Spike Lee speaks out.

Love him or loathe him, everyone has an opinion on Spike Lee. So much so that Lee himself laments, “There have been more occasions than not, where critics focus on Spike Lee to the detriment of the film.” His crime: brutal honesty in an industry based on pretence and cheeseball, zero-personality stars.

At the moment, he’s raising eyebrows by speaking out against the war on Iraq. “What I do find interesting, and this is one of the things I try to get into the film, is how Bush is trying to get everyone to forget about Bin Ladin and make believe he never existed, and to replace him with Saddam.”

In 25th Hour, Lee has taken David Benioff’s novel about a New York drug dealer on his last day of freedom before a seven-year jail sentence, and made it into a commentary on New York life after 9/11. “It was very simple. We felt that in shooting a film like this in New York, so close to what happened on 9/11, as responsible filmmakers we had to reflect that in the film.”

New York plays a prominent part in many of his films, and Lee says of his hometown: “The people outside of New York City view it as not even part of America. That it’s the American Babylon, City Of Sin, where all the Blacks, Hispanics, Jews, homosexuals and Mafia are going crazy.” No wonder New Yorkers think it’s the centre of the world. Although he does add, “After September 11 this gap definitely shortened. There was a lot of love for New York that wasn’t felt before.” Hopefully, though, all the crazy people are still partying. They certainly are in 25th Hour. Kaleem Aftab 25 April 03

useful link: touchstonepictures.go.com/25thhour