Lee’s Criticism of Post 9/11 Culture

Lee’s Criticism of Post 9/11 Culture
New York Directors 3/31/09
25th Hour is an interesting film in that it deals with the post 9/11 culture, but doesn’t do so in an explicit way. The mournful tone of the film (felt in Terrance Blanchard’s score) is an indication of how the main characters in the movie are at an emotional standstill. These characters are a metaphor for what happened to many New Yorker’s spirits post 9/11. Particularly in the case of Monty" Brogan (Edward Norton), who’s a drug dealer who has one last day of freedom before he has to go to prison.
Monty doesn’t trust anyone anymore. He has lost his allegiance with his best friends and loved ones. This is especially true in the case of his girlfriend Naturelle (Rosario Dawson). When Monty got picked up by the FBI, they made him believe that Naturelle was the one that ratted him out. From then on, Monty has not trusted his girlfriend. What the FBI are doing to Monty is scaring him to confess that he was working with Uncle Nikolai, who’s the person that the FBI is really trying to obtain. They are basically saying to Monty: kill yourself (which is what would basically happen if Monty confessed his allegiance to Uncle Nikolai) or remain unhappy. This is Lee’s metaphor for the scare tactics that the government was beginning to use post 9/11. These scare tactics actually perpetuate the problem. This distrust and lost of allegiance, which is something that makes Monty constantly obsess about the past and his mistakes, is depicted by showing Monty as a character who barely moves. His inertia is in contrast to the rest of the New Yorkers in the film, that are constantly moving (like in the club scene) or jogging. There’s even a very literal image of Monty putting his hand on the couch where the evidence against him was found. Monty’s never letting go of the past could be Spike Lee’s metaphor for how many New Yorkers lost their spirit and allegiance to the city post 9/11. Some simply gave up trying to persevere in their homeland and moved somewhere else, because they were so afraid that the city would never be the same. Monty’s going to the slammer and being tempted to go somewhere far away in the country is a metaphor for this. Lee felt that this is delusional on many New Yorkers part. (Hence, the literal delusional moment where Monty imagines himself living away from the city.)
He feels that one should not let events like 9/11 keep from preserving one’s initial spirit; once a New Yorker always a New Yorker. This is why he has Monty stay in NYC and has him do his time in jail. His friends are trying their best not to be dispirited. Jacob Elinsky (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) misses the youthfulness and vivacity that he once had; hence his need to be attracted to Mary (Anna Paquin), his student. Frank Slaughtery (Barry Pepper) who is working as a Wall Street trader also wants life to go on, and to not think about his friend anymore, but he can’t seem to do so. This attachment to something he’s lost (Monty’s basically a walking ghost in the same way that the lights taking the place of the World Trade Centers were ghost like in appearance), is visually represented in the scene involving Jacob and Frank’s arguing in Frank’s apartment. It’s not merely coincidence that his apartment is situated right outside Ground Zero. Frank wants to believe that he can hang on to the memory of the World Trade centers, but he eventually has to let them go and move on with his life as an energetic New Yorker. An energetic New Yorker is someone who doesn’t worry about their past mistakes (in some strange way Frank blames himself for Monty’s going away) because they simply don’t have the time. Monty has the time. When Jacob castigates Frank for not having manners, this is an indication of Frank’s not really caring about his flaws, like any typical New Yorker. It’s not a coincidence that Frank works for the hectic and loud and energetic stock exchange. This idea of effrontery and vivacity that is in Frank, and how it is quickly whisked away at the thought of Monty (the man who is getting punished for making a fatal mistake), is a metaphor for how many New Yorkers stopped in their tracks post 9/11; they probably felt that the city was paying for its transgressions. I’m sure the government’s fear tactics didn’t help the situation. Yet, most eventually realized that life goes on, and so does Frank. Rules and morals constantly haunt the three male leads in the club scene, which is ironic considering that the club is the ultimate extension of youthfulness and vivacity. These three characters barely move; they remain stagnant ironically enough on a couch that resembles Monty’s couch; a continual visual motif representation of one being haunted by their mistakes. It appears that Monty simply can’t move on his own volition anymore (it’s almost as if he needs his dog with him in the club), whilst the youthful Mary almost floats towards her destination. Pacquin’s transgressing society by flirting with her teacher, and illegally entering the club, is a representation of how it’s healthy to physically learn one’s boundaries; something that it took a post 9/11 culture a long time to re-learn. The statement in this film is what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger; Monty has understandably forgotten this adage. So have the rest of his friends—they are haunted by rules, probably because their best friend is being sent to prison for breaking rules. (If Monty didn’t transgress society, he would have never dated Naturelle, who initially was a minor when he met her.) The shot of the three guys sitting on the couch in the club, barely speaking to one another because they are careful in what they say (which is not a very vibrant NYC quality for one to have), speaks volumes. It appears as if there are reversed horizontal jail bars in the back of the characters. These three do not want to transgress society anymore, for fear that they will be punished for breaking society’s rules. Hence, why Jacob doesn’t want to sleep with Mary, why Monty doesn’t want to be near Naturelle, and why Frank castigates Naturelle for not doing anything about stopping Monty from stopping his habits. These qualities that these men inhabit in this club are not natural in anyway; it’s almost as if they are deluding themselves from their real nature because of fear tactics set off by society. They are losing their New York quality. (An interesting side note: Monty begins to lose his Irish identity, and when Frank mentions that they could always start an Irish bar when Monty gets out, like any other Irish New Yorker, Monty blows him off.) It’s fascinating composition wise, how the two shot of Frank and Naturelle resembles the two shot of Frank and Jacob in Frank’s apartment, except that here Frank is on the right side of the screen, instead of the left side. In the initial scene, Frank was the one being castigated. In the later scene, he’s the judgmental one. This man is beginning to lose his identity because of being fearful of the proper rules. Visually, Jacob makes a stand by getting off the couch to make out with Mary. He has to transgress society in order to find out that he really doesn’t want to sleep with her. By doing so, Jacob won’t be obsessed with his mistakes anymore. Once Jacob does so, he moves freely on his own volition again (in a shot reminiscent of the earlier one of Mary). When Monty meets up with the Russians, a similar amount of fear tactics are instilled into him. They tell him that he’s probably not going to make it in prison because of his good looks. This is a generalized societal belief that does not have one iota of truth in it, and yet Monty believes him because in this stage of the game, he has nothing but society to rely on. In order for Monty to have Frank beat him up, he has to put on a mean performance. This is not Monty’s true nature (It’s ironic that all of this stems from the FBI’s instilling fear tactics in this man, so that he’ll believe anything that society tells him.
This scene is very similar to the one involving the FBI’s coming into Frank’s apartment to obtain him. In both scenes, Monty’s dog is barking.) Monty is shot on a low angle view in relation to Frank, which is a visual representation of the imposing nature of Monty who has an instilled belief given to him by society that he has to get beaten up. He’s consequently becoming a very imposing individual, in relation to Frank. They are not on the same level anymore. It’s interesting how this positioning is reversed once Frank starts beating Monty up; now Frank is shot on a low angle and this is a representation of his now believing the lie instilled by society. The social criticism in this film has to do with Lee’s feelings towards the post 9/11 culture. He stated in an interview that, “…I think that if you look, there’s a lot of anger in 25th Hour. If we wanted to stay in that comfort zone, we wouldn’t have included the 9/11 references at all because Disney did not want us to do any of that stuff…Studios say that they’re doing it out of respect for the audience, but I find that hard to believe. I just think they’re steering clear of anything that might even remotely impact on the bottom line” (Cineaste, 6). Lee’s film is heroic because he doesn’t censor his feelings about the post 9/11 culture, unlike other filmmaker’s at the time. His film is meant to alert an alarmist culture to wake up, and stop being intimidated by society’s social pressures, particularly in regards to what and what is not moral. Lee feels that worrying over such matters results in a dispirited state.


Works Cited:
1. Cineaste, Volume XXVIII, No. 3, 2003.