Written by Linda
March 09, 2009
Two brothers, a police officer and a firefighter, died at the World Trade Center on 9/11, and this is their story.
The name of this 2003 Academy Award Winner for Best Documentary Short has a double meaning. First, of course, is the looming presence bookending this 35-minute film: the destruction of the World Trade Center twin towers in New York City on September 11, 2001. Can I just say that no matter how much the images of the planes striking the buildings over and over have been burned into the modern world's collective memory, they will always hold their ability to shock and sicken? The second meaning symbolizes two men, brothers and heroes, who died in the rescue efforts.
After opening with images of the towers falling, the film backs up six months and introduces brothers Joe Vigiano (of NYPD Emergency Services) and John, Jr. (a New York City firefighter). The producers of TV's Law & Order had just started following Joe's police squad for a new reality-show pilot. As the camera follows the squad off and on-duty, Joe stands out as a popular colleague among the men, as well as a gentle man at home, and a strong and brave man on the job. Having been shot twice in his career, his knows the risks of his profession, and always kisses his wife and children goodbye when he leaves for work, as though it might be the last time.
If it weren't a sickeningly true story, some of it would come across as clichéd foreshadowing, but it is the reality of the men and women in emergency services every day. The Vigiano's father is interviewed, first reminiscing about the boys growing up, and his pride and constant worry about their careers. To see the transistion where he is interviewed about the immediate doom he felt when hearing about the World Trade Center disaster is devastating.
The only complaint I have about this moving film is that it is a bit of a stretch to call it Twin Towers to imply it is the story of the two brothers: police officer and firefighter. The truth is, it is Joe's story. It was his police squad that was followed, so all the action footage is of him and his men. John, Jr.'s life is really only mentioned in a tacked-on afterthought kind of way, because really, it certainly needed to be said. But it is too bad we don't learn much, if anything, about him.
But the producers were in the right place at the right time to happen to be filming some of the heroes of September 11th in action. Twin Towers is a lovely way to memorialize and put a face to these everyday heroes that sacrificed their lives.
