The terrorist act on September 11 was committed by men who had no sense of what was civilised. And this is the difference between �sympathetic� characters like Monty and cold-blooded killers like Bin Laden. Justifications by terrorist sympathisers for September 11 do not wash with me. There is only one word for those who set out to systematically kill people and that word is murderer. And all the justifications in the world do not excuse or explain away the shocking crime of blowing up the World Trade Centre. America gets criticised for many things but at least it doesn't go into a country it hasn't declared war on and blow up buildings with thousands of civilians in them.
Lee has been criticised by some for making two movies in one in 25th Hour � one about September 11 and the other about one man�s tortured psyche. These criticisms are flawed. Lee has skilfully interwoven September 11 and one man�s story into a single cloth. And the connections between the two make for a movie that is more profound. When it comes to using his camera to showing what a big criminal like Bin Laden can do to a city like New York, Lee doesn't flinch. The silent shots of the twin pillars of light, and the faces of September 11 victims staring out of photos show the devestation of September 11 better than any speech or performance could. It's to Lee's credit that he does not sentimentalise what could easily become melodramatic moments. Ground Zero can speak for itself.
One of the most striking scenes in the movie is the shots of the empty World Trade Centre site. In a superb example of film making Lee has two of his characters talk about the effect Monty's going away will have on their lives and the camera arcs over them and up to the apartment's window, then down at the gaping hole of the World Trade Centre below. Backed by a superb soaring score by Terence Blanchard, it's a truly awe inspiring moment that captures the feeling of the equally gaping hole that exisits in the American psyche after September 11. Again, we are reminded that our everyday lives and the bigger events of the world are inextricably linked.
Yet, surprisingly, these September 11 references where not the most moving for me. The one outstanding moment, in a truly outstanding, film came when Monty asks one of his best friends to make him ugly. I have seen some shocking things on film. I have seen people, raped, set on fire, mutilated, and blown up. But I have never, ever had such a profound reaction to one scene from a movie as I had in this film. To watch Monty being hit in the face, again and again, and his friend crying while doing it, I could barely watch in between the tears that clouded my vision. I hope I never have to see something that shocking on film again.
I staggered out of 25th Hour and into the bright sunlight, reeling. Most films leave me with nothing substantial beyond a pleasant two hours of time spent watching a movie. But 25th Hour continued to echo throughout my life profoundly. For the next few weeks I would continue to visualise scenes from that movie. I would see Monty�s tirade in front of the mirror; his attempt to connect with his friends; his fear at what could happen to him in prison; and finally, that horrific beating.
25th Hour connects the big and the small, the trivial and the profound, the insignificant and the significant. The film is ostensibly about the moment of truth in one man's life when his mistakes catch up with him. But, it�s also about broader themes such as responsibility, and the decisions we make in life. On a personal level, its made me think that letting an incident with an old man on a bus get under my skin is, on the larger scale of things, silly. 25th Hour reminds me of the need to keep things in perspective and to remember that our actions in life always have consequences, whether those consequences are as small as an incident on a bus, or as large as buildings falling to the ground.
