| "The
day Earth stood still"
9/11
|
tragedy
. 1. In Ancient Greece, theater work that
was characterized as huge, dramatic and
sad, in which famous and anonimous people
were involved; it is, as well, able to
produce terror and mercy. 2. Play that
ends normally with fatal happenings. 3.
Dramatic Gender of play developed inicially
by the greeks such as Esquilo, Sofocles
and Euripides. 4. Kind of happening that
causes horror or sorrow; Misfortune or
dark occurance 5. disgrace, disaster. |
Many
people believed, when they were watching on the
television the planes crashing on the World Trade
Center, that they were in front of a tragical movie.
They could not believe that all of that was truly
happening; that the major and most powerful country
in the world was being challenged by islamic terrorists;
neither that comercial planes were to be used as
missiles to destroy important symbols of the north
american culture…
I
looked up on the dictionary for the meaning of the
word "Tragedy". I have found explanations
that certainly are apropriate to describe what happened
on that September 2001. Even though, the meaning
of the word was related to Ancient Greece's theather,
it is still, a good way to refer to what happened
in New York and Washington. Why? Because everything
seemed huge, dramatic and sad on that day. It was
just like a tragical scene, capable of causing terror
and mercy, in which "anonimous" and famous
people were acting in a heroic way to fight against
"fatal happenings".
"Misfortune"
doesn't seem to me as the right word to talk about
the collapse of the twin towers. The buildings don't
represent the whole tragedy, just a part of it.
The dramas lived by the families are the major loss,
the deepest sorrow. The death in heroic conditions
of more than three hundred firefighters is more
meaningful than any material icon of a culture or
a country.
I
was giving classes when the hijackings of the airplanes
occurred. A little later, the attacks to the towers
and to the Pentagon. In the break time, through
their "walkmans", students heard the news
from radio stations. In the teacher's room, the
school principals told us that an "accident"
or even an attempt had happened.
What
scared me the most was the attack to the Pentagon,
basis of the military command of the United States.
It was a daring action from my point of view. We
couldn't even suspect that everything that was happening
was a result of plans made by Ossama Bin Laden and
realized by the Al Qaeda followers.
After
some time, there is still the suffering, the pain
and the apprehension in the United States (and in
his allies). The rule stablished by Hamurabi on
his Code (made before the Christian period) was
recovered to sustain the military actions of the
Americans and English armies against Afeghanistan
and Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Other countries such
as Libia and North Korea were distinguished as enemies
of democracy and are a part of the "Evil Axis".
Where else can we get?
The Movie
Two
French brothers, Jules and Gédéon
Naudet were making a documentary about the firefighters
of New York City. Because of it they were following
the firefighters in their daily actions in town.
They have established that their story would focus
on a rookie in the beginning of his firefighting
career. To fulfill their needs they filmed exercises,
practices, indoor work, and rescue situations.
One
of the situations they had the opportunity to shoot
was a gas leakage in one of New York's most crowded
downtown streets. Nothing very serious according
to the firefighters. This ocassion was different
however, because they could hear a passenger airplane
and see it flying in a very low height. Because
of that one of the Naudet brothers raised his camera
and started following the movement of the first
plane towards one of the towers of the WTC.
His
images turned out to be history. As well as all
of those that allowed the whole world to see the
biggest terrorist attack to the United States.
Aware
that it was a major happening, the Naudets went
to Twin Towers and filmed almost everything they
could: The action of the firefighters (inside and
outside the building), the panic and rush in the
buildings and in the locations close to the disaster.
They had also entered in the buildings before it
fell down (they didn't know, as well as everyone
that tried to help the wounded, that the constructions
were about to come down).
Their
work became a documentary that frightens informs
the ones that watch it. The images impresses because
of the courage of the firefighters (and also of
the movie makers) and because of the pain, suffering
and death of many people. It is a true document
of the happenings that took place in "The Day
Earth Stood Still", in that September 11, 2001.
For
Teachers
1-
A good way to begin working with the documentary
is asking students to find out what is terrorism:
its roots, justifications, motivations, differences,
history, and actions. After all, in a world like
ours, in which the American way of life dominates,
the information that is divulged is very often favorable
to the interest of the ones that publish it. We
must try to understand how the other side understands
the facts. If we began seeing a documentary made
in New York, we must look out for the way the other
side justifies it.
2-
The United States is the main target of 10 among
10 terrorists. What could explain that but the fact
that we are in front of a new Empire? According
to some specialists, historians and analists, the
situation of the North Americans can be compared
to the Roman Empire. What about making a paralel
of the two historical moments and try to define,
by the examples, what is necessary to build an empire?
3-
Many news reports were written about the happenings
of September 11, 2001. Some papers and magazines
published articles about the Islam. They tried to
show how is life in the arab world. Ask the students
to read these and more articles and try to understand
why there are so many conflicts between western
and eastern civilizations. Make them produce a paper
about the subject.
4-
Stimulate your students to produce diagrams or timelines
of the happenings so they can understand the attempt
and its consequences. The use of this resources
help students to visualize the information in a
more clear, simple and opened way. It shows the
historical, social, political and economical background
in an objective manner. With an activity like that
we can allow pupils to see the facts from its early
beginnings to its future consequences.
João Luís Almeida Machado
Master Degree in Education, Arts
and History of Culture (Universidade Presbiteriana
Mackenzie, in São Paulo); Professor at Faculdade
Senac in Campos do Jordão; Middle and High
School teacher; writes weekly columns for the website
Planeta Educação
Send e-mails, comments, suggestions and critics
for:
profjoaoluis@planetaeducacao.com.br
Technical
Information
9/11
Country/Year of production:- USA,
2002
Lenght of time/Gender:- 112 min.,
Documentary
Directors: James Hanlon, Gédéon
Naudet and Jules Naudet
Cast:- Tony Benatatos, Jamal Braithwaite,
Steve Buscemi, George W. Bush, Joseph Casaliggi,
Robert De Niro, James Hanlon, Mychal Judge.
Links
(in
portuguese)
http://cineclick.com.br/cinemateca/ficha_filme.php?id_cine=10861
http://e-pipoca.cidadeinternet.com.br/filmes_zoom.cfm?id=5127
(in
english)
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0312318/
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