HBO does 9; 11 tribute the right way

After several near-misses by other filmmakers, "In Memoriam: New York City, 9/11/01," airing at 8 p.m. Sunday on HBO, emerges as the first essential film documentary of the Sept. 11 attacks. At first the one-hour film seems to take a straightforward approach: An interview with former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani interspersed with video of the disaster. But the images have been acquired from more than 100 sources, including TV news crews, amateurs with camcorders and still photographers. The images are layered on top of one another, like papier-mache. We see the plane hitting the first World Trade Center tower, then some close-up views from various perspectives, as observers yell and curse. Then, from a distance of several miles north, comes a strikingly serene view of the tower, with smoke pouring out as though it were some far-off factory smokestack. Bedlam resumes. The audio, a montage of police, fire and news radio, captures the total chaos at ground zero. On camcorder tapes we hear screams and sobs as observers watch the doomed leap to their deaths. We see the burning towers from more and more and more angles. And then we see them buckle and fall - over and over and over. In an overhead shot, the soot and smoke appear as a cartoon cloud, chasing people under a sky bridge; in another, it comes directly at us like a lava flow. (According to HBO, the attacks on New York were the most documented news event in history.) The film moves deliberately, but not too briskly, through the entire horror in 60 minutes: the vigils, the missing-person photos, the press conferences and finally the funerals. The soundtrack, played by the New York Philharmonic, isn't intrusive, unlike the music on the CBS "9/11" documentary. Woven through the film are two story lines. One is that of the mayor, who is shown walking out of the hellish scene, unflappable, calmly urging calm, setting the tone for his city's response. After that first long day, his companion Judith Nathan tells us, Giuliani went home and read a biography on Winston Churchill. The other story is that of Giuliani's personal assistant, Beth Patron, whose husband would be counted among the firefighters killed at the scene. Unbeknownst to her at the time, she was expecting their first child. Her tearful reflection on her pregnancy is the film's emotional high point, and a reminder, as Nathan eloquently puts it, that "human nature is remarkable, and we all learn to deal, step by step, with whatever we have to deal with." Other highlights: "The Guardian" is one of those shows that seem to go out of their way to avoid detection. It's a quiet drama that has quietly asserted itself as No. 2 in an ultra-competitive time period, ahead of "24," "Smallville" and "NYPD Blue." The end of "The Guardian's" first season is this week (8 p.m. Tuesday, Channel 5). Unfortunately, "24" also wraps up this week, same time, different channel (Fox 4). If you're the kind not usually inclined to working a VCR, this would be a good time to incline. Simon Baker, the most soft-spoken lead actor on TV, plays Nick Fallin, a fallible young hotshot lawyer who's serving a 1,500-hour sentence for a drug conviction. His assignment: represent children in court who come from troubled homes. It's a task Nick did not at first embrace, and though he's come to care deeply for his young clients, he's still a work in progress. At times he seems very fragile, and when you're trying to stay on the wagon, just coping can be high drama. You don't get this from the minimalist scripts. You get it from watching Baker's eyes. It's really something how much he communicates with them. On this week's episode, they say a lot, as several crises come to a head all at once. After the final scene - in which Nick leaves a heart-wrenching voice mail for his father - you'll understand the quiet power that has drawn so many viewers to "The Guardian." Great news: I was wrong when I predicted the demise of "Andy Richter Controls the Universe." Fox announced last week that it would bring the funniest show in TV back at midseason next year.