DAVID BIANCULLI

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A GOOD JOB: STORIES OF THE FDNY
September 8, 2014  | By David Bianculli

HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET

 

Former firefighter Steve Buscemi, currently starring in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, interviews his old firehouse buddies, and others, in this fond salute to New York firemen, and firewomen. I’ve heard stories for years about how Buscemi, avoiding publicity and wanting only to help, rejoined his old Engine 55 company to show up at Ground Zero the day after 9/11. This documentary, directed by Liz Garbus, confirms that, and even includes eerie footage shot with Buscemi’s own video camera – footage showing, among other things, handwritten messages traced in the ash-white dust covering all surfaces in the surviving structures. The title A Good Job, it turns out, describes “a really tough fire” – and the details of the importance of the firehouse kitchen means that Denis Leary, in his FX series Rescue Me, got it right. But that was fiction. This new documentary, shown a few days before the anniversary of 9/11, is fact.

 
 
 
 
 
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