- This final chapter provides a powerful portrait of the events leading up to and following 9/11, reaching back to when the idea of a "world trade center" was first conceived and the towers were constructed. Explore the physical, economic, and symbolic aftermath of the attack and what Americans can learn from the recovery effort.—Anonymous
- This is one of the most heartbreaking films I've ever seen. I say that, the obvious recent history aside. New York: Center of the World, a fitting epilogue to the PBS series about NYC, is a unique tale itself, culminating with the events of September 11, 2001 and their wake. The portrayal of 9/11 here is different from most, focusing mainly on what the life of the Twin Towers over the years and the ultimate loss of them meant to the city, its people, and its identity. Rick Burns tells the story of the World Trade Center: how it went from being a sterile white elephant early on to the success its developers had hoped it would be. Roughly a dozen people, New York officials and the buildings' designers included, appear here to comment on and recollect about the WTC. A thorough recounting of the towers' rise builds to perhaps their finest, sweetest hour, when a French wirewalker/busker/Renaissance man named Phillip Petit expressed his love for them by traversing the distance in between from 110 stories up. The WTC is then shown in all the glory it came to achieve and reflect, but those years move by in almost a heartbeat here. The towers' fate hovers like a spell, and the turn this film takes to the inevitable events is truly haunting. The narrator's account of that morning leads viewers into places darker and darker. The horror and shock in New York come right back. In the end, the words of those interviewed toll solemnly like eulogies for a friend.
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