2 Movies / September 11
Twenty years following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, TCM host Ben Mankiewicz will be joined by a very special Guest Programmer: Thomas Prin Jr., a retired New York City firefighter who was a first responder at Ground Zero during the rescue and recovery efforts on that fateful date. Prin was an FDNY first-grade firefighter working out of Queens on September 11, 2001. He was at home that morning because he was going to tryouts for the FDNY hockey team. After a fellow firefighter called and told him to turn on the TV, Prin immediately headed to the firehouse and was onsite at the World Trade Center before the second tower went down.
Prin would spend three and a half months at the site, working in a multitude of jobs. He has said that, to cope with the extreme stress and anxiety of the situation, he remained laser-focused on the work at hand. Later, he found solace through counseling and work at a children’s camp; he has since married and become the father of two sons. Prin was one of the subjects in Portraits from Ground Zero (2011), an A&E special in which photojournalist Andrea Booher interviews first responders about their experiences. Prin also appears in Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center (2006), a docudrama about the experiences of police officers during the attacks.
Prin’s programming picks are a pair of dramas from the 1960s that portray very different views of the American experience.
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), based on the beloved Harper Lee novel, is set in Alabama of the 1930s, with Oscar-winner Gregory Peck playing a small-town lawyer who teaches life lessons to his two young children. Robert Mulligan directed.
The Hustler (1961), also from a much-admired novel (by Walter Tevis), looks at the world of professional pool players. Oscar-nominated Paul Newman is the hustler who wants to take down a major-league player – fellow nominee Jackie Gleason. Robert Rossen directed.
