falling man

[cliffsdoll]

how sick is this? i think its sick to watch these images, and the photographers must be hardfaced and insensitive.

[emmapayne27]

The act is sick, but I doubt the photographers are hardfaced & insencsitive, the photographer himself said it was instinct, he wasn't registering in his mind what he was shooting. It is devastating to watch & I have been sobbing since it started, but it's a part of history now, it will never be forgotten & rightly so!

I dont really understand why there was a kind of shame almost on the jumpers it's too terrifying to even try to imagine what they were going through.

[rugeleyboy]

i agree,my wifes watching it but its not my kind of entertainment!

[andy-hughes]

I know that modern technology allows us to see these images over and over again, but I can't see the benefit to any viewer, so I didn't watch.

[sheffwed39]

i have watched it and see it as a tribute to those who died in 911. you cannot brush these things aside,this happened and scenes like this will always be documented wether on film or still shots. was it sick? i don't think so, but it was moving and makes you wonder what you would have done having been in the same situation.

[rugeleyboy]

sheffwed, yes it must of been dreadfull for the victims and their families of 911, but i still can't bear to watch people suffer! the world is a horrible place and bad things happen everyday, but i can't look at anything like that!

[ermintrude35]

...I don't think the act was sick at all, I admire the bravery of the "jumpers" imensley, and I cannot begin to imagine what I would have done in their sittuation. As for the images , it's the time we live in , we have the technology that was not around to capture such terrible events that have happened in the past. I too remembered the image from the papers on september 12th , and I didi find them terribly poignant and very moving , however what I did find disturbing was the journalist who tried to identify the "falling man" (wrongly and at great distress to the family) ...like they said in the documentary there was no need to identify him.

...and I'm glad to say we are lucky to live in a country who has freedom of choice, I chose to watch the documentary, you chose not too....

[Philtaz]

Repulsive or horrifying images are nothing new, they are a record of events in history, however distasteful, which I believe the programme showed to great effect.

The picture of the handcuffed Korean shot in the head abd the burnt children running from the napalmed village were just a few examples used by the programme. Does anyone remember the picture on the front of a national newspaper taken from roughly 6 feet of all those people crushed against the fencing at Hillsborough?

I thought the programme dealt with the whole issue very well. It also showed the other issue of the man who was more at peace over the issue, knowing why his wife had to do what she did, that she wasn't crushed under millions of tons of steel and concrete.

IMHO it was an immensely brave act to do what those people had to. They had no other option. Choke to death fighting for breath or being burnt alive, I believe they showed unbelievable courage.

[bernardo]

I don't think it was at all sick or insernsitive in any way.

[jeanpaul]

I'm not sure if it was sick, but I agree that trying to find the man in the photograph shouldn't have happened.

They tried to say that it was that photograph, which made people remember, but the thing that makes me remember is the pictures of the twin towers burning and then the collapse of each one. I thought that these pictures were very distressing and they have left an indelible image on my mind. I for one will never forget.

[tonymclark]

I think we need images like this to bring home the horror of war and terrorism.

To say that X number of people died in an act of terrorism somehow doesn't affect us nearly so much as hearing the personal stories of those involved.

I know everyone was horrified at the collapse of the twin towers, possible more so seeing it live on TV all around the world,and knowing there was nothing you could do about it.

[kags]

It was only by trying to identify the man in the picture that the researchers came to understand why it was wrong to identify him. We can all benefit from the lessons learned, and also from the dignity of the families involved.

[isca]

I dont think its sick at all. What these people went through is unimaginably horrific and if it was me i would want my story told. Its only offensive if you take some sort of perverted pleasure in watching it which is really your problem, not the program makers.

[ScreaminTree]

It depends what you mean by "sick"; and maybe you're confusing "insensitive" with "doing their job". The debate about the morality of placing such subject matter in TV schedules is a wide-ranging and seemingly interminable one. On the one hand, is it a kind of ghoulish tragedy-as-entertainment, or could it be construed as a necessary eye-opener, emphasising the horrible reality inherent in terrorism, "Wars on" Terror, or indeed war generally? Through the exercising of Free Will and the medium of The Remote Control, I didn't watch the programme, but, with respect cliffsdoll, it seems morbid fascination got the better of you and afterwards you just had to get on a rickety soapbox. I'm personally rather glad you've been shaken by a glimpse of non-filtered reality. It's not the Trueman Show out there you know. See also "Iraq".

[jules1968]

i think seeing those images keeps alive the enormity of the suffering those murders caused.I got angry and immensley sad all over again watching this documentry. We must never forget! As for the images being sick, i disagree, it REALLY happened and we should know the true enormity of it, warts and all. i bet no-one watching didn't ask themselves," would i have jumped" My anger is directed at the terrorists themselves, not people who showed us the horrendous images.

[patc7641]

Many of you are right, the act was desperate and tragic. The Falling Man was neither brave or heroic, he was in an unbeleivable dilemma and made a decision. What the photograph caught was a moment of calm and grace, though Im sure that was not the case. As a result this picture should be shown and shown again, why? Because this image will come back to haunt the perpetrators. We still dont know for sure who actually carried out this attack. Of course it was a terrorist act, but by whom? Not Al-Quaeda, they eventually took credit, but it clearly wasnt them. The more these images are shown the more likely people are going to start asking serious questions about the attack, some that may make Blair and Bush squirm. The pictures of the little girl and the man from Vietnam had the same galvanising effect on the American public, eventually. So yes, we should look at these pictures, or do we bury our heads in the sand?

[emmapayne27]

Ermintrude35 -- I didnt explain that very well I meant the act of terrorism