1 Stirring Documentary of NYPD and America's Saddest Day
"The Twin Towers" started out as a documentary about the New York City Police Department's Emergency Services Team (EST), the elite group of police officers that deal with everything from suicidal people determined to jump off bridges to hostage situations. The story of these heroic young men so intrigued television producer Dick Wolf (best known for the "Law & Order" series) that he began this documentary as a means of selling a network on committing to a series based on the day-to-day lives of these men and their fascinating job. It's entirely conceivable that such a show would have come to fruition, had not the events at the World Trade Center taken place.
As noted by the editorial review, this documentary feels abruptly cut short: after all, the main subject of the piece,
DET Joseph V. Vigiano, died in the September 11th attacks. What began as a look at the lives and work of the EST becomes a memorial to what we lost that day in the form of a father who lost his two sons (Det. Joseph Viggiano and his brother John, a NYC fireman) in the attacks.
It is the incompleteness of this documentary, and the profound sense of unfulfilled curiosity about the men it profiles, that leads me to grant the story four stars instead of five. In no way is it an idictment of its' ability to stir and inspire.
