25th Hour Response

25^th Hour is a beautiful film directed by Spike Lee set in post-9/11 New York. It features a brilliant cast consisting of the very talented Edward Norton, Barry Pepper, Phillip Seymour, and female lead Rosario Dawson. There are so many positive aspects of this film that I enjoyed but the thing that sticks out the most about this film is the focus on the post 9/11 New York City landscape. During the opening credits we are shown different angles of where the Twin Towers once stood from across the river. Instead of the enormous twin towers, there are only two spotlights that shine in the sky. It’s a really lovely way to open up the film and was quite memorable. Further along in the film we are shown another angle of Ground Zero, which sits just outside of Barry Pepper’s window and beside the assumed future home of Edward Norton’s character, Monty.

Monty was a big-time narcotics dealer in New York City before he was busted by the DEA. His assumed future home is prison. 25^th hour covers his journey through his assumed last 24 hours as a free man for quite some time. I found the journey to be very personable and felt myself identifying with Monty. What would I do with my last day as a free man? I considered all of the emotions and fears that Monty must have been going through- disappointing his father who he loved, having to accept that he would most likely lose his girlfriend who he also loved, parting with his dog whom he adored greatly, being separated from his friends, and all of the other great things that go hand in hand with freedom. I couldn’t imagine losing so many dear things and having nothing to look forward to besides time in prison where a small Caucasian male will most likely not fare well. Spike Lee was able to direct this film in such a way that it really made me identify with the main character, Monty, and even made me feel sympathetic towards a man who had surely caused much pain and suffering as a narcotics dealer.

Overall this was a very touching movie with a surprisingly happy ending. The original soundtrack was incredibly powerful and blended in perfectly with the film. In addition to a great soundtrack the camera work was also amazing. I love the opening scene in which Monty is zooming down a bridge in a big body muscle car. He stops along side of the bridge to find a dog that is very close to death. Instead of leaving the dog to die like most Monty decides to rescue the dog and adopt him as his pet. Its small actions like this that endears me to Monty. At the end of the film I felt like Monty was a good-hearted man who meant well but just happened to be a drug dealer. So, on one hand he’s a nice guy that I could identify with but on the other hand, he’s a convicted narcotics dealer who has been sentenced to prison. I thought Spike Lee did a great job of luring the audience into feeling sympathetic towards a character that most would feel the exact opposite towards.

One last thing that I would like to comment on is the theme of the film. It’s a very positive and attractive theme to me. At the end of the film Monty decides (with the help of his father) that instead of reporting to prison (like he was supposed to) he would make a run for it and get a fresh start with a new identity. He decided that he would find work (legal this time) and move far away from New York City to start over. In time he would contact his girlfriend to join him out west. The film showed him and his girlfriend as grown adults with a large family, all happy and sitting together in a living room. It pretty much said to me that every day is a new day and no matter what happens a new day is just another chance to turn everything around for the better.