscom 23 July 2005lthttpwwwpopmatterscomtvreviewsn9ndash11shtmlgt

Godard Francois lsquolsquoCanal Plus 911 Pic Courts Controversyrsquorsquo Daily Variety21 Aug 2002 1 20

Habib Andre lsquolsquoAutour de 911mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelleou dommages au reelrsquorsquo Hors Champs June 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwhorschampqccaarticlephp3id_articlefrac1481gt

Hope Gloves and Redemption Dir Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet 1999DVD Pathfinder 2003

Knight Sam lsquolsquoNew Yorkrsquos Whitestrsquorsquo Slices of New York Times Online 21Feb 2005 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwtimesonlinecoukarticle018391ndash149383700htmlgt

Latour Jane lsquolsquoLooking for a Fire Department That Looks like New YorkrsquorsquoGotham Gazette 3 Dec 2001 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwgothamgazettecomiotwfiredepartmentdoc1shtmlgt

Laurence Robert P lsquolsquoTwo-Hour Special 911 Conveys Horror withoutBeing Graphicrsquorsquo San Diego Union-Tribune 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwsignonsandiegocomtvradiocbs911htmlgt

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Interestingly De Nirorsquos representation of the fire-fighters as for-midable heroes performing extraordinary feats is radically at oddswith the menrsquos self-representation and with their own experience ofthe events of 11 September as they describe it in the retrospectiveinterview segments One of them evokes an overwhelming sense ofloss and powerlessness lsquolsquoWe lost so much in that two-hour periodWe felt like we got the hell kicked out of usrsquorsquo James Hanlonmentions his surprise at being treated like a hero by people in thestreets lsquolsquoIt was weird in a way walking back to the firehousePeople were cheering us but we sure didnrsquot feel like heroesrsquorsquo In theadditional interviews on the DVD which did not make the finalcut of the film other men of Engine 7 Ladder 1 speak of feelinglsquolsquohelplessrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoterrifiedrsquorsquo and admit that lsquolsquoThere was not muchyou could dorsquorsquo This is also the impression one gets from watchingthe footage shot by Jules inside the lobby of Tower 1 which showsscenes of chaos and indecision and captures the look of utterdisbelief and confusion on the fire-fightersrsquo faces Apparentlymaking heroes of the fire-fighters is demanded not so much bythe facts of the case as by the conventional narrative form intowhich those facts have been inserted11

Another way in which De Niro seeks to soften the impact of thedocumentary materials has to do with the numerous expletivesused by the witnesses At the beginning of the program he warnsthe viewer that although what he or she is about to see has beenlsquolsquoedited with great carersquorsquo still lsquolsquosome of the language is roughrsquorsquoAfter all he explains lsquolsquo[T]hese men had never been tested likethis beforersquorsquo In the course of the documentary we do indeedfrequently hear people curse lsquolsquoHoly shitrsquorsquo lsquolsquoTherersquos another fuck-ing planersquorsquo lsquolsquoAnd you know the fucking Pentagon is burningnowrsquorsquo and so on In fact it has been claimed that the amount ofunderstandable profanity spoken by the fire-fighters in 911 wasunprecedented for American network television which is notor-iously squeamish about this issue (Erickson) Trauma pushes peo-ple beyond the boundaries of normal socially acceptable speechan excessive event it seems can only be matched by excessivelanguage The filmmakers apparently felt that editing out swearwords would have been too intrusive an intervention howeverto cushion the supposed shock to the viewer they decided to haveDe Niro give him or her advance warning of what was aboutto assail his or her ears Thus the confrontation with foul languageis prevented from having anything even remotely resembling atraumatic effectmdashafter all for something to be traumatic it has to

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catch one off-guard and unprepared Still the decision not to tonedown the language used by the fire-fighters managed to attract agreat deal of media attention a fact which as Claudia Rosettobserves can only be accounted for by the extreme care withwhich the genuinely shocking aspects of the project had beenhandled

While De Nirorsquos narration is mostly concerned with the creation ofheroism the greatest good resulting from the World Trade Centerdisaster according to the documentary is the strengthening ofcommunity ties The focus in this film made by two brothers isnot only on heroism but also on brotherhood An important sub-plot with strong mythological overtones12 recounts the story of theNaudet brothersrsquo separation by the events their agonizing overeach otherrsquos fate (both of them fear that the other one may be dead)and their emotional reunion at the fire station (which curiously isfilmed by a third person) Gedeon tells us how when the secondtower came down lsquolsquothe only thing I could think about was Julesrsquorsquoand how he vowed to himself that lsquolsquo[i]f I would survive thatI would be a better brother [sic]rsquorsquo The documentary also highlightsthe bonds of brotherhood between the fire-fighters The men ofEngine 7 Ladder 1 are pictured as forming a tight-knit communitywhich closely resembles a family The film not only documents theprobiersquos integration into the firemenrsquos community but also showshow the filmmakers themselves gradually become accepted asmembers of this fraternity While reminiscing about the eveningof 10 September when he and his brother had cooked a meal for theother men Gedeon points out that lsquolsquowe were getting acceptedrsquorsquoThis process is completed when back at the firehouse after thetraumatic events they have lived through together one of the fire-men tells Jules lsquolsquoYesterday you had one brother Today youhave 50rsquorsquo At the end of the program the viewer is invited toshare in the community experience by donating money to a fire-fighterndashrelated charity the Uniformed Firefighters AssociationScholarship Fund The documentary thus shifts attention awayfrom the traumatic events to focus on the sense of caring andkinship forged in the shared disaster Community as Orly Lubinpoints out becomes lsquolsquothe tool of the containment of the traumarsquorsquo(124) The emphasis placed on the sense of community andtogetherness born at the moment of the traumatic event amountsto a form of denialmdashlsquolsquodenialrsquorsquo as Berger explains lsquolsquoin a specificallypsychoanalytic sense not a repression of the trauma or a claim thatit didnrsquot happen but a claim that the traumarsquos consequences will

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not be traumatic that it will not have symptoms but ratheronly beneficial lessons and varieties of redemptionrsquorsquo (55)

The community rhetoric mobilized in 911 is highly ideologicallycharged Though Jules Naudet told reporters that lsquolsquothe film is meantto be seen solely as a tribute to the firemen not as an argumentfor warrsquorsquo (Dreher) the documentary confirms preconceptions andassumptions that enabled a discourse of revenge and militaryaction to take root13 Indeed the film taps into the rhetoric offoundational innocence on which Americans have traditionallyestablished their public identity (but which has always hiddena more rapacious reality) the belief that they are the chosen peoplea nation founded in innocence and godliness The story recountedin the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary purports to represent thenational experience of the events of 11 September In fact the filmcan be seen to claim wider validity for the experience it documentsthrough its title which promises to tell us not a particular story butthe whole story of 11 September The viewer is led to interpret theprobiersquos journey from innocence to experience as an allegory of thefate of the entire nation The fire-fightersrsquo community in generaland Benetatos in particular metonymically and metaphoricallyrepresent the United States a nation that sees itself as a forcefor good the worldrsquos fireman14 The probiersquos self-description aslsquolsquoa person who tries to do good just like every other person in thefire departmentrsquorsquo is entirely consistent with this benign nationalself-image As a fire-fighter adds James Hanlon lsquolsquoYou do your jobyou risk your life to help peoplersquorsquo This notion is echoed by RobertDe Niro lsquolsquoFiremen live to help others live itrsquos that simplersquorsquo15

With the premise of US benevolence firmly in place the film canonly present the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center as an actof pure and inexplicable evil In an apparent effort to avoid politicalcontroversy the filmmakers provide little or no context for whattranspired that day The documentary does not reach beyond thestory of the men of Engine 7 Ladder 1 it refrains from placingthe disaster in a broader political or social context In so doingit effectively buys into the myth of American exceptionalismAfter all the viewer is given no way of framing the attack asanything other than a completely irrational and totally undeservedact of aggression We learn from one of the fire-fighters thatthat day made him realize lsquolsquohow evil evil can bersquorsquo no furtherexplanation is offered The appropriate response to 11 Septemberis voiced by the probie whomdashlsquolsquoexpressing what we all feltrsquorsquo

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(Gedeon)mdashimmediately defines the events as a declaration of waras he watches them unfold on TV Hearing that a plane has crashedinto the Pentagon he exclaims lsquolsquoThe Pentagonrsquos on fucking fireWar This is warrsquorsquo In a postndash11 September interview fragmentBenetatos wise from experience reflects lsquolsquoI know itrsquos either this orthe army now And I like saving lives I donrsquot like taking themBut after what I saw if my country decides to send me to go kill Irsquolldo it nowrsquorsquo This view expressed by a confirmed hero is in no waychallenged in the film which leaves little or no room for alternativeinterpretations Throughout the documentary maintains the inno-cence of the victim-nation suffering an unjust injury inflicted on itfor reasons that are left entirely unclear From this perspective themilitary responsemdashthe only one conceivablemdashappears as a legit-imate act of self-defence16

In Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence Judith Butleraddresses the passage from the experience of vulnerability and lossto military violence and retribution in a way that helps to shedfurther light on the ideological underpinnings of 911 Discussingthe aftermath of the 11 September attacks Butler points out that lsquolsquoitis one matter to suffer violence and quite another to use that fact toground a framework in which onersquos injury authorizes limitlessaggression against targets that may or may not be related to thesources of onersquos own sufferingrsquorsquo (4) This explanatory frameworkwhich has emerged in tandem with the experience of violenceworks lsquolsquoboth to preclude certain kinds of questions certain kinds ofhistorical inquiries and to function as a moral justification forretaliationrsquorsquo (4) Moreover it is said to have a narrative dimensionIn the United States Butler observes the story is typically told froma first-person narrative point of view and begins with the events of11 September events that have no relevant prehistorymdashafter all totell the story another way to ask how things came to such a pass islsquolsquoto complicate the question of agencyrsquorsquo which leads to lsquolsquothe fear ofmoral equivocationrsquorsquo lsquolsquoIn order to condemn these acts as inexcu-sable absolutely wrong in order to sustain the affective structure inwhich we are on the one hand victimized and on the otherengaged in a righteous cause of rooting out terror we have tobegin the story with the experience of violence we sufferedrsquorsquo (6)There is a strong desire to shore up the first-person point of viewand to preclude from the telling accounts that might involve adecentring of the narrative lsquolsquoIrsquorsquo within the international politicaldomain lsquolsquoThis decentering is precisely what we seek to rectifythrough a recentering A narrative form emerges to compensate

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for the enormous narcissistic wound opened up by the publicdisplay of our physical vulnerabilityrsquorsquo (7) This is of course exactlythe form taken by the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary as it attemptsto convert a lsquolsquodecentringrsquorsquo tale of terror into a lsquolsquore-centringrsquorsquo story ofheroism and community spirit Butler insists on the urgent needto decentre this first-person narrative if the world is to be sparedstill worse disasters She sees the temporary dislocation fromFirst World privilege caused by the 11 September attacks as offeringa chance to begin to imagine a world in which such violence mightbe minimized a world in which lsquolsquoan inevitable interdependencybecomes acknowledged as the basis for global political communityrsquorsquo(xiindashxiii) For this vision to become reality she writes lsquolsquowe will needto emerge from the narrative perspective of US unilateralism andas it were its defensive structures to consider the ways in whichour lives are profoundly implicated in the lives of othersrsquorsquo (7)

Butlerrsquos ideal of narrative decentring is strikingly realized in AlainBrigandrsquos 11rsquo0901 another 11 September film produced by aFrenchman that came out in 2002 However this is where thesimilarities between 911 and 11rsquo0901 stop Commissioned byBrigand as a response to the terrorist attacks 11rsquo0901 bringstogether eleven directors from as many countries each contributinga film lasting eleven minutes nine seconds and one frame The titlerefers to this duration as well as to the date of the attacks as itwould appear on a European calendar Hence the decentring of thecustomary first-person point of view that Brigandrsquos omnibus filmenacts is already signalled by its title which suggests foreignness17

The Naudetsrsquo film by contrast is content to use the Americannotation of the date for its title Varying enormously in style scopeand content the eleven segments of 11rsquo0901 testify to the reso-nance of the 11 September attacks around the world Unlike 911which places the events in a political and historical vacuum andthus ends up echoing the official discourse many of the filmsmaking up 11rsquo0901 insist on the interconnectedness of 11 Septem-ber with tragedies taking place elsewhere for which the UnitedStates is seen to be at least partially responsible British director KenLoach for example links 11 September 2001 with 11 September1973 when Chilean president Salvador Allende was killed duringa CIA-backed coup drsquoetat that put dictator Augusto Pinochet inpower In the episode contributed by Egyptian director YoussefChahine the ghost of a US marine is lectured on various interna-tional atrocities carried out in the name of American foreign policyHowever while it clearly distances itself from the American

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patriotic narrative of innocence under siege 11rsquo09rsquorsquo01 at no pointrefuses empathy with or denigrates the suffering of the victims ofthe World Trade Center attacks Rather than playing the who-suffered-most game or getting involved in lsquolsquothe moralizing mathe-matics of guilt and horrorrsquorsquo the film adopts what Zizek callslsquolsquothe only appropriate stancersquorsquo namely lsquolsquounconditional solidaritywith all victimsrsquorsquo (51)18

In contrast with 11rsquo0901 911 carefully avoids the subject of USresponsibility for Third-World poverty and political repressionIn fact the New York Fire Department is a highly appropriatesubject for this film as the make-up of its workforce reveals asimilar kind of blindness to issues of equality inclusion andsolidarity It is a matter of public record that the fire departmentof the multicultural melange that is New York has a serious mino-rities problem lsquolsquoThere are approximately 11500 firefighters andofficers in the FDNY of whom about 300 are black thatrsquos about 3per cent The department which is 92 per cent white has beenhistorically dominated by the cityrsquos Irish and Italian communitiesand is the least diverse fire department of any big city in Americarsquorsquo(Knight) Like African Americans Hispanics make up only3 per cent of New York City fire-fighters and women even lessthan 03 per cent (Latour) In May 2001 the cityrsquos Equal Employ-ment Practices Commission found that the severe under-representation of these groups far from being accidental couldbe attributed to the fire departmentrsquos having lsquolsquocreated barriers tothe hiring of minorities women and the poorrsquorsquo (Latour)19 Thisdramatic lack of diversitymdasha long-standing problem for which theNew York Fire Department has been much criticizedmdashis reflectedin 911 which shows only one African American and not a singleHispanic or woman employed at the Engine 7 Ladder 1 firehouseOnly a handful of African American and Hispanic fire-fighters andno women fire-fighters are shown working in or near the WorldTrade Center on 11 September and the dead fire-fighters whosepictures are displayed at the end of the film are overwhelminglywhite and without exception male The fire-fighting communitythat is held up in the Naudetsrsquo documentary as a model for the USas a nation thus turns out to be a privileged and exclusionary whitebrotherhood Not only then does 911 turn a blind eye to issues ofsocial justice at the international level by maintaining an overlysimplistic good (us) versus evil (them) philosophy but it alsowilfully ignores the demands of social justice closer to home bysinging the praises of an insular defensive and intransigent

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type of community Evidently we are a long way here from theideal of an inclusive and equitable global community as envisagedby Butler an ideal that appears to underlie Brigandrsquos 11rsquo090120

Remarkably in tune with the dominant political discourse of itstime 911 provides us with an example of what Eric Santner hascalled lsquolsquonarrative fetishismrsquorsquo lsquolsquothe construction and deployment ofa narrative consciously or unconsciously designed to expunge thetraces of the trauma that called that narrative into being in the firstplacersquorsquo (144) The film superimposes a linear narrative of heroismand community upon the traumatic reality of the attacks in order todeprive it of its potential significance As we have seen 911 doesnot shirk from suppressing evidence of trauma by excluding orsanitizing graphic footage nor from undermining the authority ofeye-witness testimony by frequently contradicting the fire-fightersrsquoown experience and by adopting an attitude of patronizing toler-ance towards linguistic excesses Viewed from a different anglehowever 911 offers a critique rather than an instantiation of theway in which 11 September is officially remembered In its veryattempt to marginalize trauma and testimony the film actuallyshows how trauma overflows the limits of the memorializingstrategies deployed to contain it thereby demonstrating theirinadequacy and tenuousness Its attempted portrayal of traumaas a discrete past event locatable representable and curable isbelied by traces of trauma seeping through the manifest narrativeresisting processes of identification comprehension and facileredemption

One of these traces is the moment in the film when Tower 2collapses covering the lobby of Tower 1 with debris As JulesNaudet runs up an escalator for shelter not knowing what hashappened his camera keeps rolling We hear a deafening rumblewhich drowns out all other sounds to the point of doing actualdamage to the soundtrack the lens is covered with grit and theneverything becomes pitch black Something similar happens afterthe collapse of Tower 1 which both Jules and Gedeon were filmingfrom nearby streets As the streets fill up with dust and debris theystart running for their lives but eventually fall to the ground Againthe cameras keep rolling recording the loud noise and the onset ofdarkness as the lenses turn brown and gritty Together with thesound of people falling to their deaths these three scenes representthe most direct intrusions of reality in the documentary As ifcaught in a repetition compulsion the film keeps returning to

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these extraordinary images which stand out by their indexicalquality reality physically imprints itself upon the camera insteadof merely being recorded by it in much the same way as atraumatic event falls directly into the psyche bypassing perceptionand consciousness While the filmrsquos apparent objective is to maketrauma visible and narratable in these haunting scenes traumareveals itself as an impossibility of seeing hearing and knowing

That the truth of trauma resides in its resistance to perception andunderstanding is borne out by the testimony of the survivors fromwhich we learn that the fire-fighters on the scene were almosttotally oblivious to the reality of what was going on For examplewhile the whole world had seen Tower 2 collapse on live televisionthe people trapped inside the lobby of Tower 1 did not have a clueas to what had happenedmdashwhich explains why having finallymade their way out they kept standing in the immediate vicinityof the doomed tower In an interview recently made public as partof the 911 records Joseph Pfeifer the battalion chief whom Juleshad found himself shadowing for most of the day recalls lsquolsquoWe gotout there and then we were standing under the bridge trying to seewhat was going on I couldnrsquot see what was going on Everythingwas covered with smoke I couldnrsquot see what collapsed Our eyeswere full of garbage Wersquore standing on the street and still notknowing the full implication of what took place because youcouldnrsquot seersquorsquo The film shows how the fire-fighters only beganto realize what they had lived through after they had got back tothe firehouse The emphasis placed by various eye-witnesses onthe eventsrsquo defiance of sight and comprehension challenges theassumptions structuring the filmrsquos conventional narrative in parti-cular the view that there is an intact history out there waiting to belured into vision and spoken as pure meaning In fact no soonerdoes 911 assert its claim to total visual mastery over the events of11 September than this claim is rebutted by the very footageintended to substantiate it James Hanlonrsquos promise at the begin-ning of the film that the viewer lsquolsquowill see all of itrsquorsquo lsquolsquobeginning toendrsquorsquo is immediately followed by a flash-forward to the dust- anddebris-filled images shot by Jules during the collapse of Tower 2With the picture going black it becomes impossible for the viewerto see anything at all

It is precisely this tension between the desire to know the subjectbeing represented and themdashimplicitmdashrecognition of the limits ofthat knowing that makes 911 so compelling With one hand the

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film offers the familiar gesture of memory as forgettingmdashtheincorporation of trauma into a reassuring narrative of nationalgreatnessmdashand with the other hand it takes away the comfort ofresting in this narrative Whatever ethical value the documentarycan be said to possess lies in the tension between these twogestures which if nothing more at least complicates the returnto the lsquolsquodogmatic slumberrsquorsquo (Derrida qtd in Borradori 100) fromwhich 11 September had awakened us

Notes

1 This is especially true of the televised version of the documentarywhich differs in several respects from the DVD edition released byParamount Pictures in 2002 under the title 911 The FilmmakersrsquoCommemorative Edition Most notably Robert De Niro who hosted theCBS program does not appear on the DVD edition Yet with a runningtime of 129 minutes the DVD edition is about a quarter of an hourlonger than the CBS broadcast Some footage has been added thatexpands on the original material for example scenes from the trainingof new recruits scenes from within the firehouse and scenes from therecovery effort As a result the tight narrative structure undergirdingthe TV version is loosened somewhat By way of bonus materialthe DVD features a 53-minute interview section containing furthercommentary from the fire-fighters

2 In fact the only visual evidence of death in the documentary comes inthe form of two still images of the intact body of Father Mychal Judgethe fire departmentrsquos chaplain being carried to a nearby church Hisdeathmdashdistanced as it is through the use of still rather than movingimagesmdashcan hardly be called representative as the vast majority of thevictims of 11 September were denied such dignity their bodies beingall but obliterated and therefore hard (if not impossible) to identify Asone of the fire-fighters testifies in the additional interview section onthe DVD lsquolsquoThere were many there were many eh it wasnrsquot manybodies but it was many pieces body parts There was I saw one ortwo whole bodies but not it wasnrsquot many I imagine thepeople were the same as the building nothing leftrsquorsquo Moreover thechaplainrsquos death is rescued from meaninglessness by the uncannyresemblance between the scene captured in the two photographs andtraditional pictorial representations of the descent from the crosswhich has the effect of turning the clergyman into a Christ-likesacrificial victim (I owe this point to my colleague Kristiaan Versluys)

3 One might argue as many have that the noise of the impact of thebodies on the glass and metal awning outside Tower 1 is disturbingenough While these sounds are definitely chilling as are the screamswe hear of terrified burn victims inside the lobby it should be pointedout that the original soundtrack recorded by Julesrsquos on-camera

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microphone was manipulated so as to soften the shock effectAppearances notwithstanding what we get to hear is a diluted andsanitized version of the original soundtrack as executive producerSusan Zirinsky explained at the press screening most of the crasheswere edited out on the grounds that lsquolsquo[t]o have that incredible crushof sound every 20 or 30 seconds would have been very tough for theaudiencersquorsquo (qtd in Laurence)

4 A similar point is made by Susan Sontag in Regarding the Pain of Others

Staying within the bounds of good taste was the primary reasongiven for not showing any of the horrific pictures of the deadtaken at the site of the World Trade Center in the immediateaftermath of the attack on September 11 2001 This novelinsistence on good taste in a culture saturated with commercialincentives to lower standards of taste may be puzzling But itmakes sense if understood as obscuring a host of concerns andanxieties about public order and public morale that cannotbe named as well as pointing to the inability otherwise toformulate or defend traditional conventions of how to mourn(68ndash9)

5 In an interview segment filmed at the Fire Academy in June 2001 andshown at the beginning of the documentary Benetatos says lsquolsquoIt soundskind of cheesy but I always kind of wanted to be a hero and this isreally the only thing you can do that you can do that [sic]rsquorsquo

6 See also Orly Lubinrsquos discussion of the documentaryrsquos compliancewith Hollywood conventions (125ndash7)

7 In view of the documentaryrsquos own affinity with mainstream disasterfilms the Hollywood comparisons invoked by some of the witnessesto convey the magnitude of the events take on an ironic ring A newscorrespondent reports from on the ground that lsquolsquo[t]he scene here is justone right out of one of those movies you would see in Hollywoodrsquorsquoand in the DVD version a passer-by is heard saying lsquolsquoLike somethingout of The Towering Inferno like a moviersquorsquo

8 Not only does Peyser speak of lsquolsquorichly drawn charactersrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoplottwistsrsquorsquo in the above passage but he also uses film vocabulary todescribe the thumps of bodies hitting the roof of the lobby callingthem lsquolsquothe most chilling sound effects ever heard on televisionrsquorsquo

9 De Nirorsquos words were echoed by Susan Zirinsky at the pre-screeningpress meeting Responding to Zirinskyrsquos claim in an article titledlsquolsquoShield Us on Sunday Night No Just Show Us Airing the Cultureof Denial on CBSrsquorsquo Claudia Rosett puts her finger on the problemlsquolsquoMoment of strength Well yes unquestionably there was valorBut given that the overwhelming event this bravery sought to addresswas actually terror this amounts to a cleaned up version of therealities of that dayrsquorsquo

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10 lsquolsquoOrrsquorsquo Berger continues lsquolsquothe dead were spoken of now as heroesrsquorsquo (55)Extending the creation of heroes to include the dead is also noticeablein the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary By way of an epilogue photo-graphs of the 344 fire-fighters who lost their lives on 11 September aredisplayed four by four against the background of the Stars and StripesThey are commemorated as national heroes who made the ultimatesacrifice in the service of their country By conceiving the catastropheas a purposive and meaningful sacrificial operation the documentaryeffectively softens its traumatic core

11 As a cinematic tribute to fire-fighters 911 stands in a long traditionof adulatory films about the fire-fighting profession stretching fromLife of an American Fireman (1903) to The Towering Inferno (1974) andfrom Backdraft (1991) to The Guys (2002) and Ladder 49 (2004)

12 While there are numerous myths featuring two brothers one isparticularly reminded of the legendary love of Castor and Polluxthe twin sons of Jupiter and Leda

13 That the documentary promotes a pro-war political agenda wasrecognized at the press meeting by Susan Zirinsky who defended thetiming of the broadcast as follows lsquolsquoThis is the right time We canrsquotforget what drove this country to be at war It is really important to notforget what happenedrsquorsquo (qtd in Long) Appearing on Foxrsquos The OrsquoReillyFactor later that week Zirinsky again invoked the war being fought inAfghanistan and stressed the supposed need lsquolsquoto keep that missionaliversquorsquo As Chris Fitzpatrick points out Zirinskyrsquos attitude lsquolsquoborrowedfrom John Ashcroftrsquorsquo suggests that lsquolsquothe true function of 911 may begetting Americarsquos jingoistic blood boilingrsquorsquo The Naudetsrsquo andZirinskyrsquos apparent disagreement about the purpose of thedocumentary is a rare breach of Franco-American unity judging frominterviews with directors and producers there was a completeconsensus among the different parties involved on just about everyother aspect of the film

14 A similar observation is made by Andre Habib in lsquolsquoAutour de 911 mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelle ou dommages au reelrsquorsquo one ofthe most insightful articles on the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary that Ihave come across Habib also regards the probie as lsquolsquoune metonymie desEtats-Unis en entierrsquorsquo (lsquolsquoa metonymy of the United States as a wholersquorsquo)

Tony crsquoest les Etats-Unis jusque la menages par lrsquoHistoireassoiffes drsquoheroısme mais maintenus a lrsquoecart de toute epreuveveritable Crsquoest comme si tout le pays avait ete jusqursquoa cette datefatidique en probation et que apres le 11 septembre elle avaitsubi son initiation devenant du coup mure pour lrsquoHistoire

(Tony is the United States until then spared by History thirstyfor heroism but kept away from any real challenge It is as if thewhole country had until that fateful date been on probation

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and as if after September 11 it had undergone its initiation andthereby become ripe for History)

15 Compare Zizek lsquolsquo[i]s not the surprise at why are they not loved [sic] forwhat they are doing to the world the most fundamental Americanreaction (at least) since the Vietnam war We just try to be good to helpothers to bring peace and prosperity and look what we get in returnrsquorsquo(145ndash6)

16 In this respect the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary is of a piece withother postndash11 September mass-audience films As Wheeler WinstonDixon observes lsquolsquo[T]he bulk of mainstream American cinema since911 whether the films were in production before or not seemscentered on a desire to replicate the idea of the lsquojust warrsquo in whichmilitary reprisals and the concomitant escalation of warfare seemsimultaneously inevitable and justifiedrsquorsquo (1)

17 In the United States however Brigandrsquos film was released(belatedly in 2003) under the name September 11 in an apparenteffort to counteract this disorienting effect

18 However this did not stop Variety from calling the film lsquolsquostridentlyanti-Americanrsquorsquo (Godard 1) Dixon correctly points out that 11rsquo0901lsquolsquofar from being anti-American is more accurately critical of Americanpolicy in the wake of 911 a very different matterrsquorsquo (5) In his viewthe contested episodes of Brigandrsquos film lsquolsquobring a welcome breath ofdissenting opinion to current cinematic discourse on the attacks of911rsquorsquo (5)

19 Efforts to get the department to comply with the commissionrsquosrecommendations were suspended indefinitely in the wake of the11 September attacks (Latour)

20 In 11rsquo0901 the reality of racism and xenophobia in New York ispoignantly evoked by the Indian director Mira Nair whose segmentdeals with the chilling effects of 11 September on the American Muslimcommunity Set in New York City Nairrsquos film recounts the story (basedon actual events) of a Pakistani American family whose eldest son goesmissing on the morning of 11 September For several months the FBIand the media keep claiming that he was a terrorist causing his familyto be shunned and ostracized by their initially supportive neighboursEventually however it emerges that the young man a medic waskilled while attempting to rescue people at the World Trade CenterOnce the truth is known he is hailed as a hero

Works Cited

Adorno Theodor lsquolsquoCultural Criticism and Societyrsquorsquo Prisms Trans SamuelWeber and Shierry Weber Cambridge MA MIT Press 1984 17ndash34

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Anderson Lisa and Stevenson Swanson lsquolsquoFilm Goes inside World TradeCenter Gripping Sept 11 Footage Followed NYC Firefightersrsquorsquo ChicagoTribune 5 Mar 2002 Advocate 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwstamfordadvo-catecomclassifiedjobssns-worldtrade-filmfootage-ctstorygt

Berger James lsquolsquolsquoTherersquos No Backhand to Thisrsquorsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911Ed Judith Greenberg Lincoln U of Nebraska P 2003 52ndash9

Borradori Giovanna Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with JurgenHabermas and Jacques Derrida Chicago U of Chicago P 2003

Butler Judith Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence LondonVerso 2004

Caruth Cathy lsquolsquoRecapturing the Pastrsquorsquo Introduction Trauma Explorations inMemory Ed Cathy Caruth Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP 1995 151ndash7

Dixon Wheeler Winston lsquolsquoSomething LostmdashFilm after 911rsquorsquo IntroductionFilm and Television after 911 Ed Wheeler Winston Dixon CarbondaleSouthern Illinois UP 2004 1ndash28

Dreher Rod lsquolsquoInside the Inferno The 911 Documentaryrsquorsquo National ReviewOnline 7 Mar 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwnationalreviewcomdreherdreher030702shtmlgt

11rsquo0901 Dir Youssef Chahine et al Prod Alain Brigand DVD GalateeFilms Studio Canal 2002

Erickson Hal lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo All-Movie Guide 22 Sept 2005 lthttpallmoviecomcgavgdllpfrac14avgampsqlfrac141265838gt

Fitzpatrick Chris lsquolsquo911 Happy Anniversaryrsquorsquo PopMatterscom 23 July 2005lthttpwwwpopmatterscomtvreviewsn9ndash11shtmlgt

Godard Francois lsquolsquoCanal Plus 911 Pic Courts Controversyrsquorsquo Daily Variety21 Aug 2002 1 20

Habib Andre lsquolsquoAutour de 911mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelleou dommages au reelrsquorsquo Hors Champs June 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwhorschampqccaarticlephp3id_articlefrac1481gt

Hope Gloves and Redemption Dir Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet 1999DVD Pathfinder 2003

Knight Sam lsquolsquoNew Yorkrsquos Whitestrsquorsquo Slices of New York Times Online 21Feb 2005 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwtimesonlinecoukarticle018391ndash149383700htmlgt

Latour Jane lsquolsquoLooking for a Fire Department That Looks like New YorkrsquorsquoGotham Gazette 3 Dec 2001 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwgothamgazettecomiotwfiredepartmentdoc1shtmlgt

Laurence Robert P lsquolsquoTwo-Hour Special 911 Conveys Horror withoutBeing Graphicrsquorsquo San Diego Union-Tribune 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwsignonsandiegocomtvradiocbs911htmlgt

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catch one off-guard and unprepared Still the decision not to tonedown the language used by the fire-fighters managed to attract agreat deal of media attention a fact which as Claudia Rosettobserves can only be accounted for by the extreme care withwhich the genuinely shocking aspects of the project had beenhandled

While De Nirorsquos narration is mostly concerned with the creation ofheroism the greatest good resulting from the World Trade Centerdisaster according to the documentary is the strengthening ofcommunity ties The focus in this film made by two brothers isnot only on heroism but also on brotherhood An important sub-plot with strong mythological overtones12 recounts the story of theNaudet brothersrsquo separation by the events their agonizing overeach otherrsquos fate (both of them fear that the other one may be dead)and their emotional reunion at the fire station (which curiously isfilmed by a third person) Gedeon tells us how when the secondtower came down lsquolsquothe only thing I could think about was Julesrsquorsquoand how he vowed to himself that lsquolsquo[i]f I would survive thatI would be a better brother [sic]rsquorsquo The documentary also highlightsthe bonds of brotherhood between the fire-fighters The men ofEngine 7 Ladder 1 are pictured as forming a tight-knit communitywhich closely resembles a family The film not only documents theprobiersquos integration into the firemenrsquos community but also showshow the filmmakers themselves gradually become accepted asmembers of this fraternity While reminiscing about the eveningof 10 September when he and his brother had cooked a meal for theother men Gedeon points out that lsquolsquowe were getting acceptedrsquorsquoThis process is completed when back at the firehouse after thetraumatic events they have lived through together one of the fire-men tells Jules lsquolsquoYesterday you had one brother Today youhave 50rsquorsquo At the end of the program the viewer is invited toshare in the community experience by donating money to a fire-fighterndashrelated charity the Uniformed Firefighters AssociationScholarship Fund The documentary thus shifts attention awayfrom the traumatic events to focus on the sense of caring andkinship forged in the shared disaster Community as Orly Lubinpoints out becomes lsquolsquothe tool of the containment of the traumarsquorsquo(124) The emphasis placed on the sense of community andtogetherness born at the moment of the traumatic event amountsto a form of denialmdashlsquolsquodenialrsquorsquo as Berger explains lsquolsquoin a specificallypsychoanalytic sense not a repression of the trauma or a claim thatit didnrsquot happen but a claim that the traumarsquos consequences will

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not be traumatic that it will not have symptoms but ratheronly beneficial lessons and varieties of redemptionrsquorsquo (55)

The community rhetoric mobilized in 911 is highly ideologicallycharged Though Jules Naudet told reporters that lsquolsquothe film is meantto be seen solely as a tribute to the firemen not as an argumentfor warrsquorsquo (Dreher) the documentary confirms preconceptions andassumptions that enabled a discourse of revenge and militaryaction to take root13 Indeed the film taps into the rhetoric offoundational innocence on which Americans have traditionallyestablished their public identity (but which has always hiddena more rapacious reality) the belief that they are the chosen peoplea nation founded in innocence and godliness The story recountedin the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary purports to represent thenational experience of the events of 11 September In fact the filmcan be seen to claim wider validity for the experience it documentsthrough its title which promises to tell us not a particular story butthe whole story of 11 September The viewer is led to interpret theprobiersquos journey from innocence to experience as an allegory of thefate of the entire nation The fire-fightersrsquo community in generaland Benetatos in particular metonymically and metaphoricallyrepresent the United States a nation that sees itself as a forcefor good the worldrsquos fireman14 The probiersquos self-description aslsquolsquoa person who tries to do good just like every other person in thefire departmentrsquorsquo is entirely consistent with this benign nationalself-image As a fire-fighter adds James Hanlon lsquolsquoYou do your jobyou risk your life to help peoplersquorsquo This notion is echoed by RobertDe Niro lsquolsquoFiremen live to help others live itrsquos that simplersquorsquo15

With the premise of US benevolence firmly in place the film canonly present the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center as an actof pure and inexplicable evil In an apparent effort to avoid politicalcontroversy the filmmakers provide little or no context for whattranspired that day The documentary does not reach beyond thestory of the men of Engine 7 Ladder 1 it refrains from placingthe disaster in a broader political or social context In so doingit effectively buys into the myth of American exceptionalismAfter all the viewer is given no way of framing the attack asanything other than a completely irrational and totally undeservedact of aggression We learn from one of the fire-fighters thatthat day made him realize lsquolsquohow evil evil can bersquorsquo no furtherexplanation is offered The appropriate response to 11 Septemberis voiced by the probie whomdashlsquolsquoexpressing what we all feltrsquorsquo

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(Gedeon)mdashimmediately defines the events as a declaration of waras he watches them unfold on TV Hearing that a plane has crashedinto the Pentagon he exclaims lsquolsquoThe Pentagonrsquos on fucking fireWar This is warrsquorsquo In a postndash11 September interview fragmentBenetatos wise from experience reflects lsquolsquoI know itrsquos either this orthe army now And I like saving lives I donrsquot like taking themBut after what I saw if my country decides to send me to go kill Irsquolldo it nowrsquorsquo This view expressed by a confirmed hero is in no waychallenged in the film which leaves little or no room for alternativeinterpretations Throughout the documentary maintains the inno-cence of the victim-nation suffering an unjust injury inflicted on itfor reasons that are left entirely unclear From this perspective themilitary responsemdashthe only one conceivablemdashappears as a legit-imate act of self-defence16

In Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence Judith Butleraddresses the passage from the experience of vulnerability and lossto military violence and retribution in a way that helps to shedfurther light on the ideological underpinnings of 911 Discussingthe aftermath of the 11 September attacks Butler points out that lsquolsquoitis one matter to suffer violence and quite another to use that fact toground a framework in which onersquos injury authorizes limitlessaggression against targets that may or may not be related to thesources of onersquos own sufferingrsquorsquo (4) This explanatory frameworkwhich has emerged in tandem with the experience of violenceworks lsquolsquoboth to preclude certain kinds of questions certain kinds ofhistorical inquiries and to function as a moral justification forretaliationrsquorsquo (4) Moreover it is said to have a narrative dimensionIn the United States Butler observes the story is typically told froma first-person narrative point of view and begins with the events of11 September events that have no relevant prehistorymdashafter all totell the story another way to ask how things came to such a pass islsquolsquoto complicate the question of agencyrsquorsquo which leads to lsquolsquothe fear ofmoral equivocationrsquorsquo lsquolsquoIn order to condemn these acts as inexcu-sable absolutely wrong in order to sustain the affective structure inwhich we are on the one hand victimized and on the otherengaged in a righteous cause of rooting out terror we have tobegin the story with the experience of violence we sufferedrsquorsquo (6)There is a strong desire to shore up the first-person point of viewand to preclude from the telling accounts that might involve adecentring of the narrative lsquolsquoIrsquorsquo within the international politicaldomain lsquolsquoThis decentering is precisely what we seek to rectifythrough a recentering A narrative form emerges to compensate

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for the enormous narcissistic wound opened up by the publicdisplay of our physical vulnerabilityrsquorsquo (7) This is of course exactlythe form taken by the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary as it attemptsto convert a lsquolsquodecentringrsquorsquo tale of terror into a lsquolsquore-centringrsquorsquo story ofheroism and community spirit Butler insists on the urgent needto decentre this first-person narrative if the world is to be sparedstill worse disasters She sees the temporary dislocation fromFirst World privilege caused by the 11 September attacks as offeringa chance to begin to imagine a world in which such violence mightbe minimized a world in which lsquolsquoan inevitable interdependencybecomes acknowledged as the basis for global political communityrsquorsquo(xiindashxiii) For this vision to become reality she writes lsquolsquowe will needto emerge from the narrative perspective of US unilateralism andas it were its defensive structures to consider the ways in whichour lives are profoundly implicated in the lives of othersrsquorsquo (7)

Butlerrsquos ideal of narrative decentring is strikingly realized in AlainBrigandrsquos 11rsquo0901 another 11 September film produced by aFrenchman that came out in 2002 However this is where thesimilarities between 911 and 11rsquo0901 stop Commissioned byBrigand as a response to the terrorist attacks 11rsquo0901 bringstogether eleven directors from as many countries each contributinga film lasting eleven minutes nine seconds and one frame The titlerefers to this duration as well as to the date of the attacks as itwould appear on a European calendar Hence the decentring of thecustomary first-person point of view that Brigandrsquos omnibus filmenacts is already signalled by its title which suggests foreignness17

The Naudetsrsquo film by contrast is content to use the Americannotation of the date for its title Varying enormously in style scopeand content the eleven segments of 11rsquo0901 testify to the reso-nance of the 11 September attacks around the world Unlike 911which places the events in a political and historical vacuum andthus ends up echoing the official discourse many of the filmsmaking up 11rsquo0901 insist on the interconnectedness of 11 Septem-ber with tragedies taking place elsewhere for which the UnitedStates is seen to be at least partially responsible British director KenLoach for example links 11 September 2001 with 11 September1973 when Chilean president Salvador Allende was killed duringa CIA-backed coup drsquoetat that put dictator Augusto Pinochet inpower In the episode contributed by Egyptian director YoussefChahine the ghost of a US marine is lectured on various interna-tional atrocities carried out in the name of American foreign policyHowever while it clearly distances itself from the American

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patriotic narrative of innocence under siege 11rsquo09rsquorsquo01 at no pointrefuses empathy with or denigrates the suffering of the victims ofthe World Trade Center attacks Rather than playing the who-suffered-most game or getting involved in lsquolsquothe moralizing mathe-matics of guilt and horrorrsquorsquo the film adopts what Zizek callslsquolsquothe only appropriate stancersquorsquo namely lsquolsquounconditional solidaritywith all victimsrsquorsquo (51)18

In contrast with 11rsquo0901 911 carefully avoids the subject of USresponsibility for Third-World poverty and political repressionIn fact the New York Fire Department is a highly appropriatesubject for this film as the make-up of its workforce reveals asimilar kind of blindness to issues of equality inclusion andsolidarity It is a matter of public record that the fire departmentof the multicultural melange that is New York has a serious mino-rities problem lsquolsquoThere are approximately 11500 firefighters andofficers in the FDNY of whom about 300 are black thatrsquos about 3per cent The department which is 92 per cent white has beenhistorically dominated by the cityrsquos Irish and Italian communitiesand is the least diverse fire department of any big city in Americarsquorsquo(Knight) Like African Americans Hispanics make up only3 per cent of New York City fire-fighters and women even lessthan 03 per cent (Latour) In May 2001 the cityrsquos Equal Employ-ment Practices Commission found that the severe under-representation of these groups far from being accidental couldbe attributed to the fire departmentrsquos having lsquolsquocreated barriers tothe hiring of minorities women and the poorrsquorsquo (Latour)19 Thisdramatic lack of diversitymdasha long-standing problem for which theNew York Fire Department has been much criticizedmdashis reflectedin 911 which shows only one African American and not a singleHispanic or woman employed at the Engine 7 Ladder 1 firehouseOnly a handful of African American and Hispanic fire-fighters andno women fire-fighters are shown working in or near the WorldTrade Center on 11 September and the dead fire-fighters whosepictures are displayed at the end of the film are overwhelminglywhite and without exception male The fire-fighting communitythat is held up in the Naudetsrsquo documentary as a model for the USas a nation thus turns out to be a privileged and exclusionary whitebrotherhood Not only then does 911 turn a blind eye to issues ofsocial justice at the international level by maintaining an overlysimplistic good (us) versus evil (them) philosophy but it alsowilfully ignores the demands of social justice closer to home bysinging the praises of an insular defensive and intransigent

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type of community Evidently we are a long way here from theideal of an inclusive and equitable global community as envisagedby Butler an ideal that appears to underlie Brigandrsquos 11rsquo090120

Remarkably in tune with the dominant political discourse of itstime 911 provides us with an example of what Eric Santner hascalled lsquolsquonarrative fetishismrsquorsquo lsquolsquothe construction and deployment ofa narrative consciously or unconsciously designed to expunge thetraces of the trauma that called that narrative into being in the firstplacersquorsquo (144) The film superimposes a linear narrative of heroismand community upon the traumatic reality of the attacks in order todeprive it of its potential significance As we have seen 911 doesnot shirk from suppressing evidence of trauma by excluding orsanitizing graphic footage nor from undermining the authority ofeye-witness testimony by frequently contradicting the fire-fightersrsquoown experience and by adopting an attitude of patronizing toler-ance towards linguistic excesses Viewed from a different anglehowever 911 offers a critique rather than an instantiation of theway in which 11 September is officially remembered In its veryattempt to marginalize trauma and testimony the film actuallyshows how trauma overflows the limits of the memorializingstrategies deployed to contain it thereby demonstrating theirinadequacy and tenuousness Its attempted portrayal of traumaas a discrete past event locatable representable and curable isbelied by traces of trauma seeping through the manifest narrativeresisting processes of identification comprehension and facileredemption

One of these traces is the moment in the film when Tower 2collapses covering the lobby of Tower 1 with debris As JulesNaudet runs up an escalator for shelter not knowing what hashappened his camera keeps rolling We hear a deafening rumblewhich drowns out all other sounds to the point of doing actualdamage to the soundtrack the lens is covered with grit and theneverything becomes pitch black Something similar happens afterthe collapse of Tower 1 which both Jules and Gedeon were filmingfrom nearby streets As the streets fill up with dust and debris theystart running for their lives but eventually fall to the ground Againthe cameras keep rolling recording the loud noise and the onset ofdarkness as the lenses turn brown and gritty Together with thesound of people falling to their deaths these three scenes representthe most direct intrusions of reality in the documentary As ifcaught in a repetition compulsion the film keeps returning to

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these extraordinary images which stand out by their indexicalquality reality physically imprints itself upon the camera insteadof merely being recorded by it in much the same way as atraumatic event falls directly into the psyche bypassing perceptionand consciousness While the filmrsquos apparent objective is to maketrauma visible and narratable in these haunting scenes traumareveals itself as an impossibility of seeing hearing and knowing

That the truth of trauma resides in its resistance to perception andunderstanding is borne out by the testimony of the survivors fromwhich we learn that the fire-fighters on the scene were almosttotally oblivious to the reality of what was going on For examplewhile the whole world had seen Tower 2 collapse on live televisionthe people trapped inside the lobby of Tower 1 did not have a clueas to what had happenedmdashwhich explains why having finallymade their way out they kept standing in the immediate vicinityof the doomed tower In an interview recently made public as partof the 911 records Joseph Pfeifer the battalion chief whom Juleshad found himself shadowing for most of the day recalls lsquolsquoWe gotout there and then we were standing under the bridge trying to seewhat was going on I couldnrsquot see what was going on Everythingwas covered with smoke I couldnrsquot see what collapsed Our eyeswere full of garbage Wersquore standing on the street and still notknowing the full implication of what took place because youcouldnrsquot seersquorsquo The film shows how the fire-fighters only beganto realize what they had lived through after they had got back tothe firehouse The emphasis placed by various eye-witnesses onthe eventsrsquo defiance of sight and comprehension challenges theassumptions structuring the filmrsquos conventional narrative in parti-cular the view that there is an intact history out there waiting to belured into vision and spoken as pure meaning In fact no soonerdoes 911 assert its claim to total visual mastery over the events of11 September than this claim is rebutted by the very footageintended to substantiate it James Hanlonrsquos promise at the begin-ning of the film that the viewer lsquolsquowill see all of itrsquorsquo lsquolsquobeginning toendrsquorsquo is immediately followed by a flash-forward to the dust- anddebris-filled images shot by Jules during the collapse of Tower 2With the picture going black it becomes impossible for the viewerto see anything at all

It is precisely this tension between the desire to know the subjectbeing represented and themdashimplicitmdashrecognition of the limits ofthat knowing that makes 911 so compelling With one hand the

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film offers the familiar gesture of memory as forgettingmdashtheincorporation of trauma into a reassuring narrative of nationalgreatnessmdashand with the other hand it takes away the comfort ofresting in this narrative Whatever ethical value the documentarycan be said to possess lies in the tension between these twogestures which if nothing more at least complicates the returnto the lsquolsquodogmatic slumberrsquorsquo (Derrida qtd in Borradori 100) fromwhich 11 September had awakened us

Notes

1 This is especially true of the televised version of the documentarywhich differs in several respects from the DVD edition released byParamount Pictures in 2002 under the title 911 The FilmmakersrsquoCommemorative Edition Most notably Robert De Niro who hosted theCBS program does not appear on the DVD edition Yet with a runningtime of 129 minutes the DVD edition is about a quarter of an hourlonger than the CBS broadcast Some footage has been added thatexpands on the original material for example scenes from the trainingof new recruits scenes from within the firehouse and scenes from therecovery effort As a result the tight narrative structure undergirdingthe TV version is loosened somewhat By way of bonus materialthe DVD features a 53-minute interview section containing furthercommentary from the fire-fighters

2 In fact the only visual evidence of death in the documentary comes inthe form of two still images of the intact body of Father Mychal Judgethe fire departmentrsquos chaplain being carried to a nearby church Hisdeathmdashdistanced as it is through the use of still rather than movingimagesmdashcan hardly be called representative as the vast majority of thevictims of 11 September were denied such dignity their bodies beingall but obliterated and therefore hard (if not impossible) to identify Asone of the fire-fighters testifies in the additional interview section onthe DVD lsquolsquoThere were many there were many eh it wasnrsquot manybodies but it was many pieces body parts There was I saw one ortwo whole bodies but not it wasnrsquot many I imagine thepeople were the same as the building nothing leftrsquorsquo Moreover thechaplainrsquos death is rescued from meaninglessness by the uncannyresemblance between the scene captured in the two photographs andtraditional pictorial representations of the descent from the crosswhich has the effect of turning the clergyman into a Christ-likesacrificial victim (I owe this point to my colleague Kristiaan Versluys)

3 One might argue as many have that the noise of the impact of thebodies on the glass and metal awning outside Tower 1 is disturbingenough While these sounds are definitely chilling as are the screamswe hear of terrified burn victims inside the lobby it should be pointedout that the original soundtrack recorded by Julesrsquos on-camera

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microphone was manipulated so as to soften the shock effectAppearances notwithstanding what we get to hear is a diluted andsanitized version of the original soundtrack as executive producerSusan Zirinsky explained at the press screening most of the crasheswere edited out on the grounds that lsquolsquo[t]o have that incredible crushof sound every 20 or 30 seconds would have been very tough for theaudiencersquorsquo (qtd in Laurence)

4 A similar point is made by Susan Sontag in Regarding the Pain of Others

Staying within the bounds of good taste was the primary reasongiven for not showing any of the horrific pictures of the deadtaken at the site of the World Trade Center in the immediateaftermath of the attack on September 11 2001 This novelinsistence on good taste in a culture saturated with commercialincentives to lower standards of taste may be puzzling But itmakes sense if understood as obscuring a host of concerns andanxieties about public order and public morale that cannotbe named as well as pointing to the inability otherwise toformulate or defend traditional conventions of how to mourn(68ndash9)

5 In an interview segment filmed at the Fire Academy in June 2001 andshown at the beginning of the documentary Benetatos says lsquolsquoIt soundskind of cheesy but I always kind of wanted to be a hero and this isreally the only thing you can do that you can do that [sic]rsquorsquo

6 See also Orly Lubinrsquos discussion of the documentaryrsquos compliancewith Hollywood conventions (125ndash7)

7 In view of the documentaryrsquos own affinity with mainstream disasterfilms the Hollywood comparisons invoked by some of the witnessesto convey the magnitude of the events take on an ironic ring A newscorrespondent reports from on the ground that lsquolsquo[t]he scene here is justone right out of one of those movies you would see in Hollywoodrsquorsquoand in the DVD version a passer-by is heard saying lsquolsquoLike somethingout of The Towering Inferno like a moviersquorsquo

8 Not only does Peyser speak of lsquolsquorichly drawn charactersrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoplottwistsrsquorsquo in the above passage but he also uses film vocabulary todescribe the thumps of bodies hitting the roof of the lobby callingthem lsquolsquothe most chilling sound effects ever heard on televisionrsquorsquo

9 De Nirorsquos words were echoed by Susan Zirinsky at the pre-screeningpress meeting Responding to Zirinskyrsquos claim in an article titledlsquolsquoShield Us on Sunday Night No Just Show Us Airing the Cultureof Denial on CBSrsquorsquo Claudia Rosett puts her finger on the problemlsquolsquoMoment of strength Well yes unquestionably there was valorBut given that the overwhelming event this bravery sought to addresswas actually terror this amounts to a cleaned up version of therealities of that dayrsquorsquo

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10 lsquolsquoOrrsquorsquo Berger continues lsquolsquothe dead were spoken of now as heroesrsquorsquo (55)Extending the creation of heroes to include the dead is also noticeablein the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary By way of an epilogue photo-graphs of the 344 fire-fighters who lost their lives on 11 September aredisplayed four by four against the background of the Stars and StripesThey are commemorated as national heroes who made the ultimatesacrifice in the service of their country By conceiving the catastropheas a purposive and meaningful sacrificial operation the documentaryeffectively softens its traumatic core

11 As a cinematic tribute to fire-fighters 911 stands in a long traditionof adulatory films about the fire-fighting profession stretching fromLife of an American Fireman (1903) to The Towering Inferno (1974) andfrom Backdraft (1991) to The Guys (2002) and Ladder 49 (2004)

12 While there are numerous myths featuring two brothers one isparticularly reminded of the legendary love of Castor and Polluxthe twin sons of Jupiter and Leda

13 That the documentary promotes a pro-war political agenda wasrecognized at the press meeting by Susan Zirinsky who defended thetiming of the broadcast as follows lsquolsquoThis is the right time We canrsquotforget what drove this country to be at war It is really important to notforget what happenedrsquorsquo (qtd in Long) Appearing on Foxrsquos The OrsquoReillyFactor later that week Zirinsky again invoked the war being fought inAfghanistan and stressed the supposed need lsquolsquoto keep that missionaliversquorsquo As Chris Fitzpatrick points out Zirinskyrsquos attitude lsquolsquoborrowedfrom John Ashcroftrsquorsquo suggests that lsquolsquothe true function of 911 may begetting Americarsquos jingoistic blood boilingrsquorsquo The Naudetsrsquo andZirinskyrsquos apparent disagreement about the purpose of thedocumentary is a rare breach of Franco-American unity judging frominterviews with directors and producers there was a completeconsensus among the different parties involved on just about everyother aspect of the film

14 A similar observation is made by Andre Habib in lsquolsquoAutour de 911 mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelle ou dommages au reelrsquorsquo one ofthe most insightful articles on the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary that Ihave come across Habib also regards the probie as lsquolsquoune metonymie desEtats-Unis en entierrsquorsquo (lsquolsquoa metonymy of the United States as a wholersquorsquo)

Tony crsquoest les Etats-Unis jusque la menages par lrsquoHistoireassoiffes drsquoheroısme mais maintenus a lrsquoecart de toute epreuveveritable Crsquoest comme si tout le pays avait ete jusqursquoa cette datefatidique en probation et que apres le 11 septembre elle avaitsubi son initiation devenant du coup mure pour lrsquoHistoire

(Tony is the United States until then spared by History thirstyfor heroism but kept away from any real challenge It is as if thewhole country had until that fateful date been on probation

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and as if after September 11 it had undergone its initiation andthereby become ripe for History)

15 Compare Zizek lsquolsquo[i]s not the surprise at why are they not loved [sic] forwhat they are doing to the world the most fundamental Americanreaction (at least) since the Vietnam war We just try to be good to helpothers to bring peace and prosperity and look what we get in returnrsquorsquo(145ndash6)

16 In this respect the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary is of a piece withother postndash11 September mass-audience films As Wheeler WinstonDixon observes lsquolsquo[T]he bulk of mainstream American cinema since911 whether the films were in production before or not seemscentered on a desire to replicate the idea of the lsquojust warrsquo in whichmilitary reprisals and the concomitant escalation of warfare seemsimultaneously inevitable and justifiedrsquorsquo (1)

17 In the United States however Brigandrsquos film was released(belatedly in 2003) under the name September 11 in an apparenteffort to counteract this disorienting effect

18 However this did not stop Variety from calling the film lsquolsquostridentlyanti-Americanrsquorsquo (Godard 1) Dixon correctly points out that 11rsquo0901lsquolsquofar from being anti-American is more accurately critical of Americanpolicy in the wake of 911 a very different matterrsquorsquo (5) In his viewthe contested episodes of Brigandrsquos film lsquolsquobring a welcome breath ofdissenting opinion to current cinematic discourse on the attacks of911rsquorsquo (5)

19 Efforts to get the department to comply with the commissionrsquosrecommendations were suspended indefinitely in the wake of the11 September attacks (Latour)

20 In 11rsquo0901 the reality of racism and xenophobia in New York ispoignantly evoked by the Indian director Mira Nair whose segmentdeals with the chilling effects of 11 September on the American Muslimcommunity Set in New York City Nairrsquos film recounts the story (basedon actual events) of a Pakistani American family whose eldest son goesmissing on the morning of 11 September For several months the FBIand the media keep claiming that he was a terrorist causing his familyto be shunned and ostracized by their initially supportive neighboursEventually however it emerges that the young man a medic waskilled while attempting to rescue people at the World Trade CenterOnce the truth is known he is hailed as a hero

Works Cited

Adorno Theodor lsquolsquoCultural Criticism and Societyrsquorsquo Prisms Trans SamuelWeber and Shierry Weber Cambridge MA MIT Press 1984 17ndash34

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Anderson Lisa and Stevenson Swanson lsquolsquoFilm Goes inside World TradeCenter Gripping Sept 11 Footage Followed NYC Firefightersrsquorsquo ChicagoTribune 5 Mar 2002 Advocate 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwstamfordadvo-catecomclassifiedjobssns-worldtrade-filmfootage-ctstorygt

Berger James lsquolsquolsquoTherersquos No Backhand to Thisrsquorsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911Ed Judith Greenberg Lincoln U of Nebraska P 2003 52ndash9

Borradori Giovanna Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with JurgenHabermas and Jacques Derrida Chicago U of Chicago P 2003

Butler Judith Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence LondonVerso 2004

Caruth Cathy lsquolsquoRecapturing the Pastrsquorsquo Introduction Trauma Explorations inMemory Ed Cathy Caruth Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP 1995 151ndash7

Dixon Wheeler Winston lsquolsquoSomething LostmdashFilm after 911rsquorsquo IntroductionFilm and Television after 911 Ed Wheeler Winston Dixon CarbondaleSouthern Illinois UP 2004 1ndash28

Dreher Rod lsquolsquoInside the Inferno The 911 Documentaryrsquorsquo National ReviewOnline 7 Mar 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwnationalreviewcomdreherdreher030702shtmlgt

11rsquo0901 Dir Youssef Chahine et al Prod Alain Brigand DVD GalateeFilms Studio Canal 2002

Erickson Hal lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo All-Movie Guide 22 Sept 2005 lthttpallmoviecomcgavgdllpfrac14avgampsqlfrac141265838gt

Fitzpatrick Chris lsquolsquo911 Happy Anniversaryrsquorsquo PopMatterscom 23 July 2005lthttpwwwpopmatterscomtvreviewsn9ndash11shtmlgt

Godard Francois lsquolsquoCanal Plus 911 Pic Courts Controversyrsquorsquo Daily Variety21 Aug 2002 1 20

Habib Andre lsquolsquoAutour de 911mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelleou dommages au reelrsquorsquo Hors Champs June 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwhorschampqccaarticlephp3id_articlefrac1481gt

Hope Gloves and Redemption Dir Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet 1999DVD Pathfinder 2003

Knight Sam lsquolsquoNew Yorkrsquos Whitestrsquorsquo Slices of New York Times Online 21Feb 2005 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwtimesonlinecoukarticle018391ndash149383700htmlgt

Latour Jane lsquolsquoLooking for a Fire Department That Looks like New YorkrsquorsquoGotham Gazette 3 Dec 2001 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwgothamgazettecomiotwfiredepartmentdoc1shtmlgt

Laurence Robert P lsquolsquoTwo-Hour Special 911 Conveys Horror withoutBeing Graphicrsquorsquo San Diego Union-Tribune 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwsignonsandiegocomtvradiocbs911htmlgt

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not be traumatic that it will not have symptoms but ratheronly beneficial lessons and varieties of redemptionrsquorsquo (55)

The community rhetoric mobilized in 911 is highly ideologicallycharged Though Jules Naudet told reporters that lsquolsquothe film is meantto be seen solely as a tribute to the firemen not as an argumentfor warrsquorsquo (Dreher) the documentary confirms preconceptions andassumptions that enabled a discourse of revenge and militaryaction to take root13 Indeed the film taps into the rhetoric offoundational innocence on which Americans have traditionallyestablished their public identity (but which has always hiddena more rapacious reality) the belief that they are the chosen peoplea nation founded in innocence and godliness The story recountedin the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary purports to represent thenational experience of the events of 11 September In fact the filmcan be seen to claim wider validity for the experience it documentsthrough its title which promises to tell us not a particular story butthe whole story of 11 September The viewer is led to interpret theprobiersquos journey from innocence to experience as an allegory of thefate of the entire nation The fire-fightersrsquo community in generaland Benetatos in particular metonymically and metaphoricallyrepresent the United States a nation that sees itself as a forcefor good the worldrsquos fireman14 The probiersquos self-description aslsquolsquoa person who tries to do good just like every other person in thefire departmentrsquorsquo is entirely consistent with this benign nationalself-image As a fire-fighter adds James Hanlon lsquolsquoYou do your jobyou risk your life to help peoplersquorsquo This notion is echoed by RobertDe Niro lsquolsquoFiremen live to help others live itrsquos that simplersquorsquo15

With the premise of US benevolence firmly in place the film canonly present the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center as an actof pure and inexplicable evil In an apparent effort to avoid politicalcontroversy the filmmakers provide little or no context for whattranspired that day The documentary does not reach beyond thestory of the men of Engine 7 Ladder 1 it refrains from placingthe disaster in a broader political or social context In so doingit effectively buys into the myth of American exceptionalismAfter all the viewer is given no way of framing the attack asanything other than a completely irrational and totally undeservedact of aggression We learn from one of the fire-fighters thatthat day made him realize lsquolsquohow evil evil can bersquorsquo no furtherexplanation is offered The appropriate response to 11 Septemberis voiced by the probie whomdashlsquolsquoexpressing what we all feltrsquorsquo

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(Gedeon)mdashimmediately defines the events as a declaration of waras he watches them unfold on TV Hearing that a plane has crashedinto the Pentagon he exclaims lsquolsquoThe Pentagonrsquos on fucking fireWar This is warrsquorsquo In a postndash11 September interview fragmentBenetatos wise from experience reflects lsquolsquoI know itrsquos either this orthe army now And I like saving lives I donrsquot like taking themBut after what I saw if my country decides to send me to go kill Irsquolldo it nowrsquorsquo This view expressed by a confirmed hero is in no waychallenged in the film which leaves little or no room for alternativeinterpretations Throughout the documentary maintains the inno-cence of the victim-nation suffering an unjust injury inflicted on itfor reasons that are left entirely unclear From this perspective themilitary responsemdashthe only one conceivablemdashappears as a legit-imate act of self-defence16

In Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence Judith Butleraddresses the passage from the experience of vulnerability and lossto military violence and retribution in a way that helps to shedfurther light on the ideological underpinnings of 911 Discussingthe aftermath of the 11 September attacks Butler points out that lsquolsquoitis one matter to suffer violence and quite another to use that fact toground a framework in which onersquos injury authorizes limitlessaggression against targets that may or may not be related to thesources of onersquos own sufferingrsquorsquo (4) This explanatory frameworkwhich has emerged in tandem with the experience of violenceworks lsquolsquoboth to preclude certain kinds of questions certain kinds ofhistorical inquiries and to function as a moral justification forretaliationrsquorsquo (4) Moreover it is said to have a narrative dimensionIn the United States Butler observes the story is typically told froma first-person narrative point of view and begins with the events of11 September events that have no relevant prehistorymdashafter all totell the story another way to ask how things came to such a pass islsquolsquoto complicate the question of agencyrsquorsquo which leads to lsquolsquothe fear ofmoral equivocationrsquorsquo lsquolsquoIn order to condemn these acts as inexcu-sable absolutely wrong in order to sustain the affective structure inwhich we are on the one hand victimized and on the otherengaged in a righteous cause of rooting out terror we have tobegin the story with the experience of violence we sufferedrsquorsquo (6)There is a strong desire to shore up the first-person point of viewand to preclude from the telling accounts that might involve adecentring of the narrative lsquolsquoIrsquorsquo within the international politicaldomain lsquolsquoThis decentering is precisely what we seek to rectifythrough a recentering A narrative form emerges to compensate

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for the enormous narcissistic wound opened up by the publicdisplay of our physical vulnerabilityrsquorsquo (7) This is of course exactlythe form taken by the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary as it attemptsto convert a lsquolsquodecentringrsquorsquo tale of terror into a lsquolsquore-centringrsquorsquo story ofheroism and community spirit Butler insists on the urgent needto decentre this first-person narrative if the world is to be sparedstill worse disasters She sees the temporary dislocation fromFirst World privilege caused by the 11 September attacks as offeringa chance to begin to imagine a world in which such violence mightbe minimized a world in which lsquolsquoan inevitable interdependencybecomes acknowledged as the basis for global political communityrsquorsquo(xiindashxiii) For this vision to become reality she writes lsquolsquowe will needto emerge from the narrative perspective of US unilateralism andas it were its defensive structures to consider the ways in whichour lives are profoundly implicated in the lives of othersrsquorsquo (7)

Butlerrsquos ideal of narrative decentring is strikingly realized in AlainBrigandrsquos 11rsquo0901 another 11 September film produced by aFrenchman that came out in 2002 However this is where thesimilarities between 911 and 11rsquo0901 stop Commissioned byBrigand as a response to the terrorist attacks 11rsquo0901 bringstogether eleven directors from as many countries each contributinga film lasting eleven minutes nine seconds and one frame The titlerefers to this duration as well as to the date of the attacks as itwould appear on a European calendar Hence the decentring of thecustomary first-person point of view that Brigandrsquos omnibus filmenacts is already signalled by its title which suggests foreignness17

The Naudetsrsquo film by contrast is content to use the Americannotation of the date for its title Varying enormously in style scopeand content the eleven segments of 11rsquo0901 testify to the reso-nance of the 11 September attacks around the world Unlike 911which places the events in a political and historical vacuum andthus ends up echoing the official discourse many of the filmsmaking up 11rsquo0901 insist on the interconnectedness of 11 Septem-ber with tragedies taking place elsewhere for which the UnitedStates is seen to be at least partially responsible British director KenLoach for example links 11 September 2001 with 11 September1973 when Chilean president Salvador Allende was killed duringa CIA-backed coup drsquoetat that put dictator Augusto Pinochet inpower In the episode contributed by Egyptian director YoussefChahine the ghost of a US marine is lectured on various interna-tional atrocities carried out in the name of American foreign policyHowever while it clearly distances itself from the American

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patriotic narrative of innocence under siege 11rsquo09rsquorsquo01 at no pointrefuses empathy with or denigrates the suffering of the victims ofthe World Trade Center attacks Rather than playing the who-suffered-most game or getting involved in lsquolsquothe moralizing mathe-matics of guilt and horrorrsquorsquo the film adopts what Zizek callslsquolsquothe only appropriate stancersquorsquo namely lsquolsquounconditional solidaritywith all victimsrsquorsquo (51)18

In contrast with 11rsquo0901 911 carefully avoids the subject of USresponsibility for Third-World poverty and political repressionIn fact the New York Fire Department is a highly appropriatesubject for this film as the make-up of its workforce reveals asimilar kind of blindness to issues of equality inclusion andsolidarity It is a matter of public record that the fire departmentof the multicultural melange that is New York has a serious mino-rities problem lsquolsquoThere are approximately 11500 firefighters andofficers in the FDNY of whom about 300 are black thatrsquos about 3per cent The department which is 92 per cent white has beenhistorically dominated by the cityrsquos Irish and Italian communitiesand is the least diverse fire department of any big city in Americarsquorsquo(Knight) Like African Americans Hispanics make up only3 per cent of New York City fire-fighters and women even lessthan 03 per cent (Latour) In May 2001 the cityrsquos Equal Employ-ment Practices Commission found that the severe under-representation of these groups far from being accidental couldbe attributed to the fire departmentrsquos having lsquolsquocreated barriers tothe hiring of minorities women and the poorrsquorsquo (Latour)19 Thisdramatic lack of diversitymdasha long-standing problem for which theNew York Fire Department has been much criticizedmdashis reflectedin 911 which shows only one African American and not a singleHispanic or woman employed at the Engine 7 Ladder 1 firehouseOnly a handful of African American and Hispanic fire-fighters andno women fire-fighters are shown working in or near the WorldTrade Center on 11 September and the dead fire-fighters whosepictures are displayed at the end of the film are overwhelminglywhite and without exception male The fire-fighting communitythat is held up in the Naudetsrsquo documentary as a model for the USas a nation thus turns out to be a privileged and exclusionary whitebrotherhood Not only then does 911 turn a blind eye to issues ofsocial justice at the international level by maintaining an overlysimplistic good (us) versus evil (them) philosophy but it alsowilfully ignores the demands of social justice closer to home bysinging the praises of an insular defensive and intransigent

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type of community Evidently we are a long way here from theideal of an inclusive and equitable global community as envisagedby Butler an ideal that appears to underlie Brigandrsquos 11rsquo090120

Remarkably in tune with the dominant political discourse of itstime 911 provides us with an example of what Eric Santner hascalled lsquolsquonarrative fetishismrsquorsquo lsquolsquothe construction and deployment ofa narrative consciously or unconsciously designed to expunge thetraces of the trauma that called that narrative into being in the firstplacersquorsquo (144) The film superimposes a linear narrative of heroismand community upon the traumatic reality of the attacks in order todeprive it of its potential significance As we have seen 911 doesnot shirk from suppressing evidence of trauma by excluding orsanitizing graphic footage nor from undermining the authority ofeye-witness testimony by frequently contradicting the fire-fightersrsquoown experience and by adopting an attitude of patronizing toler-ance towards linguistic excesses Viewed from a different anglehowever 911 offers a critique rather than an instantiation of theway in which 11 September is officially remembered In its veryattempt to marginalize trauma and testimony the film actuallyshows how trauma overflows the limits of the memorializingstrategies deployed to contain it thereby demonstrating theirinadequacy and tenuousness Its attempted portrayal of traumaas a discrete past event locatable representable and curable isbelied by traces of trauma seeping through the manifest narrativeresisting processes of identification comprehension and facileredemption

One of these traces is the moment in the film when Tower 2collapses covering the lobby of Tower 1 with debris As JulesNaudet runs up an escalator for shelter not knowing what hashappened his camera keeps rolling We hear a deafening rumblewhich drowns out all other sounds to the point of doing actualdamage to the soundtrack the lens is covered with grit and theneverything becomes pitch black Something similar happens afterthe collapse of Tower 1 which both Jules and Gedeon were filmingfrom nearby streets As the streets fill up with dust and debris theystart running for their lives but eventually fall to the ground Againthe cameras keep rolling recording the loud noise and the onset ofdarkness as the lenses turn brown and gritty Together with thesound of people falling to their deaths these three scenes representthe most direct intrusions of reality in the documentary As ifcaught in a repetition compulsion the film keeps returning to

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these extraordinary images which stand out by their indexicalquality reality physically imprints itself upon the camera insteadof merely being recorded by it in much the same way as atraumatic event falls directly into the psyche bypassing perceptionand consciousness While the filmrsquos apparent objective is to maketrauma visible and narratable in these haunting scenes traumareveals itself as an impossibility of seeing hearing and knowing

That the truth of trauma resides in its resistance to perception andunderstanding is borne out by the testimony of the survivors fromwhich we learn that the fire-fighters on the scene were almosttotally oblivious to the reality of what was going on For examplewhile the whole world had seen Tower 2 collapse on live televisionthe people trapped inside the lobby of Tower 1 did not have a clueas to what had happenedmdashwhich explains why having finallymade their way out they kept standing in the immediate vicinityof the doomed tower In an interview recently made public as partof the 911 records Joseph Pfeifer the battalion chief whom Juleshad found himself shadowing for most of the day recalls lsquolsquoWe gotout there and then we were standing under the bridge trying to seewhat was going on I couldnrsquot see what was going on Everythingwas covered with smoke I couldnrsquot see what collapsed Our eyeswere full of garbage Wersquore standing on the street and still notknowing the full implication of what took place because youcouldnrsquot seersquorsquo The film shows how the fire-fighters only beganto realize what they had lived through after they had got back tothe firehouse The emphasis placed by various eye-witnesses onthe eventsrsquo defiance of sight and comprehension challenges theassumptions structuring the filmrsquos conventional narrative in parti-cular the view that there is an intact history out there waiting to belured into vision and spoken as pure meaning In fact no soonerdoes 911 assert its claim to total visual mastery over the events of11 September than this claim is rebutted by the very footageintended to substantiate it James Hanlonrsquos promise at the begin-ning of the film that the viewer lsquolsquowill see all of itrsquorsquo lsquolsquobeginning toendrsquorsquo is immediately followed by a flash-forward to the dust- anddebris-filled images shot by Jules during the collapse of Tower 2With the picture going black it becomes impossible for the viewerto see anything at all

It is precisely this tension between the desire to know the subjectbeing represented and themdashimplicitmdashrecognition of the limits ofthat knowing that makes 911 so compelling With one hand the

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film offers the familiar gesture of memory as forgettingmdashtheincorporation of trauma into a reassuring narrative of nationalgreatnessmdashand with the other hand it takes away the comfort ofresting in this narrative Whatever ethical value the documentarycan be said to possess lies in the tension between these twogestures which if nothing more at least complicates the returnto the lsquolsquodogmatic slumberrsquorsquo (Derrida qtd in Borradori 100) fromwhich 11 September had awakened us

Notes

1 This is especially true of the televised version of the documentarywhich differs in several respects from the DVD edition released byParamount Pictures in 2002 under the title 911 The FilmmakersrsquoCommemorative Edition Most notably Robert De Niro who hosted theCBS program does not appear on the DVD edition Yet with a runningtime of 129 minutes the DVD edition is about a quarter of an hourlonger than the CBS broadcast Some footage has been added thatexpands on the original material for example scenes from the trainingof new recruits scenes from within the firehouse and scenes from therecovery effort As a result the tight narrative structure undergirdingthe TV version is loosened somewhat By way of bonus materialthe DVD features a 53-minute interview section containing furthercommentary from the fire-fighters

2 In fact the only visual evidence of death in the documentary comes inthe form of two still images of the intact body of Father Mychal Judgethe fire departmentrsquos chaplain being carried to a nearby church Hisdeathmdashdistanced as it is through the use of still rather than movingimagesmdashcan hardly be called representative as the vast majority of thevictims of 11 September were denied such dignity their bodies beingall but obliterated and therefore hard (if not impossible) to identify Asone of the fire-fighters testifies in the additional interview section onthe DVD lsquolsquoThere were many there were many eh it wasnrsquot manybodies but it was many pieces body parts There was I saw one ortwo whole bodies but not it wasnrsquot many I imagine thepeople were the same as the building nothing leftrsquorsquo Moreover thechaplainrsquos death is rescued from meaninglessness by the uncannyresemblance between the scene captured in the two photographs andtraditional pictorial representations of the descent from the crosswhich has the effect of turning the clergyman into a Christ-likesacrificial victim (I owe this point to my colleague Kristiaan Versluys)

3 One might argue as many have that the noise of the impact of thebodies on the glass and metal awning outside Tower 1 is disturbingenough While these sounds are definitely chilling as are the screamswe hear of terrified burn victims inside the lobby it should be pointedout that the original soundtrack recorded by Julesrsquos on-camera

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microphone was manipulated so as to soften the shock effectAppearances notwithstanding what we get to hear is a diluted andsanitized version of the original soundtrack as executive producerSusan Zirinsky explained at the press screening most of the crasheswere edited out on the grounds that lsquolsquo[t]o have that incredible crushof sound every 20 or 30 seconds would have been very tough for theaudiencersquorsquo (qtd in Laurence)

4 A similar point is made by Susan Sontag in Regarding the Pain of Others

Staying within the bounds of good taste was the primary reasongiven for not showing any of the horrific pictures of the deadtaken at the site of the World Trade Center in the immediateaftermath of the attack on September 11 2001 This novelinsistence on good taste in a culture saturated with commercialincentives to lower standards of taste may be puzzling But itmakes sense if understood as obscuring a host of concerns andanxieties about public order and public morale that cannotbe named as well as pointing to the inability otherwise toformulate or defend traditional conventions of how to mourn(68ndash9)

5 In an interview segment filmed at the Fire Academy in June 2001 andshown at the beginning of the documentary Benetatos says lsquolsquoIt soundskind of cheesy but I always kind of wanted to be a hero and this isreally the only thing you can do that you can do that [sic]rsquorsquo

6 See also Orly Lubinrsquos discussion of the documentaryrsquos compliancewith Hollywood conventions (125ndash7)

7 In view of the documentaryrsquos own affinity with mainstream disasterfilms the Hollywood comparisons invoked by some of the witnessesto convey the magnitude of the events take on an ironic ring A newscorrespondent reports from on the ground that lsquolsquo[t]he scene here is justone right out of one of those movies you would see in Hollywoodrsquorsquoand in the DVD version a passer-by is heard saying lsquolsquoLike somethingout of The Towering Inferno like a moviersquorsquo

8 Not only does Peyser speak of lsquolsquorichly drawn charactersrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoplottwistsrsquorsquo in the above passage but he also uses film vocabulary todescribe the thumps of bodies hitting the roof of the lobby callingthem lsquolsquothe most chilling sound effects ever heard on televisionrsquorsquo

9 De Nirorsquos words were echoed by Susan Zirinsky at the pre-screeningpress meeting Responding to Zirinskyrsquos claim in an article titledlsquolsquoShield Us on Sunday Night No Just Show Us Airing the Cultureof Denial on CBSrsquorsquo Claudia Rosett puts her finger on the problemlsquolsquoMoment of strength Well yes unquestionably there was valorBut given that the overwhelming event this bravery sought to addresswas actually terror this amounts to a cleaned up version of therealities of that dayrsquorsquo

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10 lsquolsquoOrrsquorsquo Berger continues lsquolsquothe dead were spoken of now as heroesrsquorsquo (55)Extending the creation of heroes to include the dead is also noticeablein the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary By way of an epilogue photo-graphs of the 344 fire-fighters who lost their lives on 11 September aredisplayed four by four against the background of the Stars and StripesThey are commemorated as national heroes who made the ultimatesacrifice in the service of their country By conceiving the catastropheas a purposive and meaningful sacrificial operation the documentaryeffectively softens its traumatic core

11 As a cinematic tribute to fire-fighters 911 stands in a long traditionof adulatory films about the fire-fighting profession stretching fromLife of an American Fireman (1903) to The Towering Inferno (1974) andfrom Backdraft (1991) to The Guys (2002) and Ladder 49 (2004)

12 While there are numerous myths featuring two brothers one isparticularly reminded of the legendary love of Castor and Polluxthe twin sons of Jupiter and Leda

13 That the documentary promotes a pro-war political agenda wasrecognized at the press meeting by Susan Zirinsky who defended thetiming of the broadcast as follows lsquolsquoThis is the right time We canrsquotforget what drove this country to be at war It is really important to notforget what happenedrsquorsquo (qtd in Long) Appearing on Foxrsquos The OrsquoReillyFactor later that week Zirinsky again invoked the war being fought inAfghanistan and stressed the supposed need lsquolsquoto keep that missionaliversquorsquo As Chris Fitzpatrick points out Zirinskyrsquos attitude lsquolsquoborrowedfrom John Ashcroftrsquorsquo suggests that lsquolsquothe true function of 911 may begetting Americarsquos jingoistic blood boilingrsquorsquo The Naudetsrsquo andZirinskyrsquos apparent disagreement about the purpose of thedocumentary is a rare breach of Franco-American unity judging frominterviews with directors and producers there was a completeconsensus among the different parties involved on just about everyother aspect of the film

14 A similar observation is made by Andre Habib in lsquolsquoAutour de 911 mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelle ou dommages au reelrsquorsquo one ofthe most insightful articles on the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary that Ihave come across Habib also regards the probie as lsquolsquoune metonymie desEtats-Unis en entierrsquorsquo (lsquolsquoa metonymy of the United States as a wholersquorsquo)

Tony crsquoest les Etats-Unis jusque la menages par lrsquoHistoireassoiffes drsquoheroısme mais maintenus a lrsquoecart de toute epreuveveritable Crsquoest comme si tout le pays avait ete jusqursquoa cette datefatidique en probation et que apres le 11 septembre elle avaitsubi son initiation devenant du coup mure pour lrsquoHistoire

(Tony is the United States until then spared by History thirstyfor heroism but kept away from any real challenge It is as if thewhole country had until that fateful date been on probation

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and as if after September 11 it had undergone its initiation andthereby become ripe for History)

15 Compare Zizek lsquolsquo[i]s not the surprise at why are they not loved [sic] forwhat they are doing to the world the most fundamental Americanreaction (at least) since the Vietnam war We just try to be good to helpothers to bring peace and prosperity and look what we get in returnrsquorsquo(145ndash6)

16 In this respect the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary is of a piece withother postndash11 September mass-audience films As Wheeler WinstonDixon observes lsquolsquo[T]he bulk of mainstream American cinema since911 whether the films were in production before or not seemscentered on a desire to replicate the idea of the lsquojust warrsquo in whichmilitary reprisals and the concomitant escalation of warfare seemsimultaneously inevitable and justifiedrsquorsquo (1)

17 In the United States however Brigandrsquos film was released(belatedly in 2003) under the name September 11 in an apparenteffort to counteract this disorienting effect

18 However this did not stop Variety from calling the film lsquolsquostridentlyanti-Americanrsquorsquo (Godard 1) Dixon correctly points out that 11rsquo0901lsquolsquofar from being anti-American is more accurately critical of Americanpolicy in the wake of 911 a very different matterrsquorsquo (5) In his viewthe contested episodes of Brigandrsquos film lsquolsquobring a welcome breath ofdissenting opinion to current cinematic discourse on the attacks of911rsquorsquo (5)

19 Efforts to get the department to comply with the commissionrsquosrecommendations were suspended indefinitely in the wake of the11 September attacks (Latour)

20 In 11rsquo0901 the reality of racism and xenophobia in New York ispoignantly evoked by the Indian director Mira Nair whose segmentdeals with the chilling effects of 11 September on the American Muslimcommunity Set in New York City Nairrsquos film recounts the story (basedon actual events) of a Pakistani American family whose eldest son goesmissing on the morning of 11 September For several months the FBIand the media keep claiming that he was a terrorist causing his familyto be shunned and ostracized by their initially supportive neighboursEventually however it emerges that the young man a medic waskilled while attempting to rescue people at the World Trade CenterOnce the truth is known he is hailed as a hero

Works Cited

Adorno Theodor lsquolsquoCultural Criticism and Societyrsquorsquo Prisms Trans SamuelWeber and Shierry Weber Cambridge MA MIT Press 1984 17ndash34

Canadian

Review

ofAm

erican

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7(2007)

202

Anderson Lisa and Stevenson Swanson lsquolsquoFilm Goes inside World TradeCenter Gripping Sept 11 Footage Followed NYC Firefightersrsquorsquo ChicagoTribune 5 Mar 2002 Advocate 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwstamfordadvo-catecomclassifiedjobssns-worldtrade-filmfootage-ctstorygt

Berger James lsquolsquolsquoTherersquos No Backhand to Thisrsquorsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911Ed Judith Greenberg Lincoln U of Nebraska P 2003 52ndash9

Borradori Giovanna Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with JurgenHabermas and Jacques Derrida Chicago U of Chicago P 2003

Butler Judith Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence LondonVerso 2004

Caruth Cathy lsquolsquoRecapturing the Pastrsquorsquo Introduction Trauma Explorations inMemory Ed Cathy Caruth Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP 1995 151ndash7

Dixon Wheeler Winston lsquolsquoSomething LostmdashFilm after 911rsquorsquo IntroductionFilm and Television after 911 Ed Wheeler Winston Dixon CarbondaleSouthern Illinois UP 2004 1ndash28

Dreher Rod lsquolsquoInside the Inferno The 911 Documentaryrsquorsquo National ReviewOnline 7 Mar 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwnationalreviewcomdreherdreher030702shtmlgt

11rsquo0901 Dir Youssef Chahine et al Prod Alain Brigand DVD GalateeFilms Studio Canal 2002

Erickson Hal lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo All-Movie Guide 22 Sept 2005 lthttpallmoviecomcgavgdllpfrac14avgampsqlfrac141265838gt

Fitzpatrick Chris lsquolsquo911 Happy Anniversaryrsquorsquo PopMatterscom 23 July 2005lthttpwwwpopmatterscomtvreviewsn9ndash11shtmlgt

Godard Francois lsquolsquoCanal Plus 911 Pic Courts Controversyrsquorsquo Daily Variety21 Aug 2002 1 20

Habib Andre lsquolsquoAutour de 911mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelleou dommages au reelrsquorsquo Hors Champs June 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwhorschampqccaarticlephp3id_articlefrac1481gt

Hope Gloves and Redemption Dir Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet 1999DVD Pathfinder 2003

Knight Sam lsquolsquoNew Yorkrsquos Whitestrsquorsquo Slices of New York Times Online 21Feb 2005 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwtimesonlinecoukarticle018391ndash149383700htmlgt

Latour Jane lsquolsquoLooking for a Fire Department That Looks like New YorkrsquorsquoGotham Gazette 3 Dec 2001 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwgothamgazettecomiotwfiredepartmentdoc1shtmlgt

Laurence Robert P lsquolsquoTwo-Hour Special 911 Conveys Horror withoutBeing Graphicrsquorsquo San Diego Union-Tribune 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwsignonsandiegocomtvradiocbs911htmlgt

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203

(Gedeon)mdashimmediately defines the events as a declaration of waras he watches them unfold on TV Hearing that a plane has crashedinto the Pentagon he exclaims lsquolsquoThe Pentagonrsquos on fucking fireWar This is warrsquorsquo In a postndash11 September interview fragmentBenetatos wise from experience reflects lsquolsquoI know itrsquos either this orthe army now And I like saving lives I donrsquot like taking themBut after what I saw if my country decides to send me to go kill Irsquolldo it nowrsquorsquo This view expressed by a confirmed hero is in no waychallenged in the film which leaves little or no room for alternativeinterpretations Throughout the documentary maintains the inno-cence of the victim-nation suffering an unjust injury inflicted on itfor reasons that are left entirely unclear From this perspective themilitary responsemdashthe only one conceivablemdashappears as a legit-imate act of self-defence16

In Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence Judith Butleraddresses the passage from the experience of vulnerability and lossto military violence and retribution in a way that helps to shedfurther light on the ideological underpinnings of 911 Discussingthe aftermath of the 11 September attacks Butler points out that lsquolsquoitis one matter to suffer violence and quite another to use that fact toground a framework in which onersquos injury authorizes limitlessaggression against targets that may or may not be related to thesources of onersquos own sufferingrsquorsquo (4) This explanatory frameworkwhich has emerged in tandem with the experience of violenceworks lsquolsquoboth to preclude certain kinds of questions certain kinds ofhistorical inquiries and to function as a moral justification forretaliationrsquorsquo (4) Moreover it is said to have a narrative dimensionIn the United States Butler observes the story is typically told froma first-person narrative point of view and begins with the events of11 September events that have no relevant prehistorymdashafter all totell the story another way to ask how things came to such a pass islsquolsquoto complicate the question of agencyrsquorsquo which leads to lsquolsquothe fear ofmoral equivocationrsquorsquo lsquolsquoIn order to condemn these acts as inexcu-sable absolutely wrong in order to sustain the affective structure inwhich we are on the one hand victimized and on the otherengaged in a righteous cause of rooting out terror we have tobegin the story with the experience of violence we sufferedrsquorsquo (6)There is a strong desire to shore up the first-person point of viewand to preclude from the telling accounts that might involve adecentring of the narrative lsquolsquoIrsquorsquo within the international politicaldomain lsquolsquoThis decentering is precisely what we seek to rectifythrough a recentering A narrative form emerges to compensate

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for the enormous narcissistic wound opened up by the publicdisplay of our physical vulnerabilityrsquorsquo (7) This is of course exactlythe form taken by the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary as it attemptsto convert a lsquolsquodecentringrsquorsquo tale of terror into a lsquolsquore-centringrsquorsquo story ofheroism and community spirit Butler insists on the urgent needto decentre this first-person narrative if the world is to be sparedstill worse disasters She sees the temporary dislocation fromFirst World privilege caused by the 11 September attacks as offeringa chance to begin to imagine a world in which such violence mightbe minimized a world in which lsquolsquoan inevitable interdependencybecomes acknowledged as the basis for global political communityrsquorsquo(xiindashxiii) For this vision to become reality she writes lsquolsquowe will needto emerge from the narrative perspective of US unilateralism andas it were its defensive structures to consider the ways in whichour lives are profoundly implicated in the lives of othersrsquorsquo (7)

Butlerrsquos ideal of narrative decentring is strikingly realized in AlainBrigandrsquos 11rsquo0901 another 11 September film produced by aFrenchman that came out in 2002 However this is where thesimilarities between 911 and 11rsquo0901 stop Commissioned byBrigand as a response to the terrorist attacks 11rsquo0901 bringstogether eleven directors from as many countries each contributinga film lasting eleven minutes nine seconds and one frame The titlerefers to this duration as well as to the date of the attacks as itwould appear on a European calendar Hence the decentring of thecustomary first-person point of view that Brigandrsquos omnibus filmenacts is already signalled by its title which suggests foreignness17

The Naudetsrsquo film by contrast is content to use the Americannotation of the date for its title Varying enormously in style scopeand content the eleven segments of 11rsquo0901 testify to the reso-nance of the 11 September attacks around the world Unlike 911which places the events in a political and historical vacuum andthus ends up echoing the official discourse many of the filmsmaking up 11rsquo0901 insist on the interconnectedness of 11 Septem-ber with tragedies taking place elsewhere for which the UnitedStates is seen to be at least partially responsible British director KenLoach for example links 11 September 2001 with 11 September1973 when Chilean president Salvador Allende was killed duringa CIA-backed coup drsquoetat that put dictator Augusto Pinochet inpower In the episode contributed by Egyptian director YoussefChahine the ghost of a US marine is lectured on various interna-tional atrocities carried out in the name of American foreign policyHowever while it clearly distances itself from the American

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patriotic narrative of innocence under siege 11rsquo09rsquorsquo01 at no pointrefuses empathy with or denigrates the suffering of the victims ofthe World Trade Center attacks Rather than playing the who-suffered-most game or getting involved in lsquolsquothe moralizing mathe-matics of guilt and horrorrsquorsquo the film adopts what Zizek callslsquolsquothe only appropriate stancersquorsquo namely lsquolsquounconditional solidaritywith all victimsrsquorsquo (51)18

In contrast with 11rsquo0901 911 carefully avoids the subject of USresponsibility for Third-World poverty and political repressionIn fact the New York Fire Department is a highly appropriatesubject for this film as the make-up of its workforce reveals asimilar kind of blindness to issues of equality inclusion andsolidarity It is a matter of public record that the fire departmentof the multicultural melange that is New York has a serious mino-rities problem lsquolsquoThere are approximately 11500 firefighters andofficers in the FDNY of whom about 300 are black thatrsquos about 3per cent The department which is 92 per cent white has beenhistorically dominated by the cityrsquos Irish and Italian communitiesand is the least diverse fire department of any big city in Americarsquorsquo(Knight) Like African Americans Hispanics make up only3 per cent of New York City fire-fighters and women even lessthan 03 per cent (Latour) In May 2001 the cityrsquos Equal Employ-ment Practices Commission found that the severe under-representation of these groups far from being accidental couldbe attributed to the fire departmentrsquos having lsquolsquocreated barriers tothe hiring of minorities women and the poorrsquorsquo (Latour)19 Thisdramatic lack of diversitymdasha long-standing problem for which theNew York Fire Department has been much criticizedmdashis reflectedin 911 which shows only one African American and not a singleHispanic or woman employed at the Engine 7 Ladder 1 firehouseOnly a handful of African American and Hispanic fire-fighters andno women fire-fighters are shown working in or near the WorldTrade Center on 11 September and the dead fire-fighters whosepictures are displayed at the end of the film are overwhelminglywhite and without exception male The fire-fighting communitythat is held up in the Naudetsrsquo documentary as a model for the USas a nation thus turns out to be a privileged and exclusionary whitebrotherhood Not only then does 911 turn a blind eye to issues ofsocial justice at the international level by maintaining an overlysimplistic good (us) versus evil (them) philosophy but it alsowilfully ignores the demands of social justice closer to home bysinging the praises of an insular defensive and intransigent

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196

type of community Evidently we are a long way here from theideal of an inclusive and equitable global community as envisagedby Butler an ideal that appears to underlie Brigandrsquos 11rsquo090120

Remarkably in tune with the dominant political discourse of itstime 911 provides us with an example of what Eric Santner hascalled lsquolsquonarrative fetishismrsquorsquo lsquolsquothe construction and deployment ofa narrative consciously or unconsciously designed to expunge thetraces of the trauma that called that narrative into being in the firstplacersquorsquo (144) The film superimposes a linear narrative of heroismand community upon the traumatic reality of the attacks in order todeprive it of its potential significance As we have seen 911 doesnot shirk from suppressing evidence of trauma by excluding orsanitizing graphic footage nor from undermining the authority ofeye-witness testimony by frequently contradicting the fire-fightersrsquoown experience and by adopting an attitude of patronizing toler-ance towards linguistic excesses Viewed from a different anglehowever 911 offers a critique rather than an instantiation of theway in which 11 September is officially remembered In its veryattempt to marginalize trauma and testimony the film actuallyshows how trauma overflows the limits of the memorializingstrategies deployed to contain it thereby demonstrating theirinadequacy and tenuousness Its attempted portrayal of traumaas a discrete past event locatable representable and curable isbelied by traces of trauma seeping through the manifest narrativeresisting processes of identification comprehension and facileredemption

One of these traces is the moment in the film when Tower 2collapses covering the lobby of Tower 1 with debris As JulesNaudet runs up an escalator for shelter not knowing what hashappened his camera keeps rolling We hear a deafening rumblewhich drowns out all other sounds to the point of doing actualdamage to the soundtrack the lens is covered with grit and theneverything becomes pitch black Something similar happens afterthe collapse of Tower 1 which both Jules and Gedeon were filmingfrom nearby streets As the streets fill up with dust and debris theystart running for their lives but eventually fall to the ground Againthe cameras keep rolling recording the loud noise and the onset ofdarkness as the lenses turn brown and gritty Together with thesound of people falling to their deaths these three scenes representthe most direct intrusions of reality in the documentary As ifcaught in a repetition compulsion the film keeps returning to

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197

these extraordinary images which stand out by their indexicalquality reality physically imprints itself upon the camera insteadof merely being recorded by it in much the same way as atraumatic event falls directly into the psyche bypassing perceptionand consciousness While the filmrsquos apparent objective is to maketrauma visible and narratable in these haunting scenes traumareveals itself as an impossibility of seeing hearing and knowing

That the truth of trauma resides in its resistance to perception andunderstanding is borne out by the testimony of the survivors fromwhich we learn that the fire-fighters on the scene were almosttotally oblivious to the reality of what was going on For examplewhile the whole world had seen Tower 2 collapse on live televisionthe people trapped inside the lobby of Tower 1 did not have a clueas to what had happenedmdashwhich explains why having finallymade their way out they kept standing in the immediate vicinityof the doomed tower In an interview recently made public as partof the 911 records Joseph Pfeifer the battalion chief whom Juleshad found himself shadowing for most of the day recalls lsquolsquoWe gotout there and then we were standing under the bridge trying to seewhat was going on I couldnrsquot see what was going on Everythingwas covered with smoke I couldnrsquot see what collapsed Our eyeswere full of garbage Wersquore standing on the street and still notknowing the full implication of what took place because youcouldnrsquot seersquorsquo The film shows how the fire-fighters only beganto realize what they had lived through after they had got back tothe firehouse The emphasis placed by various eye-witnesses onthe eventsrsquo defiance of sight and comprehension challenges theassumptions structuring the filmrsquos conventional narrative in parti-cular the view that there is an intact history out there waiting to belured into vision and spoken as pure meaning In fact no soonerdoes 911 assert its claim to total visual mastery over the events of11 September than this claim is rebutted by the very footageintended to substantiate it James Hanlonrsquos promise at the begin-ning of the film that the viewer lsquolsquowill see all of itrsquorsquo lsquolsquobeginning toendrsquorsquo is immediately followed by a flash-forward to the dust- anddebris-filled images shot by Jules during the collapse of Tower 2With the picture going black it becomes impossible for the viewerto see anything at all

It is precisely this tension between the desire to know the subjectbeing represented and themdashimplicitmdashrecognition of the limits ofthat knowing that makes 911 so compelling With one hand the

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198

film offers the familiar gesture of memory as forgettingmdashtheincorporation of trauma into a reassuring narrative of nationalgreatnessmdashand with the other hand it takes away the comfort ofresting in this narrative Whatever ethical value the documentarycan be said to possess lies in the tension between these twogestures which if nothing more at least complicates the returnto the lsquolsquodogmatic slumberrsquorsquo (Derrida qtd in Borradori 100) fromwhich 11 September had awakened us

Notes

1 This is especially true of the televised version of the documentarywhich differs in several respects from the DVD edition released byParamount Pictures in 2002 under the title 911 The FilmmakersrsquoCommemorative Edition Most notably Robert De Niro who hosted theCBS program does not appear on the DVD edition Yet with a runningtime of 129 minutes the DVD edition is about a quarter of an hourlonger than the CBS broadcast Some footage has been added thatexpands on the original material for example scenes from the trainingof new recruits scenes from within the firehouse and scenes from therecovery effort As a result the tight narrative structure undergirdingthe TV version is loosened somewhat By way of bonus materialthe DVD features a 53-minute interview section containing furthercommentary from the fire-fighters

2 In fact the only visual evidence of death in the documentary comes inthe form of two still images of the intact body of Father Mychal Judgethe fire departmentrsquos chaplain being carried to a nearby church Hisdeathmdashdistanced as it is through the use of still rather than movingimagesmdashcan hardly be called representative as the vast majority of thevictims of 11 September were denied such dignity their bodies beingall but obliterated and therefore hard (if not impossible) to identify Asone of the fire-fighters testifies in the additional interview section onthe DVD lsquolsquoThere were many there were many eh it wasnrsquot manybodies but it was many pieces body parts There was I saw one ortwo whole bodies but not it wasnrsquot many I imagine thepeople were the same as the building nothing leftrsquorsquo Moreover thechaplainrsquos death is rescued from meaninglessness by the uncannyresemblance between the scene captured in the two photographs andtraditional pictorial representations of the descent from the crosswhich has the effect of turning the clergyman into a Christ-likesacrificial victim (I owe this point to my colleague Kristiaan Versluys)

3 One might argue as many have that the noise of the impact of thebodies on the glass and metal awning outside Tower 1 is disturbingenough While these sounds are definitely chilling as are the screamswe hear of terrified burn victims inside the lobby it should be pointedout that the original soundtrack recorded by Julesrsquos on-camera

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199

microphone was manipulated so as to soften the shock effectAppearances notwithstanding what we get to hear is a diluted andsanitized version of the original soundtrack as executive producerSusan Zirinsky explained at the press screening most of the crasheswere edited out on the grounds that lsquolsquo[t]o have that incredible crushof sound every 20 or 30 seconds would have been very tough for theaudiencersquorsquo (qtd in Laurence)

4 A similar point is made by Susan Sontag in Regarding the Pain of Others

Staying within the bounds of good taste was the primary reasongiven for not showing any of the horrific pictures of the deadtaken at the site of the World Trade Center in the immediateaftermath of the attack on September 11 2001 This novelinsistence on good taste in a culture saturated with commercialincentives to lower standards of taste may be puzzling But itmakes sense if understood as obscuring a host of concerns andanxieties about public order and public morale that cannotbe named as well as pointing to the inability otherwise toformulate or defend traditional conventions of how to mourn(68ndash9)

5 In an interview segment filmed at the Fire Academy in June 2001 andshown at the beginning of the documentary Benetatos says lsquolsquoIt soundskind of cheesy but I always kind of wanted to be a hero and this isreally the only thing you can do that you can do that [sic]rsquorsquo

6 See also Orly Lubinrsquos discussion of the documentaryrsquos compliancewith Hollywood conventions (125ndash7)

7 In view of the documentaryrsquos own affinity with mainstream disasterfilms the Hollywood comparisons invoked by some of the witnessesto convey the magnitude of the events take on an ironic ring A newscorrespondent reports from on the ground that lsquolsquo[t]he scene here is justone right out of one of those movies you would see in Hollywoodrsquorsquoand in the DVD version a passer-by is heard saying lsquolsquoLike somethingout of The Towering Inferno like a moviersquorsquo

8 Not only does Peyser speak of lsquolsquorichly drawn charactersrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoplottwistsrsquorsquo in the above passage but he also uses film vocabulary todescribe the thumps of bodies hitting the roof of the lobby callingthem lsquolsquothe most chilling sound effects ever heard on televisionrsquorsquo

9 De Nirorsquos words were echoed by Susan Zirinsky at the pre-screeningpress meeting Responding to Zirinskyrsquos claim in an article titledlsquolsquoShield Us on Sunday Night No Just Show Us Airing the Cultureof Denial on CBSrsquorsquo Claudia Rosett puts her finger on the problemlsquolsquoMoment of strength Well yes unquestionably there was valorBut given that the overwhelming event this bravery sought to addresswas actually terror this amounts to a cleaned up version of therealities of that dayrsquorsquo

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10 lsquolsquoOrrsquorsquo Berger continues lsquolsquothe dead were spoken of now as heroesrsquorsquo (55)Extending the creation of heroes to include the dead is also noticeablein the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary By way of an epilogue photo-graphs of the 344 fire-fighters who lost their lives on 11 September aredisplayed four by four against the background of the Stars and StripesThey are commemorated as national heroes who made the ultimatesacrifice in the service of their country By conceiving the catastropheas a purposive and meaningful sacrificial operation the documentaryeffectively softens its traumatic core

11 As a cinematic tribute to fire-fighters 911 stands in a long traditionof adulatory films about the fire-fighting profession stretching fromLife of an American Fireman (1903) to The Towering Inferno (1974) andfrom Backdraft (1991) to The Guys (2002) and Ladder 49 (2004)

12 While there are numerous myths featuring two brothers one isparticularly reminded of the legendary love of Castor and Polluxthe twin sons of Jupiter and Leda

13 That the documentary promotes a pro-war political agenda wasrecognized at the press meeting by Susan Zirinsky who defended thetiming of the broadcast as follows lsquolsquoThis is the right time We canrsquotforget what drove this country to be at war It is really important to notforget what happenedrsquorsquo (qtd in Long) Appearing on Foxrsquos The OrsquoReillyFactor later that week Zirinsky again invoked the war being fought inAfghanistan and stressed the supposed need lsquolsquoto keep that missionaliversquorsquo As Chris Fitzpatrick points out Zirinskyrsquos attitude lsquolsquoborrowedfrom John Ashcroftrsquorsquo suggests that lsquolsquothe true function of 911 may begetting Americarsquos jingoistic blood boilingrsquorsquo The Naudetsrsquo andZirinskyrsquos apparent disagreement about the purpose of thedocumentary is a rare breach of Franco-American unity judging frominterviews with directors and producers there was a completeconsensus among the different parties involved on just about everyother aspect of the film

14 A similar observation is made by Andre Habib in lsquolsquoAutour de 911 mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelle ou dommages au reelrsquorsquo one ofthe most insightful articles on the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary that Ihave come across Habib also regards the probie as lsquolsquoune metonymie desEtats-Unis en entierrsquorsquo (lsquolsquoa metonymy of the United States as a wholersquorsquo)

Tony crsquoest les Etats-Unis jusque la menages par lrsquoHistoireassoiffes drsquoheroısme mais maintenus a lrsquoecart de toute epreuveveritable Crsquoest comme si tout le pays avait ete jusqursquoa cette datefatidique en probation et que apres le 11 septembre elle avaitsubi son initiation devenant du coup mure pour lrsquoHistoire

(Tony is the United States until then spared by History thirstyfor heroism but kept away from any real challenge It is as if thewhole country had until that fateful date been on probation

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and as if after September 11 it had undergone its initiation andthereby become ripe for History)

15 Compare Zizek lsquolsquo[i]s not the surprise at why are they not loved [sic] forwhat they are doing to the world the most fundamental Americanreaction (at least) since the Vietnam war We just try to be good to helpothers to bring peace and prosperity and look what we get in returnrsquorsquo(145ndash6)

16 In this respect the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary is of a piece withother postndash11 September mass-audience films As Wheeler WinstonDixon observes lsquolsquo[T]he bulk of mainstream American cinema since911 whether the films were in production before or not seemscentered on a desire to replicate the idea of the lsquojust warrsquo in whichmilitary reprisals and the concomitant escalation of warfare seemsimultaneously inevitable and justifiedrsquorsquo (1)

17 In the United States however Brigandrsquos film was released(belatedly in 2003) under the name September 11 in an apparenteffort to counteract this disorienting effect

18 However this did not stop Variety from calling the film lsquolsquostridentlyanti-Americanrsquorsquo (Godard 1) Dixon correctly points out that 11rsquo0901lsquolsquofar from being anti-American is more accurately critical of Americanpolicy in the wake of 911 a very different matterrsquorsquo (5) In his viewthe contested episodes of Brigandrsquos film lsquolsquobring a welcome breath ofdissenting opinion to current cinematic discourse on the attacks of911rsquorsquo (5)

19 Efforts to get the department to comply with the commissionrsquosrecommendations were suspended indefinitely in the wake of the11 September attacks (Latour)

20 In 11rsquo0901 the reality of racism and xenophobia in New York ispoignantly evoked by the Indian director Mira Nair whose segmentdeals with the chilling effects of 11 September on the American Muslimcommunity Set in New York City Nairrsquos film recounts the story (basedon actual events) of a Pakistani American family whose eldest son goesmissing on the morning of 11 September For several months the FBIand the media keep claiming that he was a terrorist causing his familyto be shunned and ostracized by their initially supportive neighboursEventually however it emerges that the young man a medic waskilled while attempting to rescue people at the World Trade CenterOnce the truth is known he is hailed as a hero

Works Cited

Adorno Theodor lsquolsquoCultural Criticism and Societyrsquorsquo Prisms Trans SamuelWeber and Shierry Weber Cambridge MA MIT Press 1984 17ndash34

Canadian

Review

ofAm

erican

Studies3

7(2007)

202

Anderson Lisa and Stevenson Swanson lsquolsquoFilm Goes inside World TradeCenter Gripping Sept 11 Footage Followed NYC Firefightersrsquorsquo ChicagoTribune 5 Mar 2002 Advocate 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwstamfordadvo-catecomclassifiedjobssns-worldtrade-filmfootage-ctstorygt

Berger James lsquolsquolsquoTherersquos No Backhand to Thisrsquorsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911Ed Judith Greenberg Lincoln U of Nebraska P 2003 52ndash9

Borradori Giovanna Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with JurgenHabermas and Jacques Derrida Chicago U of Chicago P 2003

Butler Judith Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence LondonVerso 2004

Caruth Cathy lsquolsquoRecapturing the Pastrsquorsquo Introduction Trauma Explorations inMemory Ed Cathy Caruth Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP 1995 151ndash7

Dixon Wheeler Winston lsquolsquoSomething LostmdashFilm after 911rsquorsquo IntroductionFilm and Television after 911 Ed Wheeler Winston Dixon CarbondaleSouthern Illinois UP 2004 1ndash28

Dreher Rod lsquolsquoInside the Inferno The 911 Documentaryrsquorsquo National ReviewOnline 7 Mar 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwnationalreviewcomdreherdreher030702shtmlgt

11rsquo0901 Dir Youssef Chahine et al Prod Alain Brigand DVD GalateeFilms Studio Canal 2002

Erickson Hal lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo All-Movie Guide 22 Sept 2005 lthttpallmoviecomcgavgdllpfrac14avgampsqlfrac141265838gt

Fitzpatrick Chris lsquolsquo911 Happy Anniversaryrsquorsquo PopMatterscom 23 July 2005lthttpwwwpopmatterscomtvreviewsn9ndash11shtmlgt

Godard Francois lsquolsquoCanal Plus 911 Pic Courts Controversyrsquorsquo Daily Variety21 Aug 2002 1 20

Habib Andre lsquolsquoAutour de 911mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelleou dommages au reelrsquorsquo Hors Champs June 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwhorschampqccaarticlephp3id_articlefrac1481gt

Hope Gloves and Redemption Dir Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet 1999DVD Pathfinder 2003

Knight Sam lsquolsquoNew Yorkrsquos Whitestrsquorsquo Slices of New York Times Online 21Feb 2005 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwtimesonlinecoukarticle018391ndash149383700htmlgt

Latour Jane lsquolsquoLooking for a Fire Department That Looks like New YorkrsquorsquoGotham Gazette 3 Dec 2001 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwgothamgazettecomiotwfiredepartmentdoc1shtmlgt

Laurence Robert P lsquolsquoTwo-Hour Special 911 Conveys Horror withoutBeing Graphicrsquorsquo San Diego Union-Tribune 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwsignonsandiegocomtvradiocbs911htmlgt

Revuecanadienne

drsquoe currentudesame currenricaines37

(2007)

203

for the enormous narcissistic wound opened up by the publicdisplay of our physical vulnerabilityrsquorsquo (7) This is of course exactlythe form taken by the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary as it attemptsto convert a lsquolsquodecentringrsquorsquo tale of terror into a lsquolsquore-centringrsquorsquo story ofheroism and community spirit Butler insists on the urgent needto decentre this first-person narrative if the world is to be sparedstill worse disasters She sees the temporary dislocation fromFirst World privilege caused by the 11 September attacks as offeringa chance to begin to imagine a world in which such violence mightbe minimized a world in which lsquolsquoan inevitable interdependencybecomes acknowledged as the basis for global political communityrsquorsquo(xiindashxiii) For this vision to become reality she writes lsquolsquowe will needto emerge from the narrative perspective of US unilateralism andas it were its defensive structures to consider the ways in whichour lives are profoundly implicated in the lives of othersrsquorsquo (7)

Butlerrsquos ideal of narrative decentring is strikingly realized in AlainBrigandrsquos 11rsquo0901 another 11 September film produced by aFrenchman that came out in 2002 However this is where thesimilarities between 911 and 11rsquo0901 stop Commissioned byBrigand as a response to the terrorist attacks 11rsquo0901 bringstogether eleven directors from as many countries each contributinga film lasting eleven minutes nine seconds and one frame The titlerefers to this duration as well as to the date of the attacks as itwould appear on a European calendar Hence the decentring of thecustomary first-person point of view that Brigandrsquos omnibus filmenacts is already signalled by its title which suggests foreignness17

The Naudetsrsquo film by contrast is content to use the Americannotation of the date for its title Varying enormously in style scopeand content the eleven segments of 11rsquo0901 testify to the reso-nance of the 11 September attacks around the world Unlike 911which places the events in a political and historical vacuum andthus ends up echoing the official discourse many of the filmsmaking up 11rsquo0901 insist on the interconnectedness of 11 Septem-ber with tragedies taking place elsewhere for which the UnitedStates is seen to be at least partially responsible British director KenLoach for example links 11 September 2001 with 11 September1973 when Chilean president Salvador Allende was killed duringa CIA-backed coup drsquoetat that put dictator Augusto Pinochet inpower In the episode contributed by Egyptian director YoussefChahine the ghost of a US marine is lectured on various interna-tional atrocities carried out in the name of American foreign policyHowever while it clearly distances itself from the American

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patriotic narrative of innocence under siege 11rsquo09rsquorsquo01 at no pointrefuses empathy with or denigrates the suffering of the victims ofthe World Trade Center attacks Rather than playing the who-suffered-most game or getting involved in lsquolsquothe moralizing mathe-matics of guilt and horrorrsquorsquo the film adopts what Zizek callslsquolsquothe only appropriate stancersquorsquo namely lsquolsquounconditional solidaritywith all victimsrsquorsquo (51)18

In contrast with 11rsquo0901 911 carefully avoids the subject of USresponsibility for Third-World poverty and political repressionIn fact the New York Fire Department is a highly appropriatesubject for this film as the make-up of its workforce reveals asimilar kind of blindness to issues of equality inclusion andsolidarity It is a matter of public record that the fire departmentof the multicultural melange that is New York has a serious mino-rities problem lsquolsquoThere are approximately 11500 firefighters andofficers in the FDNY of whom about 300 are black thatrsquos about 3per cent The department which is 92 per cent white has beenhistorically dominated by the cityrsquos Irish and Italian communitiesand is the least diverse fire department of any big city in Americarsquorsquo(Knight) Like African Americans Hispanics make up only3 per cent of New York City fire-fighters and women even lessthan 03 per cent (Latour) In May 2001 the cityrsquos Equal Employ-ment Practices Commission found that the severe under-representation of these groups far from being accidental couldbe attributed to the fire departmentrsquos having lsquolsquocreated barriers tothe hiring of minorities women and the poorrsquorsquo (Latour)19 Thisdramatic lack of diversitymdasha long-standing problem for which theNew York Fire Department has been much criticizedmdashis reflectedin 911 which shows only one African American and not a singleHispanic or woman employed at the Engine 7 Ladder 1 firehouseOnly a handful of African American and Hispanic fire-fighters andno women fire-fighters are shown working in or near the WorldTrade Center on 11 September and the dead fire-fighters whosepictures are displayed at the end of the film are overwhelminglywhite and without exception male The fire-fighting communitythat is held up in the Naudetsrsquo documentary as a model for the USas a nation thus turns out to be a privileged and exclusionary whitebrotherhood Not only then does 911 turn a blind eye to issues ofsocial justice at the international level by maintaining an overlysimplistic good (us) versus evil (them) philosophy but it alsowilfully ignores the demands of social justice closer to home bysinging the praises of an insular defensive and intransigent

Canadian

Review

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erican

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196

type of community Evidently we are a long way here from theideal of an inclusive and equitable global community as envisagedby Butler an ideal that appears to underlie Brigandrsquos 11rsquo090120

Remarkably in tune with the dominant political discourse of itstime 911 provides us with an example of what Eric Santner hascalled lsquolsquonarrative fetishismrsquorsquo lsquolsquothe construction and deployment ofa narrative consciously or unconsciously designed to expunge thetraces of the trauma that called that narrative into being in the firstplacersquorsquo (144) The film superimposes a linear narrative of heroismand community upon the traumatic reality of the attacks in order todeprive it of its potential significance As we have seen 911 doesnot shirk from suppressing evidence of trauma by excluding orsanitizing graphic footage nor from undermining the authority ofeye-witness testimony by frequently contradicting the fire-fightersrsquoown experience and by adopting an attitude of patronizing toler-ance towards linguistic excesses Viewed from a different anglehowever 911 offers a critique rather than an instantiation of theway in which 11 September is officially remembered In its veryattempt to marginalize trauma and testimony the film actuallyshows how trauma overflows the limits of the memorializingstrategies deployed to contain it thereby demonstrating theirinadequacy and tenuousness Its attempted portrayal of traumaas a discrete past event locatable representable and curable isbelied by traces of trauma seeping through the manifest narrativeresisting processes of identification comprehension and facileredemption

One of these traces is the moment in the film when Tower 2collapses covering the lobby of Tower 1 with debris As JulesNaudet runs up an escalator for shelter not knowing what hashappened his camera keeps rolling We hear a deafening rumblewhich drowns out all other sounds to the point of doing actualdamage to the soundtrack the lens is covered with grit and theneverything becomes pitch black Something similar happens afterthe collapse of Tower 1 which both Jules and Gedeon were filmingfrom nearby streets As the streets fill up with dust and debris theystart running for their lives but eventually fall to the ground Againthe cameras keep rolling recording the loud noise and the onset ofdarkness as the lenses turn brown and gritty Together with thesound of people falling to their deaths these three scenes representthe most direct intrusions of reality in the documentary As ifcaught in a repetition compulsion the film keeps returning to

Revuecanadienne

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197

these extraordinary images which stand out by their indexicalquality reality physically imprints itself upon the camera insteadof merely being recorded by it in much the same way as atraumatic event falls directly into the psyche bypassing perceptionand consciousness While the filmrsquos apparent objective is to maketrauma visible and narratable in these haunting scenes traumareveals itself as an impossibility of seeing hearing and knowing

That the truth of trauma resides in its resistance to perception andunderstanding is borne out by the testimony of the survivors fromwhich we learn that the fire-fighters on the scene were almosttotally oblivious to the reality of what was going on For examplewhile the whole world had seen Tower 2 collapse on live televisionthe people trapped inside the lobby of Tower 1 did not have a clueas to what had happenedmdashwhich explains why having finallymade their way out they kept standing in the immediate vicinityof the doomed tower In an interview recently made public as partof the 911 records Joseph Pfeifer the battalion chief whom Juleshad found himself shadowing for most of the day recalls lsquolsquoWe gotout there and then we were standing under the bridge trying to seewhat was going on I couldnrsquot see what was going on Everythingwas covered with smoke I couldnrsquot see what collapsed Our eyeswere full of garbage Wersquore standing on the street and still notknowing the full implication of what took place because youcouldnrsquot seersquorsquo The film shows how the fire-fighters only beganto realize what they had lived through after they had got back tothe firehouse The emphasis placed by various eye-witnesses onthe eventsrsquo defiance of sight and comprehension challenges theassumptions structuring the filmrsquos conventional narrative in parti-cular the view that there is an intact history out there waiting to belured into vision and spoken as pure meaning In fact no soonerdoes 911 assert its claim to total visual mastery over the events of11 September than this claim is rebutted by the very footageintended to substantiate it James Hanlonrsquos promise at the begin-ning of the film that the viewer lsquolsquowill see all of itrsquorsquo lsquolsquobeginning toendrsquorsquo is immediately followed by a flash-forward to the dust- anddebris-filled images shot by Jules during the collapse of Tower 2With the picture going black it becomes impossible for the viewerto see anything at all

It is precisely this tension between the desire to know the subjectbeing represented and themdashimplicitmdashrecognition of the limits ofthat knowing that makes 911 so compelling With one hand the

Canadian

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erican

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198

film offers the familiar gesture of memory as forgettingmdashtheincorporation of trauma into a reassuring narrative of nationalgreatnessmdashand with the other hand it takes away the comfort ofresting in this narrative Whatever ethical value the documentarycan be said to possess lies in the tension between these twogestures which if nothing more at least complicates the returnto the lsquolsquodogmatic slumberrsquorsquo (Derrida qtd in Borradori 100) fromwhich 11 September had awakened us

Notes

1 This is especially true of the televised version of the documentarywhich differs in several respects from the DVD edition released byParamount Pictures in 2002 under the title 911 The FilmmakersrsquoCommemorative Edition Most notably Robert De Niro who hosted theCBS program does not appear on the DVD edition Yet with a runningtime of 129 minutes the DVD edition is about a quarter of an hourlonger than the CBS broadcast Some footage has been added thatexpands on the original material for example scenes from the trainingof new recruits scenes from within the firehouse and scenes from therecovery effort As a result the tight narrative structure undergirdingthe TV version is loosened somewhat By way of bonus materialthe DVD features a 53-minute interview section containing furthercommentary from the fire-fighters

2 In fact the only visual evidence of death in the documentary comes inthe form of two still images of the intact body of Father Mychal Judgethe fire departmentrsquos chaplain being carried to a nearby church Hisdeathmdashdistanced as it is through the use of still rather than movingimagesmdashcan hardly be called representative as the vast majority of thevictims of 11 September were denied such dignity their bodies beingall but obliterated and therefore hard (if not impossible) to identify Asone of the fire-fighters testifies in the additional interview section onthe DVD lsquolsquoThere were many there were many eh it wasnrsquot manybodies but it was many pieces body parts There was I saw one ortwo whole bodies but not it wasnrsquot many I imagine thepeople were the same as the building nothing leftrsquorsquo Moreover thechaplainrsquos death is rescued from meaninglessness by the uncannyresemblance between the scene captured in the two photographs andtraditional pictorial representations of the descent from the crosswhich has the effect of turning the clergyman into a Christ-likesacrificial victim (I owe this point to my colleague Kristiaan Versluys)

3 One might argue as many have that the noise of the impact of thebodies on the glass and metal awning outside Tower 1 is disturbingenough While these sounds are definitely chilling as are the screamswe hear of terrified burn victims inside the lobby it should be pointedout that the original soundtrack recorded by Julesrsquos on-camera

Revuecanadienne

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199

microphone was manipulated so as to soften the shock effectAppearances notwithstanding what we get to hear is a diluted andsanitized version of the original soundtrack as executive producerSusan Zirinsky explained at the press screening most of the crasheswere edited out on the grounds that lsquolsquo[t]o have that incredible crushof sound every 20 or 30 seconds would have been very tough for theaudiencersquorsquo (qtd in Laurence)

4 A similar point is made by Susan Sontag in Regarding the Pain of Others

Staying within the bounds of good taste was the primary reasongiven for not showing any of the horrific pictures of the deadtaken at the site of the World Trade Center in the immediateaftermath of the attack on September 11 2001 This novelinsistence on good taste in a culture saturated with commercialincentives to lower standards of taste may be puzzling But itmakes sense if understood as obscuring a host of concerns andanxieties about public order and public morale that cannotbe named as well as pointing to the inability otherwise toformulate or defend traditional conventions of how to mourn(68ndash9)

5 In an interview segment filmed at the Fire Academy in June 2001 andshown at the beginning of the documentary Benetatos says lsquolsquoIt soundskind of cheesy but I always kind of wanted to be a hero and this isreally the only thing you can do that you can do that [sic]rsquorsquo

6 See also Orly Lubinrsquos discussion of the documentaryrsquos compliancewith Hollywood conventions (125ndash7)

7 In view of the documentaryrsquos own affinity with mainstream disasterfilms the Hollywood comparisons invoked by some of the witnessesto convey the magnitude of the events take on an ironic ring A newscorrespondent reports from on the ground that lsquolsquo[t]he scene here is justone right out of one of those movies you would see in Hollywoodrsquorsquoand in the DVD version a passer-by is heard saying lsquolsquoLike somethingout of The Towering Inferno like a moviersquorsquo

8 Not only does Peyser speak of lsquolsquorichly drawn charactersrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoplottwistsrsquorsquo in the above passage but he also uses film vocabulary todescribe the thumps of bodies hitting the roof of the lobby callingthem lsquolsquothe most chilling sound effects ever heard on televisionrsquorsquo

9 De Nirorsquos words were echoed by Susan Zirinsky at the pre-screeningpress meeting Responding to Zirinskyrsquos claim in an article titledlsquolsquoShield Us on Sunday Night No Just Show Us Airing the Cultureof Denial on CBSrsquorsquo Claudia Rosett puts her finger on the problemlsquolsquoMoment of strength Well yes unquestionably there was valorBut given that the overwhelming event this bravery sought to addresswas actually terror this amounts to a cleaned up version of therealities of that dayrsquorsquo

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10 lsquolsquoOrrsquorsquo Berger continues lsquolsquothe dead were spoken of now as heroesrsquorsquo (55)Extending the creation of heroes to include the dead is also noticeablein the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary By way of an epilogue photo-graphs of the 344 fire-fighters who lost their lives on 11 September aredisplayed four by four against the background of the Stars and StripesThey are commemorated as national heroes who made the ultimatesacrifice in the service of their country By conceiving the catastropheas a purposive and meaningful sacrificial operation the documentaryeffectively softens its traumatic core

11 As a cinematic tribute to fire-fighters 911 stands in a long traditionof adulatory films about the fire-fighting profession stretching fromLife of an American Fireman (1903) to The Towering Inferno (1974) andfrom Backdraft (1991) to The Guys (2002) and Ladder 49 (2004)

12 While there are numerous myths featuring two brothers one isparticularly reminded of the legendary love of Castor and Polluxthe twin sons of Jupiter and Leda

13 That the documentary promotes a pro-war political agenda wasrecognized at the press meeting by Susan Zirinsky who defended thetiming of the broadcast as follows lsquolsquoThis is the right time We canrsquotforget what drove this country to be at war It is really important to notforget what happenedrsquorsquo (qtd in Long) Appearing on Foxrsquos The OrsquoReillyFactor later that week Zirinsky again invoked the war being fought inAfghanistan and stressed the supposed need lsquolsquoto keep that missionaliversquorsquo As Chris Fitzpatrick points out Zirinskyrsquos attitude lsquolsquoborrowedfrom John Ashcroftrsquorsquo suggests that lsquolsquothe true function of 911 may begetting Americarsquos jingoistic blood boilingrsquorsquo The Naudetsrsquo andZirinskyrsquos apparent disagreement about the purpose of thedocumentary is a rare breach of Franco-American unity judging frominterviews with directors and producers there was a completeconsensus among the different parties involved on just about everyother aspect of the film

14 A similar observation is made by Andre Habib in lsquolsquoAutour de 911 mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelle ou dommages au reelrsquorsquo one ofthe most insightful articles on the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary that Ihave come across Habib also regards the probie as lsquolsquoune metonymie desEtats-Unis en entierrsquorsquo (lsquolsquoa metonymy of the United States as a wholersquorsquo)

Tony crsquoest les Etats-Unis jusque la menages par lrsquoHistoireassoiffes drsquoheroısme mais maintenus a lrsquoecart de toute epreuveveritable Crsquoest comme si tout le pays avait ete jusqursquoa cette datefatidique en probation et que apres le 11 septembre elle avaitsubi son initiation devenant du coup mure pour lrsquoHistoire

(Tony is the United States until then spared by History thirstyfor heroism but kept away from any real challenge It is as if thewhole country had until that fateful date been on probation

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201

and as if after September 11 it had undergone its initiation andthereby become ripe for History)

15 Compare Zizek lsquolsquo[i]s not the surprise at why are they not loved [sic] forwhat they are doing to the world the most fundamental Americanreaction (at least) since the Vietnam war We just try to be good to helpothers to bring peace and prosperity and look what we get in returnrsquorsquo(145ndash6)

16 In this respect the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary is of a piece withother postndash11 September mass-audience films As Wheeler WinstonDixon observes lsquolsquo[T]he bulk of mainstream American cinema since911 whether the films were in production before or not seemscentered on a desire to replicate the idea of the lsquojust warrsquo in whichmilitary reprisals and the concomitant escalation of warfare seemsimultaneously inevitable and justifiedrsquorsquo (1)

17 In the United States however Brigandrsquos film was released(belatedly in 2003) under the name September 11 in an apparenteffort to counteract this disorienting effect

18 However this did not stop Variety from calling the film lsquolsquostridentlyanti-Americanrsquorsquo (Godard 1) Dixon correctly points out that 11rsquo0901lsquolsquofar from being anti-American is more accurately critical of Americanpolicy in the wake of 911 a very different matterrsquorsquo (5) In his viewthe contested episodes of Brigandrsquos film lsquolsquobring a welcome breath ofdissenting opinion to current cinematic discourse on the attacks of911rsquorsquo (5)

19 Efforts to get the department to comply with the commissionrsquosrecommendations were suspended indefinitely in the wake of the11 September attacks (Latour)

20 In 11rsquo0901 the reality of racism and xenophobia in New York ispoignantly evoked by the Indian director Mira Nair whose segmentdeals with the chilling effects of 11 September on the American Muslimcommunity Set in New York City Nairrsquos film recounts the story (basedon actual events) of a Pakistani American family whose eldest son goesmissing on the morning of 11 September For several months the FBIand the media keep claiming that he was a terrorist causing his familyto be shunned and ostracized by their initially supportive neighboursEventually however it emerges that the young man a medic waskilled while attempting to rescue people at the World Trade CenterOnce the truth is known he is hailed as a hero

Works Cited

Adorno Theodor lsquolsquoCultural Criticism and Societyrsquorsquo Prisms Trans SamuelWeber and Shierry Weber Cambridge MA MIT Press 1984 17ndash34

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Anderson Lisa and Stevenson Swanson lsquolsquoFilm Goes inside World TradeCenter Gripping Sept 11 Footage Followed NYC Firefightersrsquorsquo ChicagoTribune 5 Mar 2002 Advocate 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwstamfordadvo-catecomclassifiedjobssns-worldtrade-filmfootage-ctstorygt

Berger James lsquolsquolsquoTherersquos No Backhand to Thisrsquorsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911Ed Judith Greenberg Lincoln U of Nebraska P 2003 52ndash9

Borradori Giovanna Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with JurgenHabermas and Jacques Derrida Chicago U of Chicago P 2003

Butler Judith Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence LondonVerso 2004

Caruth Cathy lsquolsquoRecapturing the Pastrsquorsquo Introduction Trauma Explorations inMemory Ed Cathy Caruth Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP 1995 151ndash7

Dixon Wheeler Winston lsquolsquoSomething LostmdashFilm after 911rsquorsquo IntroductionFilm and Television after 911 Ed Wheeler Winston Dixon CarbondaleSouthern Illinois UP 2004 1ndash28

Dreher Rod lsquolsquoInside the Inferno The 911 Documentaryrsquorsquo National ReviewOnline 7 Mar 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwnationalreviewcomdreherdreher030702shtmlgt

11rsquo0901 Dir Youssef Chahine et al Prod Alain Brigand DVD GalateeFilms Studio Canal 2002

Erickson Hal lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo All-Movie Guide 22 Sept 2005 lthttpallmoviecomcgavgdllpfrac14avgampsqlfrac141265838gt

Fitzpatrick Chris lsquolsquo911 Happy Anniversaryrsquorsquo PopMatterscom 23 July 2005lthttpwwwpopmatterscomtvreviewsn9ndash11shtmlgt

Godard Francois lsquolsquoCanal Plus 911 Pic Courts Controversyrsquorsquo Daily Variety21 Aug 2002 1 20

Habib Andre lsquolsquoAutour de 911mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelleou dommages au reelrsquorsquo Hors Champs June 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwhorschampqccaarticlephp3id_articlefrac1481gt

Hope Gloves and Redemption Dir Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet 1999DVD Pathfinder 2003

Knight Sam lsquolsquoNew Yorkrsquos Whitestrsquorsquo Slices of New York Times Online 21Feb 2005 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwtimesonlinecoukarticle018391ndash149383700htmlgt

Latour Jane lsquolsquoLooking for a Fire Department That Looks like New YorkrsquorsquoGotham Gazette 3 Dec 2001 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwgothamgazettecomiotwfiredepartmentdoc1shtmlgt

Laurence Robert P lsquolsquoTwo-Hour Special 911 Conveys Horror withoutBeing Graphicrsquorsquo San Diego Union-Tribune 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwsignonsandiegocomtvradiocbs911htmlgt

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203

patriotic narrative of innocence under siege 11rsquo09rsquorsquo01 at no pointrefuses empathy with or denigrates the suffering of the victims ofthe World Trade Center attacks Rather than playing the who-suffered-most game or getting involved in lsquolsquothe moralizing mathe-matics of guilt and horrorrsquorsquo the film adopts what Zizek callslsquolsquothe only appropriate stancersquorsquo namely lsquolsquounconditional solidaritywith all victimsrsquorsquo (51)18

In contrast with 11rsquo0901 911 carefully avoids the subject of USresponsibility for Third-World poverty and political repressionIn fact the New York Fire Department is a highly appropriatesubject for this film as the make-up of its workforce reveals asimilar kind of blindness to issues of equality inclusion andsolidarity It is a matter of public record that the fire departmentof the multicultural melange that is New York has a serious mino-rities problem lsquolsquoThere are approximately 11500 firefighters andofficers in the FDNY of whom about 300 are black thatrsquos about 3per cent The department which is 92 per cent white has beenhistorically dominated by the cityrsquos Irish and Italian communitiesand is the least diverse fire department of any big city in Americarsquorsquo(Knight) Like African Americans Hispanics make up only3 per cent of New York City fire-fighters and women even lessthan 03 per cent (Latour) In May 2001 the cityrsquos Equal Employ-ment Practices Commission found that the severe under-representation of these groups far from being accidental couldbe attributed to the fire departmentrsquos having lsquolsquocreated barriers tothe hiring of minorities women and the poorrsquorsquo (Latour)19 Thisdramatic lack of diversitymdasha long-standing problem for which theNew York Fire Department has been much criticizedmdashis reflectedin 911 which shows only one African American and not a singleHispanic or woman employed at the Engine 7 Ladder 1 firehouseOnly a handful of African American and Hispanic fire-fighters andno women fire-fighters are shown working in or near the WorldTrade Center on 11 September and the dead fire-fighters whosepictures are displayed at the end of the film are overwhelminglywhite and without exception male The fire-fighting communitythat is held up in the Naudetsrsquo documentary as a model for the USas a nation thus turns out to be a privileged and exclusionary whitebrotherhood Not only then does 911 turn a blind eye to issues ofsocial justice at the international level by maintaining an overlysimplistic good (us) versus evil (them) philosophy but it alsowilfully ignores the demands of social justice closer to home bysinging the praises of an insular defensive and intransigent

Canadian

Review

ofAm

erican

Studies3

7(2007)

196

type of community Evidently we are a long way here from theideal of an inclusive and equitable global community as envisagedby Butler an ideal that appears to underlie Brigandrsquos 11rsquo090120

Remarkably in tune with the dominant political discourse of itstime 911 provides us with an example of what Eric Santner hascalled lsquolsquonarrative fetishismrsquorsquo lsquolsquothe construction and deployment ofa narrative consciously or unconsciously designed to expunge thetraces of the trauma that called that narrative into being in the firstplacersquorsquo (144) The film superimposes a linear narrative of heroismand community upon the traumatic reality of the attacks in order todeprive it of its potential significance As we have seen 911 doesnot shirk from suppressing evidence of trauma by excluding orsanitizing graphic footage nor from undermining the authority ofeye-witness testimony by frequently contradicting the fire-fightersrsquoown experience and by adopting an attitude of patronizing toler-ance towards linguistic excesses Viewed from a different anglehowever 911 offers a critique rather than an instantiation of theway in which 11 September is officially remembered In its veryattempt to marginalize trauma and testimony the film actuallyshows how trauma overflows the limits of the memorializingstrategies deployed to contain it thereby demonstrating theirinadequacy and tenuousness Its attempted portrayal of traumaas a discrete past event locatable representable and curable isbelied by traces of trauma seeping through the manifest narrativeresisting processes of identification comprehension and facileredemption

One of these traces is the moment in the film when Tower 2collapses covering the lobby of Tower 1 with debris As JulesNaudet runs up an escalator for shelter not knowing what hashappened his camera keeps rolling We hear a deafening rumblewhich drowns out all other sounds to the point of doing actualdamage to the soundtrack the lens is covered with grit and theneverything becomes pitch black Something similar happens afterthe collapse of Tower 1 which both Jules and Gedeon were filmingfrom nearby streets As the streets fill up with dust and debris theystart running for their lives but eventually fall to the ground Againthe cameras keep rolling recording the loud noise and the onset ofdarkness as the lenses turn brown and gritty Together with thesound of people falling to their deaths these three scenes representthe most direct intrusions of reality in the documentary As ifcaught in a repetition compulsion the film keeps returning to

Revuecanadienne

drsquoe currentudesame currenricaines37

(2007)

197

these extraordinary images which stand out by their indexicalquality reality physically imprints itself upon the camera insteadof merely being recorded by it in much the same way as atraumatic event falls directly into the psyche bypassing perceptionand consciousness While the filmrsquos apparent objective is to maketrauma visible and narratable in these haunting scenes traumareveals itself as an impossibility of seeing hearing and knowing

That the truth of trauma resides in its resistance to perception andunderstanding is borne out by the testimony of the survivors fromwhich we learn that the fire-fighters on the scene were almosttotally oblivious to the reality of what was going on For examplewhile the whole world had seen Tower 2 collapse on live televisionthe people trapped inside the lobby of Tower 1 did not have a clueas to what had happenedmdashwhich explains why having finallymade their way out they kept standing in the immediate vicinityof the doomed tower In an interview recently made public as partof the 911 records Joseph Pfeifer the battalion chief whom Juleshad found himself shadowing for most of the day recalls lsquolsquoWe gotout there and then we were standing under the bridge trying to seewhat was going on I couldnrsquot see what was going on Everythingwas covered with smoke I couldnrsquot see what collapsed Our eyeswere full of garbage Wersquore standing on the street and still notknowing the full implication of what took place because youcouldnrsquot seersquorsquo The film shows how the fire-fighters only beganto realize what they had lived through after they had got back tothe firehouse The emphasis placed by various eye-witnesses onthe eventsrsquo defiance of sight and comprehension challenges theassumptions structuring the filmrsquos conventional narrative in parti-cular the view that there is an intact history out there waiting to belured into vision and spoken as pure meaning In fact no soonerdoes 911 assert its claim to total visual mastery over the events of11 September than this claim is rebutted by the very footageintended to substantiate it James Hanlonrsquos promise at the begin-ning of the film that the viewer lsquolsquowill see all of itrsquorsquo lsquolsquobeginning toendrsquorsquo is immediately followed by a flash-forward to the dust- anddebris-filled images shot by Jules during the collapse of Tower 2With the picture going black it becomes impossible for the viewerto see anything at all

It is precisely this tension between the desire to know the subjectbeing represented and themdashimplicitmdashrecognition of the limits ofthat knowing that makes 911 so compelling With one hand the

Canadian

Review

ofAm

erican

Studies3

7(2007)

198

film offers the familiar gesture of memory as forgettingmdashtheincorporation of trauma into a reassuring narrative of nationalgreatnessmdashand with the other hand it takes away the comfort ofresting in this narrative Whatever ethical value the documentarycan be said to possess lies in the tension between these twogestures which if nothing more at least complicates the returnto the lsquolsquodogmatic slumberrsquorsquo (Derrida qtd in Borradori 100) fromwhich 11 September had awakened us

Notes

1 This is especially true of the televised version of the documentarywhich differs in several respects from the DVD edition released byParamount Pictures in 2002 under the title 911 The FilmmakersrsquoCommemorative Edition Most notably Robert De Niro who hosted theCBS program does not appear on the DVD edition Yet with a runningtime of 129 minutes the DVD edition is about a quarter of an hourlonger than the CBS broadcast Some footage has been added thatexpands on the original material for example scenes from the trainingof new recruits scenes from within the firehouse and scenes from therecovery effort As a result the tight narrative structure undergirdingthe TV version is loosened somewhat By way of bonus materialthe DVD features a 53-minute interview section containing furthercommentary from the fire-fighters

2 In fact the only visual evidence of death in the documentary comes inthe form of two still images of the intact body of Father Mychal Judgethe fire departmentrsquos chaplain being carried to a nearby church Hisdeathmdashdistanced as it is through the use of still rather than movingimagesmdashcan hardly be called representative as the vast majority of thevictims of 11 September were denied such dignity their bodies beingall but obliterated and therefore hard (if not impossible) to identify Asone of the fire-fighters testifies in the additional interview section onthe DVD lsquolsquoThere were many there were many eh it wasnrsquot manybodies but it was many pieces body parts There was I saw one ortwo whole bodies but not it wasnrsquot many I imagine thepeople were the same as the building nothing leftrsquorsquo Moreover thechaplainrsquos death is rescued from meaninglessness by the uncannyresemblance between the scene captured in the two photographs andtraditional pictorial representations of the descent from the crosswhich has the effect of turning the clergyman into a Christ-likesacrificial victim (I owe this point to my colleague Kristiaan Versluys)

3 One might argue as many have that the noise of the impact of thebodies on the glass and metal awning outside Tower 1 is disturbingenough While these sounds are definitely chilling as are the screamswe hear of terrified burn victims inside the lobby it should be pointedout that the original soundtrack recorded by Julesrsquos on-camera

Revuecanadienne

drsquoe currentudesame currenricaines37

(2007)

199

microphone was manipulated so as to soften the shock effectAppearances notwithstanding what we get to hear is a diluted andsanitized version of the original soundtrack as executive producerSusan Zirinsky explained at the press screening most of the crasheswere edited out on the grounds that lsquolsquo[t]o have that incredible crushof sound every 20 or 30 seconds would have been very tough for theaudiencersquorsquo (qtd in Laurence)

4 A similar point is made by Susan Sontag in Regarding the Pain of Others

Staying within the bounds of good taste was the primary reasongiven for not showing any of the horrific pictures of the deadtaken at the site of the World Trade Center in the immediateaftermath of the attack on September 11 2001 This novelinsistence on good taste in a culture saturated with commercialincentives to lower standards of taste may be puzzling But itmakes sense if understood as obscuring a host of concerns andanxieties about public order and public morale that cannotbe named as well as pointing to the inability otherwise toformulate or defend traditional conventions of how to mourn(68ndash9)

5 In an interview segment filmed at the Fire Academy in June 2001 andshown at the beginning of the documentary Benetatos says lsquolsquoIt soundskind of cheesy but I always kind of wanted to be a hero and this isreally the only thing you can do that you can do that [sic]rsquorsquo

6 See also Orly Lubinrsquos discussion of the documentaryrsquos compliancewith Hollywood conventions (125ndash7)

7 In view of the documentaryrsquos own affinity with mainstream disasterfilms the Hollywood comparisons invoked by some of the witnessesto convey the magnitude of the events take on an ironic ring A newscorrespondent reports from on the ground that lsquolsquo[t]he scene here is justone right out of one of those movies you would see in Hollywoodrsquorsquoand in the DVD version a passer-by is heard saying lsquolsquoLike somethingout of The Towering Inferno like a moviersquorsquo

8 Not only does Peyser speak of lsquolsquorichly drawn charactersrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoplottwistsrsquorsquo in the above passage but he also uses film vocabulary todescribe the thumps of bodies hitting the roof of the lobby callingthem lsquolsquothe most chilling sound effects ever heard on televisionrsquorsquo

9 De Nirorsquos words were echoed by Susan Zirinsky at the pre-screeningpress meeting Responding to Zirinskyrsquos claim in an article titledlsquolsquoShield Us on Sunday Night No Just Show Us Airing the Cultureof Denial on CBSrsquorsquo Claudia Rosett puts her finger on the problemlsquolsquoMoment of strength Well yes unquestionably there was valorBut given that the overwhelming event this bravery sought to addresswas actually terror this amounts to a cleaned up version of therealities of that dayrsquorsquo

Canadian

Review

ofAm

erican

Studies3

7(2007)

200

10 lsquolsquoOrrsquorsquo Berger continues lsquolsquothe dead were spoken of now as heroesrsquorsquo (55)Extending the creation of heroes to include the dead is also noticeablein the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary By way of an epilogue photo-graphs of the 344 fire-fighters who lost their lives on 11 September aredisplayed four by four against the background of the Stars and StripesThey are commemorated as national heroes who made the ultimatesacrifice in the service of their country By conceiving the catastropheas a purposive and meaningful sacrificial operation the documentaryeffectively softens its traumatic core

11 As a cinematic tribute to fire-fighters 911 stands in a long traditionof adulatory films about the fire-fighting profession stretching fromLife of an American Fireman (1903) to The Towering Inferno (1974) andfrom Backdraft (1991) to The Guys (2002) and Ladder 49 (2004)

12 While there are numerous myths featuring two brothers one isparticularly reminded of the legendary love of Castor and Polluxthe twin sons of Jupiter and Leda

13 That the documentary promotes a pro-war political agenda wasrecognized at the press meeting by Susan Zirinsky who defended thetiming of the broadcast as follows lsquolsquoThis is the right time We canrsquotforget what drove this country to be at war It is really important to notforget what happenedrsquorsquo (qtd in Long) Appearing on Foxrsquos The OrsquoReillyFactor later that week Zirinsky again invoked the war being fought inAfghanistan and stressed the supposed need lsquolsquoto keep that missionaliversquorsquo As Chris Fitzpatrick points out Zirinskyrsquos attitude lsquolsquoborrowedfrom John Ashcroftrsquorsquo suggests that lsquolsquothe true function of 911 may begetting Americarsquos jingoistic blood boilingrsquorsquo The Naudetsrsquo andZirinskyrsquos apparent disagreement about the purpose of thedocumentary is a rare breach of Franco-American unity judging frominterviews with directors and producers there was a completeconsensus among the different parties involved on just about everyother aspect of the film

14 A similar observation is made by Andre Habib in lsquolsquoAutour de 911 mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelle ou dommages au reelrsquorsquo one ofthe most insightful articles on the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary that Ihave come across Habib also regards the probie as lsquolsquoune metonymie desEtats-Unis en entierrsquorsquo (lsquolsquoa metonymy of the United States as a wholersquorsquo)

Tony crsquoest les Etats-Unis jusque la menages par lrsquoHistoireassoiffes drsquoheroısme mais maintenus a lrsquoecart de toute epreuveveritable Crsquoest comme si tout le pays avait ete jusqursquoa cette datefatidique en probation et que apres le 11 septembre elle avaitsubi son initiation devenant du coup mure pour lrsquoHistoire

(Tony is the United States until then spared by History thirstyfor heroism but kept away from any real challenge It is as if thewhole country had until that fateful date been on probation

Revuecanadienne

drsquoe currentudesame currenricaines37

(2007)

201

and as if after September 11 it had undergone its initiation andthereby become ripe for History)

15 Compare Zizek lsquolsquo[i]s not the surprise at why are they not loved [sic] forwhat they are doing to the world the most fundamental Americanreaction (at least) since the Vietnam war We just try to be good to helpothers to bring peace and prosperity and look what we get in returnrsquorsquo(145ndash6)

16 In this respect the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary is of a piece withother postndash11 September mass-audience films As Wheeler WinstonDixon observes lsquolsquo[T]he bulk of mainstream American cinema since911 whether the films were in production before or not seemscentered on a desire to replicate the idea of the lsquojust warrsquo in whichmilitary reprisals and the concomitant escalation of warfare seemsimultaneously inevitable and justifiedrsquorsquo (1)

17 In the United States however Brigandrsquos film was released(belatedly in 2003) under the name September 11 in an apparenteffort to counteract this disorienting effect

18 However this did not stop Variety from calling the film lsquolsquostridentlyanti-Americanrsquorsquo (Godard 1) Dixon correctly points out that 11rsquo0901lsquolsquofar from being anti-American is more accurately critical of Americanpolicy in the wake of 911 a very different matterrsquorsquo (5) In his viewthe contested episodes of Brigandrsquos film lsquolsquobring a welcome breath ofdissenting opinion to current cinematic discourse on the attacks of911rsquorsquo (5)

19 Efforts to get the department to comply with the commissionrsquosrecommendations were suspended indefinitely in the wake of the11 September attacks (Latour)

20 In 11rsquo0901 the reality of racism and xenophobia in New York ispoignantly evoked by the Indian director Mira Nair whose segmentdeals with the chilling effects of 11 September on the American Muslimcommunity Set in New York City Nairrsquos film recounts the story (basedon actual events) of a Pakistani American family whose eldest son goesmissing on the morning of 11 September For several months the FBIand the media keep claiming that he was a terrorist causing his familyto be shunned and ostracized by their initially supportive neighboursEventually however it emerges that the young man a medic waskilled while attempting to rescue people at the World Trade CenterOnce the truth is known he is hailed as a hero

Works Cited

Adorno Theodor lsquolsquoCultural Criticism and Societyrsquorsquo Prisms Trans SamuelWeber and Shierry Weber Cambridge MA MIT Press 1984 17ndash34

Canadian

Review

ofAm

erican

Studies3

7(2007)

202

Anderson Lisa and Stevenson Swanson lsquolsquoFilm Goes inside World TradeCenter Gripping Sept 11 Footage Followed NYC Firefightersrsquorsquo ChicagoTribune 5 Mar 2002 Advocate 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwstamfordadvo-catecomclassifiedjobssns-worldtrade-filmfootage-ctstorygt

Berger James lsquolsquolsquoTherersquos No Backhand to Thisrsquorsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911Ed Judith Greenberg Lincoln U of Nebraska P 2003 52ndash9

Borradori Giovanna Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with JurgenHabermas and Jacques Derrida Chicago U of Chicago P 2003

Butler Judith Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence LondonVerso 2004

Caruth Cathy lsquolsquoRecapturing the Pastrsquorsquo Introduction Trauma Explorations inMemory Ed Cathy Caruth Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP 1995 151ndash7

Dixon Wheeler Winston lsquolsquoSomething LostmdashFilm after 911rsquorsquo IntroductionFilm and Television after 911 Ed Wheeler Winston Dixon CarbondaleSouthern Illinois UP 2004 1ndash28

Dreher Rod lsquolsquoInside the Inferno The 911 Documentaryrsquorsquo National ReviewOnline 7 Mar 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwnationalreviewcomdreherdreher030702shtmlgt

11rsquo0901 Dir Youssef Chahine et al Prod Alain Brigand DVD GalateeFilms Studio Canal 2002

Erickson Hal lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo All-Movie Guide 22 Sept 2005 lthttpallmoviecomcgavgdllpfrac14avgampsqlfrac141265838gt

Fitzpatrick Chris lsquolsquo911 Happy Anniversaryrsquorsquo PopMatterscom 23 July 2005lthttpwwwpopmatterscomtvreviewsn9ndash11shtmlgt

Godard Francois lsquolsquoCanal Plus 911 Pic Courts Controversyrsquorsquo Daily Variety21 Aug 2002 1 20

Habib Andre lsquolsquoAutour de 911mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelleou dommages au reelrsquorsquo Hors Champs June 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwhorschampqccaarticlephp3id_articlefrac1481gt

Hope Gloves and Redemption Dir Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet 1999DVD Pathfinder 2003

Knight Sam lsquolsquoNew Yorkrsquos Whitestrsquorsquo Slices of New York Times Online 21Feb 2005 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwtimesonlinecoukarticle018391ndash149383700htmlgt

Latour Jane lsquolsquoLooking for a Fire Department That Looks like New YorkrsquorsquoGotham Gazette 3 Dec 2001 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwgothamgazettecomiotwfiredepartmentdoc1shtmlgt

Laurence Robert P lsquolsquoTwo-Hour Special 911 Conveys Horror withoutBeing Graphicrsquorsquo San Diego Union-Tribune 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwsignonsandiegocomtvradiocbs911htmlgt

Revuecanadienne

drsquoe currentudesame currenricaines37

(2007)

203

type of community Evidently we are a long way here from theideal of an inclusive and equitable global community as envisagedby Butler an ideal that appears to underlie Brigandrsquos 11rsquo090120

Remarkably in tune with the dominant political discourse of itstime 911 provides us with an example of what Eric Santner hascalled lsquolsquonarrative fetishismrsquorsquo lsquolsquothe construction and deployment ofa narrative consciously or unconsciously designed to expunge thetraces of the trauma that called that narrative into being in the firstplacersquorsquo (144) The film superimposes a linear narrative of heroismand community upon the traumatic reality of the attacks in order todeprive it of its potential significance As we have seen 911 doesnot shirk from suppressing evidence of trauma by excluding orsanitizing graphic footage nor from undermining the authority ofeye-witness testimony by frequently contradicting the fire-fightersrsquoown experience and by adopting an attitude of patronizing toler-ance towards linguistic excesses Viewed from a different anglehowever 911 offers a critique rather than an instantiation of theway in which 11 September is officially remembered In its veryattempt to marginalize trauma and testimony the film actuallyshows how trauma overflows the limits of the memorializingstrategies deployed to contain it thereby demonstrating theirinadequacy and tenuousness Its attempted portrayal of traumaas a discrete past event locatable representable and curable isbelied by traces of trauma seeping through the manifest narrativeresisting processes of identification comprehension and facileredemption

One of these traces is the moment in the film when Tower 2collapses covering the lobby of Tower 1 with debris As JulesNaudet runs up an escalator for shelter not knowing what hashappened his camera keeps rolling We hear a deafening rumblewhich drowns out all other sounds to the point of doing actualdamage to the soundtrack the lens is covered with grit and theneverything becomes pitch black Something similar happens afterthe collapse of Tower 1 which both Jules and Gedeon were filmingfrom nearby streets As the streets fill up with dust and debris theystart running for their lives but eventually fall to the ground Againthe cameras keep rolling recording the loud noise and the onset ofdarkness as the lenses turn brown and gritty Together with thesound of people falling to their deaths these three scenes representthe most direct intrusions of reality in the documentary As ifcaught in a repetition compulsion the film keeps returning to

Revuecanadienne

drsquoe currentudesame currenricaines37

(2007)

197

these extraordinary images which stand out by their indexicalquality reality physically imprints itself upon the camera insteadof merely being recorded by it in much the same way as atraumatic event falls directly into the psyche bypassing perceptionand consciousness While the filmrsquos apparent objective is to maketrauma visible and narratable in these haunting scenes traumareveals itself as an impossibility of seeing hearing and knowing

That the truth of trauma resides in its resistance to perception andunderstanding is borne out by the testimony of the survivors fromwhich we learn that the fire-fighters on the scene were almosttotally oblivious to the reality of what was going on For examplewhile the whole world had seen Tower 2 collapse on live televisionthe people trapped inside the lobby of Tower 1 did not have a clueas to what had happenedmdashwhich explains why having finallymade their way out they kept standing in the immediate vicinityof the doomed tower In an interview recently made public as partof the 911 records Joseph Pfeifer the battalion chief whom Juleshad found himself shadowing for most of the day recalls lsquolsquoWe gotout there and then we were standing under the bridge trying to seewhat was going on I couldnrsquot see what was going on Everythingwas covered with smoke I couldnrsquot see what collapsed Our eyeswere full of garbage Wersquore standing on the street and still notknowing the full implication of what took place because youcouldnrsquot seersquorsquo The film shows how the fire-fighters only beganto realize what they had lived through after they had got back tothe firehouse The emphasis placed by various eye-witnesses onthe eventsrsquo defiance of sight and comprehension challenges theassumptions structuring the filmrsquos conventional narrative in parti-cular the view that there is an intact history out there waiting to belured into vision and spoken as pure meaning In fact no soonerdoes 911 assert its claim to total visual mastery over the events of11 September than this claim is rebutted by the very footageintended to substantiate it James Hanlonrsquos promise at the begin-ning of the film that the viewer lsquolsquowill see all of itrsquorsquo lsquolsquobeginning toendrsquorsquo is immediately followed by a flash-forward to the dust- anddebris-filled images shot by Jules during the collapse of Tower 2With the picture going black it becomes impossible for the viewerto see anything at all

It is precisely this tension between the desire to know the subjectbeing represented and themdashimplicitmdashrecognition of the limits ofthat knowing that makes 911 so compelling With one hand the

Canadian

Review

ofAm

erican

Studies3

7(2007)

198

film offers the familiar gesture of memory as forgettingmdashtheincorporation of trauma into a reassuring narrative of nationalgreatnessmdashand with the other hand it takes away the comfort ofresting in this narrative Whatever ethical value the documentarycan be said to possess lies in the tension between these twogestures which if nothing more at least complicates the returnto the lsquolsquodogmatic slumberrsquorsquo (Derrida qtd in Borradori 100) fromwhich 11 September had awakened us

Notes

1 This is especially true of the televised version of the documentarywhich differs in several respects from the DVD edition released byParamount Pictures in 2002 under the title 911 The FilmmakersrsquoCommemorative Edition Most notably Robert De Niro who hosted theCBS program does not appear on the DVD edition Yet with a runningtime of 129 minutes the DVD edition is about a quarter of an hourlonger than the CBS broadcast Some footage has been added thatexpands on the original material for example scenes from the trainingof new recruits scenes from within the firehouse and scenes from therecovery effort As a result the tight narrative structure undergirdingthe TV version is loosened somewhat By way of bonus materialthe DVD features a 53-minute interview section containing furthercommentary from the fire-fighters

2 In fact the only visual evidence of death in the documentary comes inthe form of two still images of the intact body of Father Mychal Judgethe fire departmentrsquos chaplain being carried to a nearby church Hisdeathmdashdistanced as it is through the use of still rather than movingimagesmdashcan hardly be called representative as the vast majority of thevictims of 11 September were denied such dignity their bodies beingall but obliterated and therefore hard (if not impossible) to identify Asone of the fire-fighters testifies in the additional interview section onthe DVD lsquolsquoThere were many there were many eh it wasnrsquot manybodies but it was many pieces body parts There was I saw one ortwo whole bodies but not it wasnrsquot many I imagine thepeople were the same as the building nothing leftrsquorsquo Moreover thechaplainrsquos death is rescued from meaninglessness by the uncannyresemblance between the scene captured in the two photographs andtraditional pictorial representations of the descent from the crosswhich has the effect of turning the clergyman into a Christ-likesacrificial victim (I owe this point to my colleague Kristiaan Versluys)

3 One might argue as many have that the noise of the impact of thebodies on the glass and metal awning outside Tower 1 is disturbingenough While these sounds are definitely chilling as are the screamswe hear of terrified burn victims inside the lobby it should be pointedout that the original soundtrack recorded by Julesrsquos on-camera

Revuecanadienne

drsquoe currentudesame currenricaines37

(2007)

199

microphone was manipulated so as to soften the shock effectAppearances notwithstanding what we get to hear is a diluted andsanitized version of the original soundtrack as executive producerSusan Zirinsky explained at the press screening most of the crasheswere edited out on the grounds that lsquolsquo[t]o have that incredible crushof sound every 20 or 30 seconds would have been very tough for theaudiencersquorsquo (qtd in Laurence)

4 A similar point is made by Susan Sontag in Regarding the Pain of Others

Staying within the bounds of good taste was the primary reasongiven for not showing any of the horrific pictures of the deadtaken at the site of the World Trade Center in the immediateaftermath of the attack on September 11 2001 This novelinsistence on good taste in a culture saturated with commercialincentives to lower standards of taste may be puzzling But itmakes sense if understood as obscuring a host of concerns andanxieties about public order and public morale that cannotbe named as well as pointing to the inability otherwise toformulate or defend traditional conventions of how to mourn(68ndash9)

5 In an interview segment filmed at the Fire Academy in June 2001 andshown at the beginning of the documentary Benetatos says lsquolsquoIt soundskind of cheesy but I always kind of wanted to be a hero and this isreally the only thing you can do that you can do that [sic]rsquorsquo

6 See also Orly Lubinrsquos discussion of the documentaryrsquos compliancewith Hollywood conventions (125ndash7)

7 In view of the documentaryrsquos own affinity with mainstream disasterfilms the Hollywood comparisons invoked by some of the witnessesto convey the magnitude of the events take on an ironic ring A newscorrespondent reports from on the ground that lsquolsquo[t]he scene here is justone right out of one of those movies you would see in Hollywoodrsquorsquoand in the DVD version a passer-by is heard saying lsquolsquoLike somethingout of The Towering Inferno like a moviersquorsquo

8 Not only does Peyser speak of lsquolsquorichly drawn charactersrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoplottwistsrsquorsquo in the above passage but he also uses film vocabulary todescribe the thumps of bodies hitting the roof of the lobby callingthem lsquolsquothe most chilling sound effects ever heard on televisionrsquorsquo

9 De Nirorsquos words were echoed by Susan Zirinsky at the pre-screeningpress meeting Responding to Zirinskyrsquos claim in an article titledlsquolsquoShield Us on Sunday Night No Just Show Us Airing the Cultureof Denial on CBSrsquorsquo Claudia Rosett puts her finger on the problemlsquolsquoMoment of strength Well yes unquestionably there was valorBut given that the overwhelming event this bravery sought to addresswas actually terror this amounts to a cleaned up version of therealities of that dayrsquorsquo

Canadian

Review

ofAm

erican

Studies3

7(2007)

200

10 lsquolsquoOrrsquorsquo Berger continues lsquolsquothe dead were spoken of now as heroesrsquorsquo (55)Extending the creation of heroes to include the dead is also noticeablein the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary By way of an epilogue photo-graphs of the 344 fire-fighters who lost their lives on 11 September aredisplayed four by four against the background of the Stars and StripesThey are commemorated as national heroes who made the ultimatesacrifice in the service of their country By conceiving the catastropheas a purposive and meaningful sacrificial operation the documentaryeffectively softens its traumatic core

11 As a cinematic tribute to fire-fighters 911 stands in a long traditionof adulatory films about the fire-fighting profession stretching fromLife of an American Fireman (1903) to The Towering Inferno (1974) andfrom Backdraft (1991) to The Guys (2002) and Ladder 49 (2004)

12 While there are numerous myths featuring two brothers one isparticularly reminded of the legendary love of Castor and Polluxthe twin sons of Jupiter and Leda

13 That the documentary promotes a pro-war political agenda wasrecognized at the press meeting by Susan Zirinsky who defended thetiming of the broadcast as follows lsquolsquoThis is the right time We canrsquotforget what drove this country to be at war It is really important to notforget what happenedrsquorsquo (qtd in Long) Appearing on Foxrsquos The OrsquoReillyFactor later that week Zirinsky again invoked the war being fought inAfghanistan and stressed the supposed need lsquolsquoto keep that missionaliversquorsquo As Chris Fitzpatrick points out Zirinskyrsquos attitude lsquolsquoborrowedfrom John Ashcroftrsquorsquo suggests that lsquolsquothe true function of 911 may begetting Americarsquos jingoistic blood boilingrsquorsquo The Naudetsrsquo andZirinskyrsquos apparent disagreement about the purpose of thedocumentary is a rare breach of Franco-American unity judging frominterviews with directors and producers there was a completeconsensus among the different parties involved on just about everyother aspect of the film

14 A similar observation is made by Andre Habib in lsquolsquoAutour de 911 mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelle ou dommages au reelrsquorsquo one ofthe most insightful articles on the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary that Ihave come across Habib also regards the probie as lsquolsquoune metonymie desEtats-Unis en entierrsquorsquo (lsquolsquoa metonymy of the United States as a wholersquorsquo)

Tony crsquoest les Etats-Unis jusque la menages par lrsquoHistoireassoiffes drsquoheroısme mais maintenus a lrsquoecart de toute epreuveveritable Crsquoest comme si tout le pays avait ete jusqursquoa cette datefatidique en probation et que apres le 11 septembre elle avaitsubi son initiation devenant du coup mure pour lrsquoHistoire

(Tony is the United States until then spared by History thirstyfor heroism but kept away from any real challenge It is as if thewhole country had until that fateful date been on probation

Revuecanadienne

drsquoe currentudesame currenricaines37

(2007)

201

and as if after September 11 it had undergone its initiation andthereby become ripe for History)

15 Compare Zizek lsquolsquo[i]s not the surprise at why are they not loved [sic] forwhat they are doing to the world the most fundamental Americanreaction (at least) since the Vietnam war We just try to be good to helpothers to bring peace and prosperity and look what we get in returnrsquorsquo(145ndash6)

16 In this respect the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary is of a piece withother postndash11 September mass-audience films As Wheeler WinstonDixon observes lsquolsquo[T]he bulk of mainstream American cinema since911 whether the films were in production before or not seemscentered on a desire to replicate the idea of the lsquojust warrsquo in whichmilitary reprisals and the concomitant escalation of warfare seemsimultaneously inevitable and justifiedrsquorsquo (1)

17 In the United States however Brigandrsquos film was released(belatedly in 2003) under the name September 11 in an apparenteffort to counteract this disorienting effect

18 However this did not stop Variety from calling the film lsquolsquostridentlyanti-Americanrsquorsquo (Godard 1) Dixon correctly points out that 11rsquo0901lsquolsquofar from being anti-American is more accurately critical of Americanpolicy in the wake of 911 a very different matterrsquorsquo (5) In his viewthe contested episodes of Brigandrsquos film lsquolsquobring a welcome breath ofdissenting opinion to current cinematic discourse on the attacks of911rsquorsquo (5)

19 Efforts to get the department to comply with the commissionrsquosrecommendations were suspended indefinitely in the wake of the11 September attacks (Latour)

20 In 11rsquo0901 the reality of racism and xenophobia in New York ispoignantly evoked by the Indian director Mira Nair whose segmentdeals with the chilling effects of 11 September on the American Muslimcommunity Set in New York City Nairrsquos film recounts the story (basedon actual events) of a Pakistani American family whose eldest son goesmissing on the morning of 11 September For several months the FBIand the media keep claiming that he was a terrorist causing his familyto be shunned and ostracized by their initially supportive neighboursEventually however it emerges that the young man a medic waskilled while attempting to rescue people at the World Trade CenterOnce the truth is known he is hailed as a hero

Works Cited

Adorno Theodor lsquolsquoCultural Criticism and Societyrsquorsquo Prisms Trans SamuelWeber and Shierry Weber Cambridge MA MIT Press 1984 17ndash34

Canadian

Review

ofAm

erican

Studies3

7(2007)

202

Anderson Lisa and Stevenson Swanson lsquolsquoFilm Goes inside World TradeCenter Gripping Sept 11 Footage Followed NYC Firefightersrsquorsquo ChicagoTribune 5 Mar 2002 Advocate 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwstamfordadvo-catecomclassifiedjobssns-worldtrade-filmfootage-ctstorygt

Berger James lsquolsquolsquoTherersquos No Backhand to Thisrsquorsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911Ed Judith Greenberg Lincoln U of Nebraska P 2003 52ndash9

Borradori Giovanna Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with JurgenHabermas and Jacques Derrida Chicago U of Chicago P 2003

Butler Judith Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence LondonVerso 2004

Caruth Cathy lsquolsquoRecapturing the Pastrsquorsquo Introduction Trauma Explorations inMemory Ed Cathy Caruth Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP 1995 151ndash7

Dixon Wheeler Winston lsquolsquoSomething LostmdashFilm after 911rsquorsquo IntroductionFilm and Television after 911 Ed Wheeler Winston Dixon CarbondaleSouthern Illinois UP 2004 1ndash28

Dreher Rod lsquolsquoInside the Inferno The 911 Documentaryrsquorsquo National ReviewOnline 7 Mar 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwnationalreviewcomdreherdreher030702shtmlgt

11rsquo0901 Dir Youssef Chahine et al Prod Alain Brigand DVD GalateeFilms Studio Canal 2002

Erickson Hal lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo All-Movie Guide 22 Sept 2005 lthttpallmoviecomcgavgdllpfrac14avgampsqlfrac141265838gt

Fitzpatrick Chris lsquolsquo911 Happy Anniversaryrsquorsquo PopMatterscom 23 July 2005lthttpwwwpopmatterscomtvreviewsn9ndash11shtmlgt

Godard Francois lsquolsquoCanal Plus 911 Pic Courts Controversyrsquorsquo Daily Variety21 Aug 2002 1 20

Habib Andre lsquolsquoAutour de 911mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelleou dommages au reelrsquorsquo Hors Champs June 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwhorschampqccaarticlephp3id_articlefrac1481gt

Hope Gloves and Redemption Dir Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet 1999DVD Pathfinder 2003

Knight Sam lsquolsquoNew Yorkrsquos Whitestrsquorsquo Slices of New York Times Online 21Feb 2005 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwtimesonlinecoukarticle018391ndash149383700htmlgt

Latour Jane lsquolsquoLooking for a Fire Department That Looks like New YorkrsquorsquoGotham Gazette 3 Dec 2001 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwgothamgazettecomiotwfiredepartmentdoc1shtmlgt

Laurence Robert P lsquolsquoTwo-Hour Special 911 Conveys Horror withoutBeing Graphicrsquorsquo San Diego Union-Tribune 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwsignonsandiegocomtvradiocbs911htmlgt

Revuecanadienne

drsquoe currentudesame currenricaines37

(2007)

203

these extraordinary images which stand out by their indexicalquality reality physically imprints itself upon the camera insteadof merely being recorded by it in much the same way as atraumatic event falls directly into the psyche bypassing perceptionand consciousness While the filmrsquos apparent objective is to maketrauma visible and narratable in these haunting scenes traumareveals itself as an impossibility of seeing hearing and knowing

That the truth of trauma resides in its resistance to perception andunderstanding is borne out by the testimony of the survivors fromwhich we learn that the fire-fighters on the scene were almosttotally oblivious to the reality of what was going on For examplewhile the whole world had seen Tower 2 collapse on live televisionthe people trapped inside the lobby of Tower 1 did not have a clueas to what had happenedmdashwhich explains why having finallymade their way out they kept standing in the immediate vicinityof the doomed tower In an interview recently made public as partof the 911 records Joseph Pfeifer the battalion chief whom Juleshad found himself shadowing for most of the day recalls lsquolsquoWe gotout there and then we were standing under the bridge trying to seewhat was going on I couldnrsquot see what was going on Everythingwas covered with smoke I couldnrsquot see what collapsed Our eyeswere full of garbage Wersquore standing on the street and still notknowing the full implication of what took place because youcouldnrsquot seersquorsquo The film shows how the fire-fighters only beganto realize what they had lived through after they had got back tothe firehouse The emphasis placed by various eye-witnesses onthe eventsrsquo defiance of sight and comprehension challenges theassumptions structuring the filmrsquos conventional narrative in parti-cular the view that there is an intact history out there waiting to belured into vision and spoken as pure meaning In fact no soonerdoes 911 assert its claim to total visual mastery over the events of11 September than this claim is rebutted by the very footageintended to substantiate it James Hanlonrsquos promise at the begin-ning of the film that the viewer lsquolsquowill see all of itrsquorsquo lsquolsquobeginning toendrsquorsquo is immediately followed by a flash-forward to the dust- anddebris-filled images shot by Jules during the collapse of Tower 2With the picture going black it becomes impossible for the viewerto see anything at all

It is precisely this tension between the desire to know the subjectbeing represented and themdashimplicitmdashrecognition of the limits ofthat knowing that makes 911 so compelling With one hand the

Canadian

Review

ofAm

erican

Studies3

7(2007)

198

film offers the familiar gesture of memory as forgettingmdashtheincorporation of trauma into a reassuring narrative of nationalgreatnessmdashand with the other hand it takes away the comfort ofresting in this narrative Whatever ethical value the documentarycan be said to possess lies in the tension between these twogestures which if nothing more at least complicates the returnto the lsquolsquodogmatic slumberrsquorsquo (Derrida qtd in Borradori 100) fromwhich 11 September had awakened us

Notes

1 This is especially true of the televised version of the documentarywhich differs in several respects from the DVD edition released byParamount Pictures in 2002 under the title 911 The FilmmakersrsquoCommemorative Edition Most notably Robert De Niro who hosted theCBS program does not appear on the DVD edition Yet with a runningtime of 129 minutes the DVD edition is about a quarter of an hourlonger than the CBS broadcast Some footage has been added thatexpands on the original material for example scenes from the trainingof new recruits scenes from within the firehouse and scenes from therecovery effort As a result the tight narrative structure undergirdingthe TV version is loosened somewhat By way of bonus materialthe DVD features a 53-minute interview section containing furthercommentary from the fire-fighters

2 In fact the only visual evidence of death in the documentary comes inthe form of two still images of the intact body of Father Mychal Judgethe fire departmentrsquos chaplain being carried to a nearby church Hisdeathmdashdistanced as it is through the use of still rather than movingimagesmdashcan hardly be called representative as the vast majority of thevictims of 11 September were denied such dignity their bodies beingall but obliterated and therefore hard (if not impossible) to identify Asone of the fire-fighters testifies in the additional interview section onthe DVD lsquolsquoThere were many there were many eh it wasnrsquot manybodies but it was many pieces body parts There was I saw one ortwo whole bodies but not it wasnrsquot many I imagine thepeople were the same as the building nothing leftrsquorsquo Moreover thechaplainrsquos death is rescued from meaninglessness by the uncannyresemblance between the scene captured in the two photographs andtraditional pictorial representations of the descent from the crosswhich has the effect of turning the clergyman into a Christ-likesacrificial victim (I owe this point to my colleague Kristiaan Versluys)

3 One might argue as many have that the noise of the impact of thebodies on the glass and metal awning outside Tower 1 is disturbingenough While these sounds are definitely chilling as are the screamswe hear of terrified burn victims inside the lobby it should be pointedout that the original soundtrack recorded by Julesrsquos on-camera

Revuecanadienne

drsquoe currentudesame currenricaines37

(2007)

199

microphone was manipulated so as to soften the shock effectAppearances notwithstanding what we get to hear is a diluted andsanitized version of the original soundtrack as executive producerSusan Zirinsky explained at the press screening most of the crasheswere edited out on the grounds that lsquolsquo[t]o have that incredible crushof sound every 20 or 30 seconds would have been very tough for theaudiencersquorsquo (qtd in Laurence)

4 A similar point is made by Susan Sontag in Regarding the Pain of Others

Staying within the bounds of good taste was the primary reasongiven for not showing any of the horrific pictures of the deadtaken at the site of the World Trade Center in the immediateaftermath of the attack on September 11 2001 This novelinsistence on good taste in a culture saturated with commercialincentives to lower standards of taste may be puzzling But itmakes sense if understood as obscuring a host of concerns andanxieties about public order and public morale that cannotbe named as well as pointing to the inability otherwise toformulate or defend traditional conventions of how to mourn(68ndash9)

5 In an interview segment filmed at the Fire Academy in June 2001 andshown at the beginning of the documentary Benetatos says lsquolsquoIt soundskind of cheesy but I always kind of wanted to be a hero and this isreally the only thing you can do that you can do that [sic]rsquorsquo

6 See also Orly Lubinrsquos discussion of the documentaryrsquos compliancewith Hollywood conventions (125ndash7)

7 In view of the documentaryrsquos own affinity with mainstream disasterfilms the Hollywood comparisons invoked by some of the witnessesto convey the magnitude of the events take on an ironic ring A newscorrespondent reports from on the ground that lsquolsquo[t]he scene here is justone right out of one of those movies you would see in Hollywoodrsquorsquoand in the DVD version a passer-by is heard saying lsquolsquoLike somethingout of The Towering Inferno like a moviersquorsquo

8 Not only does Peyser speak of lsquolsquorichly drawn charactersrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoplottwistsrsquorsquo in the above passage but he also uses film vocabulary todescribe the thumps of bodies hitting the roof of the lobby callingthem lsquolsquothe most chilling sound effects ever heard on televisionrsquorsquo

9 De Nirorsquos words were echoed by Susan Zirinsky at the pre-screeningpress meeting Responding to Zirinskyrsquos claim in an article titledlsquolsquoShield Us on Sunday Night No Just Show Us Airing the Cultureof Denial on CBSrsquorsquo Claudia Rosett puts her finger on the problemlsquolsquoMoment of strength Well yes unquestionably there was valorBut given that the overwhelming event this bravery sought to addresswas actually terror this amounts to a cleaned up version of therealities of that dayrsquorsquo

Canadian

Review

ofAm

erican

Studies3

7(2007)

200

10 lsquolsquoOrrsquorsquo Berger continues lsquolsquothe dead were spoken of now as heroesrsquorsquo (55)Extending the creation of heroes to include the dead is also noticeablein the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary By way of an epilogue photo-graphs of the 344 fire-fighters who lost their lives on 11 September aredisplayed four by four against the background of the Stars and StripesThey are commemorated as national heroes who made the ultimatesacrifice in the service of their country By conceiving the catastropheas a purposive and meaningful sacrificial operation the documentaryeffectively softens its traumatic core

11 As a cinematic tribute to fire-fighters 911 stands in a long traditionof adulatory films about the fire-fighting profession stretching fromLife of an American Fireman (1903) to The Towering Inferno (1974) andfrom Backdraft (1991) to The Guys (2002) and Ladder 49 (2004)

12 While there are numerous myths featuring two brothers one isparticularly reminded of the legendary love of Castor and Polluxthe twin sons of Jupiter and Leda

13 That the documentary promotes a pro-war political agenda wasrecognized at the press meeting by Susan Zirinsky who defended thetiming of the broadcast as follows lsquolsquoThis is the right time We canrsquotforget what drove this country to be at war It is really important to notforget what happenedrsquorsquo (qtd in Long) Appearing on Foxrsquos The OrsquoReillyFactor later that week Zirinsky again invoked the war being fought inAfghanistan and stressed the supposed need lsquolsquoto keep that missionaliversquorsquo As Chris Fitzpatrick points out Zirinskyrsquos attitude lsquolsquoborrowedfrom John Ashcroftrsquorsquo suggests that lsquolsquothe true function of 911 may begetting Americarsquos jingoistic blood boilingrsquorsquo The Naudetsrsquo andZirinskyrsquos apparent disagreement about the purpose of thedocumentary is a rare breach of Franco-American unity judging frominterviews with directors and producers there was a completeconsensus among the different parties involved on just about everyother aspect of the film

14 A similar observation is made by Andre Habib in lsquolsquoAutour de 911 mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelle ou dommages au reelrsquorsquo one ofthe most insightful articles on the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary that Ihave come across Habib also regards the probie as lsquolsquoune metonymie desEtats-Unis en entierrsquorsquo (lsquolsquoa metonymy of the United States as a wholersquorsquo)

Tony crsquoest les Etats-Unis jusque la menages par lrsquoHistoireassoiffes drsquoheroısme mais maintenus a lrsquoecart de toute epreuveveritable Crsquoest comme si tout le pays avait ete jusqursquoa cette datefatidique en probation et que apres le 11 septembre elle avaitsubi son initiation devenant du coup mure pour lrsquoHistoire

(Tony is the United States until then spared by History thirstyfor heroism but kept away from any real challenge It is as if thewhole country had until that fateful date been on probation

Revuecanadienne

drsquoe currentudesame currenricaines37

(2007)

201

and as if after September 11 it had undergone its initiation andthereby become ripe for History)

15 Compare Zizek lsquolsquo[i]s not the surprise at why are they not loved [sic] forwhat they are doing to the world the most fundamental Americanreaction (at least) since the Vietnam war We just try to be good to helpothers to bring peace and prosperity and look what we get in returnrsquorsquo(145ndash6)

16 In this respect the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary is of a piece withother postndash11 September mass-audience films As Wheeler WinstonDixon observes lsquolsquo[T]he bulk of mainstream American cinema since911 whether the films were in production before or not seemscentered on a desire to replicate the idea of the lsquojust warrsquo in whichmilitary reprisals and the concomitant escalation of warfare seemsimultaneously inevitable and justifiedrsquorsquo (1)

17 In the United States however Brigandrsquos film was released(belatedly in 2003) under the name September 11 in an apparenteffort to counteract this disorienting effect

18 However this did not stop Variety from calling the film lsquolsquostridentlyanti-Americanrsquorsquo (Godard 1) Dixon correctly points out that 11rsquo0901lsquolsquofar from being anti-American is more accurately critical of Americanpolicy in the wake of 911 a very different matterrsquorsquo (5) In his viewthe contested episodes of Brigandrsquos film lsquolsquobring a welcome breath ofdissenting opinion to current cinematic discourse on the attacks of911rsquorsquo (5)

19 Efforts to get the department to comply with the commissionrsquosrecommendations were suspended indefinitely in the wake of the11 September attacks (Latour)

20 In 11rsquo0901 the reality of racism and xenophobia in New York ispoignantly evoked by the Indian director Mira Nair whose segmentdeals with the chilling effects of 11 September on the American Muslimcommunity Set in New York City Nairrsquos film recounts the story (basedon actual events) of a Pakistani American family whose eldest son goesmissing on the morning of 11 September For several months the FBIand the media keep claiming that he was a terrorist causing his familyto be shunned and ostracized by their initially supportive neighboursEventually however it emerges that the young man a medic waskilled while attempting to rescue people at the World Trade CenterOnce the truth is known he is hailed as a hero

Works Cited

Adorno Theodor lsquolsquoCultural Criticism and Societyrsquorsquo Prisms Trans SamuelWeber and Shierry Weber Cambridge MA MIT Press 1984 17ndash34

Canadian

Review

ofAm

erican

Studies3

7(2007)

202

Anderson Lisa and Stevenson Swanson lsquolsquoFilm Goes inside World TradeCenter Gripping Sept 11 Footage Followed NYC Firefightersrsquorsquo ChicagoTribune 5 Mar 2002 Advocate 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwstamfordadvo-catecomclassifiedjobssns-worldtrade-filmfootage-ctstorygt

Berger James lsquolsquolsquoTherersquos No Backhand to Thisrsquorsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911Ed Judith Greenberg Lincoln U of Nebraska P 2003 52ndash9

Borradori Giovanna Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with JurgenHabermas and Jacques Derrida Chicago U of Chicago P 2003

Butler Judith Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence LondonVerso 2004

Caruth Cathy lsquolsquoRecapturing the Pastrsquorsquo Introduction Trauma Explorations inMemory Ed Cathy Caruth Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP 1995 151ndash7

Dixon Wheeler Winston lsquolsquoSomething LostmdashFilm after 911rsquorsquo IntroductionFilm and Television after 911 Ed Wheeler Winston Dixon CarbondaleSouthern Illinois UP 2004 1ndash28

Dreher Rod lsquolsquoInside the Inferno The 911 Documentaryrsquorsquo National ReviewOnline 7 Mar 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwnationalreviewcomdreherdreher030702shtmlgt

11rsquo0901 Dir Youssef Chahine et al Prod Alain Brigand DVD GalateeFilms Studio Canal 2002

Erickson Hal lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo All-Movie Guide 22 Sept 2005 lthttpallmoviecomcgavgdllpfrac14avgampsqlfrac141265838gt

Fitzpatrick Chris lsquolsquo911 Happy Anniversaryrsquorsquo PopMatterscom 23 July 2005lthttpwwwpopmatterscomtvreviewsn9ndash11shtmlgt

Godard Francois lsquolsquoCanal Plus 911 Pic Courts Controversyrsquorsquo Daily Variety21 Aug 2002 1 20

Habib Andre lsquolsquoAutour de 911mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelleou dommages au reelrsquorsquo Hors Champs June 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwhorschampqccaarticlephp3id_articlefrac1481gt

Hope Gloves and Redemption Dir Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet 1999DVD Pathfinder 2003

Knight Sam lsquolsquoNew Yorkrsquos Whitestrsquorsquo Slices of New York Times Online 21Feb 2005 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwtimesonlinecoukarticle018391ndash149383700htmlgt

Latour Jane lsquolsquoLooking for a Fire Department That Looks like New YorkrsquorsquoGotham Gazette 3 Dec 2001 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwgothamgazettecomiotwfiredepartmentdoc1shtmlgt

Laurence Robert P lsquolsquoTwo-Hour Special 911 Conveys Horror withoutBeing Graphicrsquorsquo San Diego Union-Tribune 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwsignonsandiegocomtvradiocbs911htmlgt

Revuecanadienne

drsquoe currentudesame currenricaines37

(2007)

203

film offers the familiar gesture of memory as forgettingmdashtheincorporation of trauma into a reassuring narrative of nationalgreatnessmdashand with the other hand it takes away the comfort ofresting in this narrative Whatever ethical value the documentarycan be said to possess lies in the tension between these twogestures which if nothing more at least complicates the returnto the lsquolsquodogmatic slumberrsquorsquo (Derrida qtd in Borradori 100) fromwhich 11 September had awakened us

Notes

1 This is especially true of the televised version of the documentarywhich differs in several respects from the DVD edition released byParamount Pictures in 2002 under the title 911 The FilmmakersrsquoCommemorative Edition Most notably Robert De Niro who hosted theCBS program does not appear on the DVD edition Yet with a runningtime of 129 minutes the DVD edition is about a quarter of an hourlonger than the CBS broadcast Some footage has been added thatexpands on the original material for example scenes from the trainingof new recruits scenes from within the firehouse and scenes from therecovery effort As a result the tight narrative structure undergirdingthe TV version is loosened somewhat By way of bonus materialthe DVD features a 53-minute interview section containing furthercommentary from the fire-fighters

2 In fact the only visual evidence of death in the documentary comes inthe form of two still images of the intact body of Father Mychal Judgethe fire departmentrsquos chaplain being carried to a nearby church Hisdeathmdashdistanced as it is through the use of still rather than movingimagesmdashcan hardly be called representative as the vast majority of thevictims of 11 September were denied such dignity their bodies beingall but obliterated and therefore hard (if not impossible) to identify Asone of the fire-fighters testifies in the additional interview section onthe DVD lsquolsquoThere were many there were many eh it wasnrsquot manybodies but it was many pieces body parts There was I saw one ortwo whole bodies but not it wasnrsquot many I imagine thepeople were the same as the building nothing leftrsquorsquo Moreover thechaplainrsquos death is rescued from meaninglessness by the uncannyresemblance between the scene captured in the two photographs andtraditional pictorial representations of the descent from the crosswhich has the effect of turning the clergyman into a Christ-likesacrificial victim (I owe this point to my colleague Kristiaan Versluys)

3 One might argue as many have that the noise of the impact of thebodies on the glass and metal awning outside Tower 1 is disturbingenough While these sounds are definitely chilling as are the screamswe hear of terrified burn victims inside the lobby it should be pointedout that the original soundtrack recorded by Julesrsquos on-camera

Revuecanadienne

drsquoe currentudesame currenricaines37

(2007)

199

microphone was manipulated so as to soften the shock effectAppearances notwithstanding what we get to hear is a diluted andsanitized version of the original soundtrack as executive producerSusan Zirinsky explained at the press screening most of the crasheswere edited out on the grounds that lsquolsquo[t]o have that incredible crushof sound every 20 or 30 seconds would have been very tough for theaudiencersquorsquo (qtd in Laurence)

4 A similar point is made by Susan Sontag in Regarding the Pain of Others

Staying within the bounds of good taste was the primary reasongiven for not showing any of the horrific pictures of the deadtaken at the site of the World Trade Center in the immediateaftermath of the attack on September 11 2001 This novelinsistence on good taste in a culture saturated with commercialincentives to lower standards of taste may be puzzling But itmakes sense if understood as obscuring a host of concerns andanxieties about public order and public morale that cannotbe named as well as pointing to the inability otherwise toformulate or defend traditional conventions of how to mourn(68ndash9)

5 In an interview segment filmed at the Fire Academy in June 2001 andshown at the beginning of the documentary Benetatos says lsquolsquoIt soundskind of cheesy but I always kind of wanted to be a hero and this isreally the only thing you can do that you can do that [sic]rsquorsquo

6 See also Orly Lubinrsquos discussion of the documentaryrsquos compliancewith Hollywood conventions (125ndash7)

7 In view of the documentaryrsquos own affinity with mainstream disasterfilms the Hollywood comparisons invoked by some of the witnessesto convey the magnitude of the events take on an ironic ring A newscorrespondent reports from on the ground that lsquolsquo[t]he scene here is justone right out of one of those movies you would see in Hollywoodrsquorsquoand in the DVD version a passer-by is heard saying lsquolsquoLike somethingout of The Towering Inferno like a moviersquorsquo

8 Not only does Peyser speak of lsquolsquorichly drawn charactersrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoplottwistsrsquorsquo in the above passage but he also uses film vocabulary todescribe the thumps of bodies hitting the roof of the lobby callingthem lsquolsquothe most chilling sound effects ever heard on televisionrsquorsquo

9 De Nirorsquos words were echoed by Susan Zirinsky at the pre-screeningpress meeting Responding to Zirinskyrsquos claim in an article titledlsquolsquoShield Us on Sunday Night No Just Show Us Airing the Cultureof Denial on CBSrsquorsquo Claudia Rosett puts her finger on the problemlsquolsquoMoment of strength Well yes unquestionably there was valorBut given that the overwhelming event this bravery sought to addresswas actually terror this amounts to a cleaned up version of therealities of that dayrsquorsquo

Canadian

Review

ofAm

erican

Studies3

7(2007)

200

10 lsquolsquoOrrsquorsquo Berger continues lsquolsquothe dead were spoken of now as heroesrsquorsquo (55)Extending the creation of heroes to include the dead is also noticeablein the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary By way of an epilogue photo-graphs of the 344 fire-fighters who lost their lives on 11 September aredisplayed four by four against the background of the Stars and StripesThey are commemorated as national heroes who made the ultimatesacrifice in the service of their country By conceiving the catastropheas a purposive and meaningful sacrificial operation the documentaryeffectively softens its traumatic core

11 As a cinematic tribute to fire-fighters 911 stands in a long traditionof adulatory films about the fire-fighting profession stretching fromLife of an American Fireman (1903) to The Towering Inferno (1974) andfrom Backdraft (1991) to The Guys (2002) and Ladder 49 (2004)

12 While there are numerous myths featuring two brothers one isparticularly reminded of the legendary love of Castor and Polluxthe twin sons of Jupiter and Leda

13 That the documentary promotes a pro-war political agenda wasrecognized at the press meeting by Susan Zirinsky who defended thetiming of the broadcast as follows lsquolsquoThis is the right time We canrsquotforget what drove this country to be at war It is really important to notforget what happenedrsquorsquo (qtd in Long) Appearing on Foxrsquos The OrsquoReillyFactor later that week Zirinsky again invoked the war being fought inAfghanistan and stressed the supposed need lsquolsquoto keep that missionaliversquorsquo As Chris Fitzpatrick points out Zirinskyrsquos attitude lsquolsquoborrowedfrom John Ashcroftrsquorsquo suggests that lsquolsquothe true function of 911 may begetting Americarsquos jingoistic blood boilingrsquorsquo The Naudetsrsquo andZirinskyrsquos apparent disagreement about the purpose of thedocumentary is a rare breach of Franco-American unity judging frominterviews with directors and producers there was a completeconsensus among the different parties involved on just about everyother aspect of the film

14 A similar observation is made by Andre Habib in lsquolsquoAutour de 911 mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelle ou dommages au reelrsquorsquo one ofthe most insightful articles on the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary that Ihave come across Habib also regards the probie as lsquolsquoune metonymie desEtats-Unis en entierrsquorsquo (lsquolsquoa metonymy of the United States as a wholersquorsquo)

Tony crsquoest les Etats-Unis jusque la menages par lrsquoHistoireassoiffes drsquoheroısme mais maintenus a lrsquoecart de toute epreuveveritable Crsquoest comme si tout le pays avait ete jusqursquoa cette datefatidique en probation et que apres le 11 septembre elle avaitsubi son initiation devenant du coup mure pour lrsquoHistoire

(Tony is the United States until then spared by History thirstyfor heroism but kept away from any real challenge It is as if thewhole country had until that fateful date been on probation

Revuecanadienne

drsquoe currentudesame currenricaines37

(2007)

201

and as if after September 11 it had undergone its initiation andthereby become ripe for History)

15 Compare Zizek lsquolsquo[i]s not the surprise at why are they not loved [sic] forwhat they are doing to the world the most fundamental Americanreaction (at least) since the Vietnam war We just try to be good to helpothers to bring peace and prosperity and look what we get in returnrsquorsquo(145ndash6)

16 In this respect the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary is of a piece withother postndash11 September mass-audience films As Wheeler WinstonDixon observes lsquolsquo[T]he bulk of mainstream American cinema since911 whether the films were in production before or not seemscentered on a desire to replicate the idea of the lsquojust warrsquo in whichmilitary reprisals and the concomitant escalation of warfare seemsimultaneously inevitable and justifiedrsquorsquo (1)

17 In the United States however Brigandrsquos film was released(belatedly in 2003) under the name September 11 in an apparenteffort to counteract this disorienting effect

18 However this did not stop Variety from calling the film lsquolsquostridentlyanti-Americanrsquorsquo (Godard 1) Dixon correctly points out that 11rsquo0901lsquolsquofar from being anti-American is more accurately critical of Americanpolicy in the wake of 911 a very different matterrsquorsquo (5) In his viewthe contested episodes of Brigandrsquos film lsquolsquobring a welcome breath ofdissenting opinion to current cinematic discourse on the attacks of911rsquorsquo (5)

19 Efforts to get the department to comply with the commissionrsquosrecommendations were suspended indefinitely in the wake of the11 September attacks (Latour)

20 In 11rsquo0901 the reality of racism and xenophobia in New York ispoignantly evoked by the Indian director Mira Nair whose segmentdeals with the chilling effects of 11 September on the American Muslimcommunity Set in New York City Nairrsquos film recounts the story (basedon actual events) of a Pakistani American family whose eldest son goesmissing on the morning of 11 September For several months the FBIand the media keep claiming that he was a terrorist causing his familyto be shunned and ostracized by their initially supportive neighboursEventually however it emerges that the young man a medic waskilled while attempting to rescue people at the World Trade CenterOnce the truth is known he is hailed as a hero

Works Cited

Adorno Theodor lsquolsquoCultural Criticism and Societyrsquorsquo Prisms Trans SamuelWeber and Shierry Weber Cambridge MA MIT Press 1984 17ndash34

Canadian

Review

ofAm

erican

Studies3

7(2007)

202

Anderson Lisa and Stevenson Swanson lsquolsquoFilm Goes inside World TradeCenter Gripping Sept 11 Footage Followed NYC Firefightersrsquorsquo ChicagoTribune 5 Mar 2002 Advocate 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwstamfordadvo-catecomclassifiedjobssns-worldtrade-filmfootage-ctstorygt

Berger James lsquolsquolsquoTherersquos No Backhand to Thisrsquorsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911Ed Judith Greenberg Lincoln U of Nebraska P 2003 52ndash9

Borradori Giovanna Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with JurgenHabermas and Jacques Derrida Chicago U of Chicago P 2003

Butler Judith Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence LondonVerso 2004

Caruth Cathy lsquolsquoRecapturing the Pastrsquorsquo Introduction Trauma Explorations inMemory Ed Cathy Caruth Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP 1995 151ndash7

Dixon Wheeler Winston lsquolsquoSomething LostmdashFilm after 911rsquorsquo IntroductionFilm and Television after 911 Ed Wheeler Winston Dixon CarbondaleSouthern Illinois UP 2004 1ndash28

Dreher Rod lsquolsquoInside the Inferno The 911 Documentaryrsquorsquo National ReviewOnline 7 Mar 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwnationalreviewcomdreherdreher030702shtmlgt

11rsquo0901 Dir Youssef Chahine et al Prod Alain Brigand DVD GalateeFilms Studio Canal 2002

Erickson Hal lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo All-Movie Guide 22 Sept 2005 lthttpallmoviecomcgavgdllpfrac14avgampsqlfrac141265838gt

Fitzpatrick Chris lsquolsquo911 Happy Anniversaryrsquorsquo PopMatterscom 23 July 2005lthttpwwwpopmatterscomtvreviewsn9ndash11shtmlgt

Godard Francois lsquolsquoCanal Plus 911 Pic Courts Controversyrsquorsquo Daily Variety21 Aug 2002 1 20

Habib Andre lsquolsquoAutour de 911mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelleou dommages au reelrsquorsquo Hors Champs June 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwhorschampqccaarticlephp3id_articlefrac1481gt

Hope Gloves and Redemption Dir Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet 1999DVD Pathfinder 2003

Knight Sam lsquolsquoNew Yorkrsquos Whitestrsquorsquo Slices of New York Times Online 21Feb 2005 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwtimesonlinecoukarticle018391ndash149383700htmlgt

Latour Jane lsquolsquoLooking for a Fire Department That Looks like New YorkrsquorsquoGotham Gazette 3 Dec 2001 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwgothamgazettecomiotwfiredepartmentdoc1shtmlgt

Laurence Robert P lsquolsquoTwo-Hour Special 911 Conveys Horror withoutBeing Graphicrsquorsquo San Diego Union-Tribune 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwsignonsandiegocomtvradiocbs911htmlgt

Revuecanadienne

drsquoe currentudesame currenricaines37

(2007)

203

microphone was manipulated so as to soften the shock effectAppearances notwithstanding what we get to hear is a diluted andsanitized version of the original soundtrack as executive producerSusan Zirinsky explained at the press screening most of the crasheswere edited out on the grounds that lsquolsquo[t]o have that incredible crushof sound every 20 or 30 seconds would have been very tough for theaudiencersquorsquo (qtd in Laurence)

4 A similar point is made by Susan Sontag in Regarding the Pain of Others

Staying within the bounds of good taste was the primary reasongiven for not showing any of the horrific pictures of the deadtaken at the site of the World Trade Center in the immediateaftermath of the attack on September 11 2001 This novelinsistence on good taste in a culture saturated with commercialincentives to lower standards of taste may be puzzling But itmakes sense if understood as obscuring a host of concerns andanxieties about public order and public morale that cannotbe named as well as pointing to the inability otherwise toformulate or defend traditional conventions of how to mourn(68ndash9)

5 In an interview segment filmed at the Fire Academy in June 2001 andshown at the beginning of the documentary Benetatos says lsquolsquoIt soundskind of cheesy but I always kind of wanted to be a hero and this isreally the only thing you can do that you can do that [sic]rsquorsquo

6 See also Orly Lubinrsquos discussion of the documentaryrsquos compliancewith Hollywood conventions (125ndash7)

7 In view of the documentaryrsquos own affinity with mainstream disasterfilms the Hollywood comparisons invoked by some of the witnessesto convey the magnitude of the events take on an ironic ring A newscorrespondent reports from on the ground that lsquolsquo[t]he scene here is justone right out of one of those movies you would see in Hollywoodrsquorsquoand in the DVD version a passer-by is heard saying lsquolsquoLike somethingout of The Towering Inferno like a moviersquorsquo

8 Not only does Peyser speak of lsquolsquorichly drawn charactersrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoplottwistsrsquorsquo in the above passage but he also uses film vocabulary todescribe the thumps of bodies hitting the roof of the lobby callingthem lsquolsquothe most chilling sound effects ever heard on televisionrsquorsquo

9 De Nirorsquos words were echoed by Susan Zirinsky at the pre-screeningpress meeting Responding to Zirinskyrsquos claim in an article titledlsquolsquoShield Us on Sunday Night No Just Show Us Airing the Cultureof Denial on CBSrsquorsquo Claudia Rosett puts her finger on the problemlsquolsquoMoment of strength Well yes unquestionably there was valorBut given that the overwhelming event this bravery sought to addresswas actually terror this amounts to a cleaned up version of therealities of that dayrsquorsquo

Canadian

Review

ofAm

erican

Studies3

7(2007)

200

10 lsquolsquoOrrsquorsquo Berger continues lsquolsquothe dead were spoken of now as heroesrsquorsquo (55)Extending the creation of heroes to include the dead is also noticeablein the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary By way of an epilogue photo-graphs of the 344 fire-fighters who lost their lives on 11 September aredisplayed four by four against the background of the Stars and StripesThey are commemorated as national heroes who made the ultimatesacrifice in the service of their country By conceiving the catastropheas a purposive and meaningful sacrificial operation the documentaryeffectively softens its traumatic core

11 As a cinematic tribute to fire-fighters 911 stands in a long traditionof adulatory films about the fire-fighting profession stretching fromLife of an American Fireman (1903) to The Towering Inferno (1974) andfrom Backdraft (1991) to The Guys (2002) and Ladder 49 (2004)

12 While there are numerous myths featuring two brothers one isparticularly reminded of the legendary love of Castor and Polluxthe twin sons of Jupiter and Leda

13 That the documentary promotes a pro-war political agenda wasrecognized at the press meeting by Susan Zirinsky who defended thetiming of the broadcast as follows lsquolsquoThis is the right time We canrsquotforget what drove this country to be at war It is really important to notforget what happenedrsquorsquo (qtd in Long) Appearing on Foxrsquos The OrsquoReillyFactor later that week Zirinsky again invoked the war being fought inAfghanistan and stressed the supposed need lsquolsquoto keep that missionaliversquorsquo As Chris Fitzpatrick points out Zirinskyrsquos attitude lsquolsquoborrowedfrom John Ashcroftrsquorsquo suggests that lsquolsquothe true function of 911 may begetting Americarsquos jingoistic blood boilingrsquorsquo The Naudetsrsquo andZirinskyrsquos apparent disagreement about the purpose of thedocumentary is a rare breach of Franco-American unity judging frominterviews with directors and producers there was a completeconsensus among the different parties involved on just about everyother aspect of the film

14 A similar observation is made by Andre Habib in lsquolsquoAutour de 911 mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelle ou dommages au reelrsquorsquo one ofthe most insightful articles on the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary that Ihave come across Habib also regards the probie as lsquolsquoune metonymie desEtats-Unis en entierrsquorsquo (lsquolsquoa metonymy of the United States as a wholersquorsquo)

Tony crsquoest les Etats-Unis jusque la menages par lrsquoHistoireassoiffes drsquoheroısme mais maintenus a lrsquoecart de toute epreuveveritable Crsquoest comme si tout le pays avait ete jusqursquoa cette datefatidique en probation et que apres le 11 septembre elle avaitsubi son initiation devenant du coup mure pour lrsquoHistoire

(Tony is the United States until then spared by History thirstyfor heroism but kept away from any real challenge It is as if thewhole country had until that fateful date been on probation

Revuecanadienne

drsquoe currentudesame currenricaines37

(2007)

201

and as if after September 11 it had undergone its initiation andthereby become ripe for History)

15 Compare Zizek lsquolsquo[i]s not the surprise at why are they not loved [sic] forwhat they are doing to the world the most fundamental Americanreaction (at least) since the Vietnam war We just try to be good to helpothers to bring peace and prosperity and look what we get in returnrsquorsquo(145ndash6)

16 In this respect the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary is of a piece withother postndash11 September mass-audience films As Wheeler WinstonDixon observes lsquolsquo[T]he bulk of mainstream American cinema since911 whether the films were in production before or not seemscentered on a desire to replicate the idea of the lsquojust warrsquo in whichmilitary reprisals and the concomitant escalation of warfare seemsimultaneously inevitable and justifiedrsquorsquo (1)

17 In the United States however Brigandrsquos film was released(belatedly in 2003) under the name September 11 in an apparenteffort to counteract this disorienting effect

18 However this did not stop Variety from calling the film lsquolsquostridentlyanti-Americanrsquorsquo (Godard 1) Dixon correctly points out that 11rsquo0901lsquolsquofar from being anti-American is more accurately critical of Americanpolicy in the wake of 911 a very different matterrsquorsquo (5) In his viewthe contested episodes of Brigandrsquos film lsquolsquobring a welcome breath ofdissenting opinion to current cinematic discourse on the attacks of911rsquorsquo (5)

19 Efforts to get the department to comply with the commissionrsquosrecommendations were suspended indefinitely in the wake of the11 September attacks (Latour)

20 In 11rsquo0901 the reality of racism and xenophobia in New York ispoignantly evoked by the Indian director Mira Nair whose segmentdeals with the chilling effects of 11 September on the American Muslimcommunity Set in New York City Nairrsquos film recounts the story (basedon actual events) of a Pakistani American family whose eldest son goesmissing on the morning of 11 September For several months the FBIand the media keep claiming that he was a terrorist causing his familyto be shunned and ostracized by their initially supportive neighboursEventually however it emerges that the young man a medic waskilled while attempting to rescue people at the World Trade CenterOnce the truth is known he is hailed as a hero

Works Cited

Adorno Theodor lsquolsquoCultural Criticism and Societyrsquorsquo Prisms Trans SamuelWeber and Shierry Weber Cambridge MA MIT Press 1984 17ndash34

Canadian

Review

ofAm

erican

Studies3

7(2007)

202

Anderson Lisa and Stevenson Swanson lsquolsquoFilm Goes inside World TradeCenter Gripping Sept 11 Footage Followed NYC Firefightersrsquorsquo ChicagoTribune 5 Mar 2002 Advocate 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwstamfordadvo-catecomclassifiedjobssns-worldtrade-filmfootage-ctstorygt

Berger James lsquolsquolsquoTherersquos No Backhand to Thisrsquorsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911Ed Judith Greenberg Lincoln U of Nebraska P 2003 52ndash9

Borradori Giovanna Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with JurgenHabermas and Jacques Derrida Chicago U of Chicago P 2003

Butler Judith Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence LondonVerso 2004

Caruth Cathy lsquolsquoRecapturing the Pastrsquorsquo Introduction Trauma Explorations inMemory Ed Cathy Caruth Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP 1995 151ndash7

Dixon Wheeler Winston lsquolsquoSomething LostmdashFilm after 911rsquorsquo IntroductionFilm and Television after 911 Ed Wheeler Winston Dixon CarbondaleSouthern Illinois UP 2004 1ndash28

Dreher Rod lsquolsquoInside the Inferno The 911 Documentaryrsquorsquo National ReviewOnline 7 Mar 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwnationalreviewcomdreherdreher030702shtmlgt

11rsquo0901 Dir Youssef Chahine et al Prod Alain Brigand DVD GalateeFilms Studio Canal 2002

Erickson Hal lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo All-Movie Guide 22 Sept 2005 lthttpallmoviecomcgavgdllpfrac14avgampsqlfrac141265838gt

Fitzpatrick Chris lsquolsquo911 Happy Anniversaryrsquorsquo PopMatterscom 23 July 2005lthttpwwwpopmatterscomtvreviewsn9ndash11shtmlgt

Godard Francois lsquolsquoCanal Plus 911 Pic Courts Controversyrsquorsquo Daily Variety21 Aug 2002 1 20

Habib Andre lsquolsquoAutour de 911mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelleou dommages au reelrsquorsquo Hors Champs June 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwhorschampqccaarticlephp3id_articlefrac1481gt

Hope Gloves and Redemption Dir Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet 1999DVD Pathfinder 2003

Knight Sam lsquolsquoNew Yorkrsquos Whitestrsquorsquo Slices of New York Times Online 21Feb 2005 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwtimesonlinecoukarticle018391ndash149383700htmlgt

Latour Jane lsquolsquoLooking for a Fire Department That Looks like New YorkrsquorsquoGotham Gazette 3 Dec 2001 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwgothamgazettecomiotwfiredepartmentdoc1shtmlgt

Laurence Robert P lsquolsquoTwo-Hour Special 911 Conveys Horror withoutBeing Graphicrsquorsquo San Diego Union-Tribune 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwsignonsandiegocomtvradiocbs911htmlgt

Revuecanadienne

drsquoe currentudesame currenricaines37

(2007)

203

10 lsquolsquoOrrsquorsquo Berger continues lsquolsquothe dead were spoken of now as heroesrsquorsquo (55)Extending the creation of heroes to include the dead is also noticeablein the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary By way of an epilogue photo-graphs of the 344 fire-fighters who lost their lives on 11 September aredisplayed four by four against the background of the Stars and StripesThey are commemorated as national heroes who made the ultimatesacrifice in the service of their country By conceiving the catastropheas a purposive and meaningful sacrificial operation the documentaryeffectively softens its traumatic core

11 As a cinematic tribute to fire-fighters 911 stands in a long traditionof adulatory films about the fire-fighting profession stretching fromLife of an American Fireman (1903) to The Towering Inferno (1974) andfrom Backdraft (1991) to The Guys (2002) and Ladder 49 (2004)

12 While there are numerous myths featuring two brothers one isparticularly reminded of the legendary love of Castor and Polluxthe twin sons of Jupiter and Leda

13 That the documentary promotes a pro-war political agenda wasrecognized at the press meeting by Susan Zirinsky who defended thetiming of the broadcast as follows lsquolsquoThis is the right time We canrsquotforget what drove this country to be at war It is really important to notforget what happenedrsquorsquo (qtd in Long) Appearing on Foxrsquos The OrsquoReillyFactor later that week Zirinsky again invoked the war being fought inAfghanistan and stressed the supposed need lsquolsquoto keep that missionaliversquorsquo As Chris Fitzpatrick points out Zirinskyrsquos attitude lsquolsquoborrowedfrom John Ashcroftrsquorsquo suggests that lsquolsquothe true function of 911 may begetting Americarsquos jingoistic blood boilingrsquorsquo The Naudetsrsquo andZirinskyrsquos apparent disagreement about the purpose of thedocumentary is a rare breach of Franco-American unity judging frominterviews with directors and producers there was a completeconsensus among the different parties involved on just about everyother aspect of the film

14 A similar observation is made by Andre Habib in lsquolsquoAutour de 911 mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelle ou dommages au reelrsquorsquo one ofthe most insightful articles on the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary that Ihave come across Habib also regards the probie as lsquolsquoune metonymie desEtats-Unis en entierrsquorsquo (lsquolsquoa metonymy of the United States as a wholersquorsquo)

Tony crsquoest les Etats-Unis jusque la menages par lrsquoHistoireassoiffes drsquoheroısme mais maintenus a lrsquoecart de toute epreuveveritable Crsquoest comme si tout le pays avait ete jusqursquoa cette datefatidique en probation et que apres le 11 septembre elle avaitsubi son initiation devenant du coup mure pour lrsquoHistoire

(Tony is the United States until then spared by History thirstyfor heroism but kept away from any real challenge It is as if thewhole country had until that fateful date been on probation

Revuecanadienne

drsquoe currentudesame currenricaines37

(2007)

201

and as if after September 11 it had undergone its initiation andthereby become ripe for History)

15 Compare Zizek lsquolsquo[i]s not the surprise at why are they not loved [sic] forwhat they are doing to the world the most fundamental Americanreaction (at least) since the Vietnam war We just try to be good to helpothers to bring peace and prosperity and look what we get in returnrsquorsquo(145ndash6)

16 In this respect the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary is of a piece withother postndash11 September mass-audience films As Wheeler WinstonDixon observes lsquolsquo[T]he bulk of mainstream American cinema since911 whether the films were in production before or not seemscentered on a desire to replicate the idea of the lsquojust warrsquo in whichmilitary reprisals and the concomitant escalation of warfare seemsimultaneously inevitable and justifiedrsquorsquo (1)

17 In the United States however Brigandrsquos film was released(belatedly in 2003) under the name September 11 in an apparenteffort to counteract this disorienting effect

18 However this did not stop Variety from calling the film lsquolsquostridentlyanti-Americanrsquorsquo (Godard 1) Dixon correctly points out that 11rsquo0901lsquolsquofar from being anti-American is more accurately critical of Americanpolicy in the wake of 911 a very different matterrsquorsquo (5) In his viewthe contested episodes of Brigandrsquos film lsquolsquobring a welcome breath ofdissenting opinion to current cinematic discourse on the attacks of911rsquorsquo (5)

19 Efforts to get the department to comply with the commissionrsquosrecommendations were suspended indefinitely in the wake of the11 September attacks (Latour)

20 In 11rsquo0901 the reality of racism and xenophobia in New York ispoignantly evoked by the Indian director Mira Nair whose segmentdeals with the chilling effects of 11 September on the American Muslimcommunity Set in New York City Nairrsquos film recounts the story (basedon actual events) of a Pakistani American family whose eldest son goesmissing on the morning of 11 September For several months the FBIand the media keep claiming that he was a terrorist causing his familyto be shunned and ostracized by their initially supportive neighboursEventually however it emerges that the young man a medic waskilled while attempting to rescue people at the World Trade CenterOnce the truth is known he is hailed as a hero

Works Cited

Adorno Theodor lsquolsquoCultural Criticism and Societyrsquorsquo Prisms Trans SamuelWeber and Shierry Weber Cambridge MA MIT Press 1984 17ndash34

Canadian

Review

ofAm

erican

Studies3

7(2007)

202

Anderson Lisa and Stevenson Swanson lsquolsquoFilm Goes inside World TradeCenter Gripping Sept 11 Footage Followed NYC Firefightersrsquorsquo ChicagoTribune 5 Mar 2002 Advocate 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwstamfordadvo-catecomclassifiedjobssns-worldtrade-filmfootage-ctstorygt

Berger James lsquolsquolsquoTherersquos No Backhand to Thisrsquorsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911Ed Judith Greenberg Lincoln U of Nebraska P 2003 52ndash9

Borradori Giovanna Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with JurgenHabermas and Jacques Derrida Chicago U of Chicago P 2003

Butler Judith Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence LondonVerso 2004

Caruth Cathy lsquolsquoRecapturing the Pastrsquorsquo Introduction Trauma Explorations inMemory Ed Cathy Caruth Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP 1995 151ndash7

Dixon Wheeler Winston lsquolsquoSomething LostmdashFilm after 911rsquorsquo IntroductionFilm and Television after 911 Ed Wheeler Winston Dixon CarbondaleSouthern Illinois UP 2004 1ndash28

Dreher Rod lsquolsquoInside the Inferno The 911 Documentaryrsquorsquo National ReviewOnline 7 Mar 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwnationalreviewcomdreherdreher030702shtmlgt

11rsquo0901 Dir Youssef Chahine et al Prod Alain Brigand DVD GalateeFilms Studio Canal 2002

Erickson Hal lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo All-Movie Guide 22 Sept 2005 lthttpallmoviecomcgavgdllpfrac14avgampsqlfrac141265838gt

Fitzpatrick Chris lsquolsquo911 Happy Anniversaryrsquorsquo PopMatterscom 23 July 2005lthttpwwwpopmatterscomtvreviewsn9ndash11shtmlgt

Godard Francois lsquolsquoCanal Plus 911 Pic Courts Controversyrsquorsquo Daily Variety21 Aug 2002 1 20

Habib Andre lsquolsquoAutour de 911mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelleou dommages au reelrsquorsquo Hors Champs June 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwhorschampqccaarticlephp3id_articlefrac1481gt

Hope Gloves and Redemption Dir Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet 1999DVD Pathfinder 2003

Knight Sam lsquolsquoNew Yorkrsquos Whitestrsquorsquo Slices of New York Times Online 21Feb 2005 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwtimesonlinecoukarticle018391ndash149383700htmlgt

Latour Jane lsquolsquoLooking for a Fire Department That Looks like New YorkrsquorsquoGotham Gazette 3 Dec 2001 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwgothamgazettecomiotwfiredepartmentdoc1shtmlgt

Laurence Robert P lsquolsquoTwo-Hour Special 911 Conveys Horror withoutBeing Graphicrsquorsquo San Diego Union-Tribune 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwsignonsandiegocomtvradiocbs911htmlgt

Revuecanadienne

drsquoe currentudesame currenricaines37

(2007)

203

and as if after September 11 it had undergone its initiation andthereby become ripe for History)

15 Compare Zizek lsquolsquo[i]s not the surprise at why are they not loved [sic] forwhat they are doing to the world the most fundamental Americanreaction (at least) since the Vietnam war We just try to be good to helpothers to bring peace and prosperity and look what we get in returnrsquorsquo(145ndash6)

16 In this respect the Naudet brothersrsquo documentary is of a piece withother postndash11 September mass-audience films As Wheeler WinstonDixon observes lsquolsquo[T]he bulk of mainstream American cinema since911 whether the films were in production before or not seemscentered on a desire to replicate the idea of the lsquojust warrsquo in whichmilitary reprisals and the concomitant escalation of warfare seemsimultaneously inevitable and justifiedrsquorsquo (1)

17 In the United States however Brigandrsquos film was released(belatedly in 2003) under the name September 11 in an apparenteffort to counteract this disorienting effect

18 However this did not stop Variety from calling the film lsquolsquostridentlyanti-Americanrsquorsquo (Godard 1) Dixon correctly points out that 11rsquo0901lsquolsquofar from being anti-American is more accurately critical of Americanpolicy in the wake of 911 a very different matterrsquorsquo (5) In his viewthe contested episodes of Brigandrsquos film lsquolsquobring a welcome breath ofdissenting opinion to current cinematic discourse on the attacks of911rsquorsquo (5)

19 Efforts to get the department to comply with the commissionrsquosrecommendations were suspended indefinitely in the wake of the11 September attacks (Latour)

20 In 11rsquo0901 the reality of racism and xenophobia in New York ispoignantly evoked by the Indian director Mira Nair whose segmentdeals with the chilling effects of 11 September on the American Muslimcommunity Set in New York City Nairrsquos film recounts the story (basedon actual events) of a Pakistani American family whose eldest son goesmissing on the morning of 11 September For several months the FBIand the media keep claiming that he was a terrorist causing his familyto be shunned and ostracized by their initially supportive neighboursEventually however it emerges that the young man a medic waskilled while attempting to rescue people at the World Trade CenterOnce the truth is known he is hailed as a hero

Works Cited

Adorno Theodor lsquolsquoCultural Criticism and Societyrsquorsquo Prisms Trans SamuelWeber and Shierry Weber Cambridge MA MIT Press 1984 17ndash34

Canadian

Review

ofAm

erican

Studies3

7(2007)

202

Anderson Lisa and Stevenson Swanson lsquolsquoFilm Goes inside World TradeCenter Gripping Sept 11 Footage Followed NYC Firefightersrsquorsquo ChicagoTribune 5 Mar 2002 Advocate 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwstamfordadvo-catecomclassifiedjobssns-worldtrade-filmfootage-ctstorygt

Berger James lsquolsquolsquoTherersquos No Backhand to Thisrsquorsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911Ed Judith Greenberg Lincoln U of Nebraska P 2003 52ndash9

Borradori Giovanna Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with JurgenHabermas and Jacques Derrida Chicago U of Chicago P 2003

Butler Judith Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence LondonVerso 2004

Caruth Cathy lsquolsquoRecapturing the Pastrsquorsquo Introduction Trauma Explorations inMemory Ed Cathy Caruth Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP 1995 151ndash7

Dixon Wheeler Winston lsquolsquoSomething LostmdashFilm after 911rsquorsquo IntroductionFilm and Television after 911 Ed Wheeler Winston Dixon CarbondaleSouthern Illinois UP 2004 1ndash28

Dreher Rod lsquolsquoInside the Inferno The 911 Documentaryrsquorsquo National ReviewOnline 7 Mar 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwnationalreviewcomdreherdreher030702shtmlgt

11rsquo0901 Dir Youssef Chahine et al Prod Alain Brigand DVD GalateeFilms Studio Canal 2002

Erickson Hal lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo All-Movie Guide 22 Sept 2005 lthttpallmoviecomcgavgdllpfrac14avgampsqlfrac141265838gt

Fitzpatrick Chris lsquolsquo911 Happy Anniversaryrsquorsquo PopMatterscom 23 July 2005lthttpwwwpopmatterscomtvreviewsn9ndash11shtmlgt

Godard Francois lsquolsquoCanal Plus 911 Pic Courts Controversyrsquorsquo Daily Variety21 Aug 2002 1 20

Habib Andre lsquolsquoAutour de 911mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelleou dommages au reelrsquorsquo Hors Champs June 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwhorschampqccaarticlephp3id_articlefrac1481gt

Hope Gloves and Redemption Dir Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet 1999DVD Pathfinder 2003

Knight Sam lsquolsquoNew Yorkrsquos Whitestrsquorsquo Slices of New York Times Online 21Feb 2005 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwtimesonlinecoukarticle018391ndash149383700htmlgt

Latour Jane lsquolsquoLooking for a Fire Department That Looks like New YorkrsquorsquoGotham Gazette 3 Dec 2001 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwgothamgazettecomiotwfiredepartmentdoc1shtmlgt

Laurence Robert P lsquolsquoTwo-Hour Special 911 Conveys Horror withoutBeing Graphicrsquorsquo San Diego Union-Tribune 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwsignonsandiegocomtvradiocbs911htmlgt

Revuecanadienne

drsquoe currentudesame currenricaines37

(2007)

203

Anderson Lisa and Stevenson Swanson lsquolsquoFilm Goes inside World TradeCenter Gripping Sept 11 Footage Followed NYC Firefightersrsquorsquo ChicagoTribune 5 Mar 2002 Advocate 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwstamfordadvo-catecomclassifiedjobssns-worldtrade-filmfootage-ctstorygt

Berger James lsquolsquolsquoTherersquos No Backhand to Thisrsquorsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911Ed Judith Greenberg Lincoln U of Nebraska P 2003 52ndash9

Borradori Giovanna Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with JurgenHabermas and Jacques Derrida Chicago U of Chicago P 2003

Butler Judith Precarious Life The Powers of Mourning and Violence LondonVerso 2004

Caruth Cathy lsquolsquoRecapturing the Pastrsquorsquo Introduction Trauma Explorations inMemory Ed Cathy Caruth Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP 1995 151ndash7

Dixon Wheeler Winston lsquolsquoSomething LostmdashFilm after 911rsquorsquo IntroductionFilm and Television after 911 Ed Wheeler Winston Dixon CarbondaleSouthern Illinois UP 2004 1ndash28

Dreher Rod lsquolsquoInside the Inferno The 911 Documentaryrsquorsquo National ReviewOnline 7 Mar 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwnationalreviewcomdreherdreher030702shtmlgt

11rsquo0901 Dir Youssef Chahine et al Prod Alain Brigand DVD GalateeFilms Studio Canal 2002

Erickson Hal lsquolsquo911rsquorsquo All-Movie Guide 22 Sept 2005 lthttpallmoviecomcgavgdllpfrac14avgampsqlfrac141265838gt

Fitzpatrick Chris lsquolsquo911 Happy Anniversaryrsquorsquo PopMatterscom 23 July 2005lthttpwwwpopmatterscomtvreviewsn9ndash11shtmlgt

Godard Francois lsquolsquoCanal Plus 911 Pic Courts Controversyrsquorsquo Daily Variety21 Aug 2002 1 20

Habib Andre lsquolsquoAutour de 911mdashTerrains battus Reconquete fictionnelleou dommages au reelrsquorsquo Hors Champs June 2002 23 July 2005 lthttpwwwhorschampqccaarticlephp3id_articlefrac1481gt

Hope Gloves and Redemption Dir Jules Naudet and Gedeon Naudet 1999DVD Pathfinder 2003

Knight Sam lsquolsquoNew Yorkrsquos Whitestrsquorsquo Slices of New York Times Online 21Feb 2005 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwtimesonlinecoukarticle018391ndash149383700htmlgt

Latour Jane lsquolsquoLooking for a Fire Department That Looks like New YorkrsquorsquoGotham Gazette 3 Dec 2001 23 Sept 2005 lthttpwwwgothamgazettecomiotwfiredepartmentdoc1shtmlgt

Laurence Robert P lsquolsquoTwo-Hour Special 911 Conveys Horror withoutBeing Graphicrsquorsquo San Diego Union-Tribune 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwsignonsandiegocomtvradiocbs911htmlgt

Revuecanadienne

drsquoe currentudesame currenricaines37

(2007)

203

Long Tom lsquolsquoHealing or Hauntingrsquorsquo Detroit News 8 Mar 2002 23 Sept 2005lthttpwwwdetnewscom2002entertainment020310d01ndash435103htmgt

Lubin Orly lsquolsquoMasked Power An Encounter with the Social Body inthe Fleshrsquorsquo Trauma at Home After 911 Ed Judith Greenberg LincolnU of Nebraska P 2003 124ndash31

911 Dir Jules Naudet Gedeon Naudet and James Hanlon CBS10 Mar 2002

911 The Filmmakersrsquo Commemorative Edition Dir Jules Naudet GedeonNaudet and James Hanlon DVD Paramount 2002

Peyser Marc lsquolsquoIf Only It Were Just a Movie The CBS Documentary rsquo911rsquois Riveting and Surprisingly Poignantrsquorsquo Newsweek 8 Mar 2002 MSNBC23 July 2005 lthttpmsnbcmsncomid3067263gt

Pfeifer Joseph lsquolsquoWorld Trade Center Task Force Interviewrsquorsquo 23 Oct 2001The Sept 11 Records Oral Histories from Sept 11 Compiled by the NewYork Fire Department New York Times 12 Aug 2005 27 Sept 2005lthttpgraphics8nytimescompackageshtmlnyregion20050812_WTC_GRAPHICmet_WTC_histories_full_01htmlgt

Rosett Claudia lsquolsquoShield Us on Sunday Night No Just Show Us Airingthe Culture of Denial on CBSrsquorsquo OpinionJournal 8 Mar 2002 23 July 2005lthttpwwwopinionjournalcomtasteidfrac14105001736gt

Rylant Chris lsquolsquoComing of Age on September 11rsquorsquo TeeVee 13 Mar 200223 July 2005 lthttpwwwteeveeorgarchive20020313indexhtmlgt

Santner Eric lsquolsquoHistory beyond the Pleasure Principle Some Thoughts onthe Representation of Traumarsquorsquo Probing the Limits of Representation Nazismand the lsquolsquoFinal Solutionrsquorsquo Ed Saul Friedlander Cambridge MA Harvard UP1992 143ndash54

Sontag Susan Regarding the Pain of Others New York Picador 2003

Wiesel Elie lsquolsquoTrivializing the Holocaust Semi-Fact and Semi-FictionrsquorsquoNew York Times 16 Apr 1978 Section 2 1thorn

Zirinsky Susan Interview with Bill OrsquoReilly The OrsquoReilly FactorFox News Network 8 Mar 2002 Transcript

Zizek Slavoj Welcome to the Desert of the Real London Verso 2002

Canadian

Review

ofAm

erican

Studies3

7(2007)

204