Spike Lee is a director I've tried to follow closely ever since his triumphant DO THE RIGHT THING (1989), a film I consider to the best of the 1980s. Like so many other directors, he's had his hits and misses with me, but I've often been very curious when he decides to make a film that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the struggle of his people. His film 25TH HOUR was one of the earliest films to directly deal with the tragedy of September 11, 2001, and it's well integrated into the life of of Montgomery Brogan (played by Edward Norton) as he prepares to begin serving a seven-year prison sentence for drug dealing. He plans to spend his last night of freedom with childhood friends Frank and Jacob (Barry Pepper and the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman, respectively) at a Manhattan nightclub, as well as his girlfriend Naturelle (played by Rosario Dawson). Frank is a hotshot, loudmouth Wall Street trader and Jacob is an introverted high school teach with a forbidden crush on his seventeen year-old (underage) student Mary (played by a very sexy Anna Paquin). His father is a retired firefighter and recovering alcoholic who owns a bar (yeah, I'm sure that helps matters) and plans to drive his son to prison in the morning.
Through the use of flashbacks, we see just how Monty came to be arrested and how his Russian contacts try to convince him that it was Naturelle who turned him in to the Feds. We see how he met Naturelle in the first place, she being just an eighteen year-old high school girl sitting in the park. Their love is meant to be genuine and true, but somehow I can never get past the idea that it was simply a horny young man who wanted to get laid by a high school girl fantasy. The fantasy does turn to love though, but it's hard for others not to suspect the girlfriend of not only living high on Monty's money, but not caring enough to get him to stop dealing drugs.
Back at the nightclub, Jacob is on the verge of turning into a pedophile, and Mary's sexually-motivated interests in him aren't helping matters. He finally finds the courage to kiss Mary in the bathroom, but both of them appear to be in shock afterwards, going their separate ways and not saying a word about it. Upstairs at the club, the Russian mob reveals that it was one of their own who betrayed Monty and turned him in. Refusing the opportunity to extract revenge on his own, he walks away leaving the informant to be killed by the Russian mobsters.
In the morning, Monty shocks his friends (and us) by demanding that Frank beat his face in so that he won't be such an attractive target of rape when he gets to prison. An insane request, yes, but it somehow makes sense when you consider the fear Monty is facing and that going in ugly may be his only chance of survival. On the road trip with his father to the prison, Monty is suddenly faced with the option (and the fantasy) of driving west into hiding, where he could begin a new life and start a family with Naturelle. This unfortunately is just a fantasy, because when it's over, Monty is still just a beaten man on his way to prison. Still, we couldn't help but imagine the possibilities of freedom along with him.
As an actor, Edward Norton has often surprised me with his dramatic abilities. That doesn't necessarily mean I can forgive him for his pointless portrayal of Will Graham in RED DRAGON (2002) and Bruce Banner in THE INCREDIBLE HULK (2008). But what's most unforgettable about him in 25TH HOUR is his personal lashing out at himself in the nightclub bathroom mirror, as he proceeds to angrily rant against all the New York City stereotypes he can think of, from the cab drivers to the corner grocers, to the mobsters, to the terrorists, declaring that he hates them all with an ongoing "Fuck you!" This act of stereotypical targeting is, of course, very unpolitically correct, but in the wake of 9/11, we all couldn't help but feel a little (or a lot) of Ed's anger toward those who made this country more of a difficult place to live in.
Favorite line or dialogue:
Monty Brogan (staring at himself in the mirror): "Fuck the Wall Street brokers! Self-styled masters of the universe! Michael Douglas, Gordon Gekko wannabe motherfuckers, figuring out new ways to rob hard working people blind! Send those Enron assholes to jail for fucking life! You think Bush and Cheney didn't know about this shit? Give me a fucking break!"
No comments:
Post a Comment