Compelling Memory: 9/11 and the Work of Mourning in Mike Binder's Reign over Me

This article contends that the American commemoration of 9/11 has been dominantly conducted in a compelling, spectacularized manner. The obligation to remember is accompanied by an expectation that this memory will be put on display in the form of emotional expression and/or memory objects. Significantly, this memory cultus affects not only the public remembrance of 9/11 but also the way its bereavements can be lived privately. Mike Binder's 2007 film Reign over Me, which focuses on the refusal of a man who lost his wife and children on 9/11 to openly remember and mourn them, is analyzed as harboring a critical commentary on compelling, spectacularized forms of memory and mourning predicated on a notion of work as efficient, profitable, and quantifiable production.