Joel McCrea Westerns Collection
Introduction to 10th Anniversary of 9/11
As our country commemorates
the anniversary of the September 11,
2001 terrorist attacks, TCM has invited
two responders to the tragedies to
appear as guest programmers.
Patrick McNally, retired Chief of Operations
of the New York City Fire Department,
was on site at the World Trade
Center when each of the twin towers
fell, and worked exclusively at the site
through the following November.
Vernon Webb, retired Supervisory
Special Agent of the Pentagon Force
Protection Agency, was at work in a
nearby annex when the Pentagon was
attacked. He and other members of
the PFPA served round-the-clock for
the next several days investigating
the crime scene.
McNally, whose 20th wedding anniversary was on Sept. 11, 2001, had planned a golf date with his wife, Liz, before he got the emergency call. "As Time Goes By" had been the couple's wedding song, so Casablanca (1942), the film for which the tune was written, is a natural as one of McNally's picks. His other choice is Mister Roberts (1955), which he admires because the title character is a leader "who always thinks about what he has to do for his men."
Webb, who became the first African American to hold the title of Criminal Investigator in Defensive Protective Service, chooses All the Young Men (1960), starring Sidney Poitier, because it was one of the movies from his youth that inspired him to enter the military. Webb served in the Army in Korea, which is the setting for this movie about racial tension among fighting Marines. Because he "grew up on John Wayne movies," Webb also selects Red River (1948), with Wayne as a ruthless rancher and Montgomery Clift as a young protégé who "turns out to be a better man" by learning the value of compassion.
McNally, whose 20th wedding anniversary was on Sept. 11, 2001, had planned a golf date with his wife, Liz, before he got the emergency call. "As Time Goes By" had been the couple's wedding song, so Casablanca (1942), the film for which the tune was written, is a natural as one of McNally's picks. His other choice is Mister Roberts (1955), which he admires because the title character is a leader "who always thinks about what he has to do for his men."
Webb, who became the first African American to hold the title of Criminal Investigator in Defensive Protective Service, chooses All the Young Men (1960), starring Sidney Poitier, because it was one of the movies from his youth that inspired him to enter the military. Webb served in the Army in Korea, which is the setting for this movie about racial tension among fighting Marines. Because he "grew up on John Wayne movies," Webb also selects Red River (1948), with Wayne as a ruthless rancher and Montgomery Clift as a young protégé who "turns out to be a better man" by learning the value of compassion.
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