#EDWARD NORTON 25TH HOUR MOVIE#

With Ground Zero as a backdrop it perfectly captures New York City the year after 9/11. It features a great script by David Benioff based on his novel. It is a brilliant depiction of one man's last day and night of freedom before serving a prison term. Although slightly bloated, 25th Hour is thought provoking and one of Spike Lee's best films.Ģ5th Hour just might be Spike Lee's best movie.

#EDWARD NORTON 25TH HOUR MOVIE#

This is Monty's narrative, and the movie loses its way when it strays from him. Too often the story wanders a bit by giving supporting characters more screen time than they need. The ending is not completely satisfying as we are presented with a possible ending that would have made for a happy ending, but would not have rang true.Īt over two hours it could have been trimmed. Monty is pissed that someone close to him has betrayed him and he's scared of what may happen to him in prison. Like Monty going to prison we all assumed the worst.Īnger and fear permeate the film, and is its overall theme. Like the days following 9/11 no one knew what to expect. 9/11 is mentioned several times, and in one scene two characters talk about the reality of their future relationship with Monty, while ground zero is clearly in the background. The entire story has ground zero as a backdrop. Standing near the door they all appear to be shades of blue, as everyone behind them, still waiting to get in, are normal colored. As a friend pointed out to me, it is as if he, 'is metaphorically under the white, hot lamp.' In another scene Monty and friends arrive at a night club. An interrogation scene takes place in an all white room with glaring bright light.

No one is without sin, yet it is only Monty who has been sentenced for his crime. His friend Frank is a trader and risks large amounts of other people's money. His girlfriend knew he was dealing drugs and financially benefited from it, as did his dad. Monty’s impending date with prison reveals that all of the important people around him have some blood on their hands as well. This is not at all a film about what would you do if you had just one day left. Even if you are too pious to agree with any of it, you have to at least admire the boldness of it. One of my favorites is when Monty's friend Jacob, a teacher, has the hots for one of his students and Frank asks him, 'You know what a man should never ask in a Victoria's Secret shop, Jake?. Does this come in children's sizes?' The 'Fuck you!' speech is the greatest soliloquy of any film.

The entire plot is driven by conversations and this movie has some great lines. The film contains flashbacks and plenty of dialogue as we get to know Monty and his friends. He visits his father and goes to a club with his two long time friends and his girlfriend. For me, his best films are the ones in which racial issues are non-existent or at least pushed into the background, such as Inside Man and 25th Hour.īased on David Benioff's novel, 25th Hour tells the story of a man, Monty, spending his last day of freedom before serving seven years in prison for dealing drugs. When it was not bashing you over the head with its message of bigotry, it was confusing you in its inexplicable story line and poor editing. His last completed theatrical film, Miracle at St Anna was a complete mess. Too often Spike Lee's films have been bogged down by one theme, race. Click here to subscribe.Barry Pepper, Edward Norton and Philip Seymour Hoffman in 25th Hour. 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. It was an act of profound evil that changed the world, but it cut deepest for New Yorkers like Lee, whose most recent effort, the HBO docuseries NYC Epicenters 9/11-2021½, explores the unique resiliency of the denizens of that city. The result is that 25th Hour is not so much a movie about 9/11 as it is a living, breathing document of that moment. A seemingly insurmountable amount of work still lay ahead. For one long, haunting shot, set in a condo overlooking ground zero, Lee points his camera at the ashy footprints of the World Trade Center, at a tiny tractor dragging its teeth through the wreckage. 11 is referred to only indirectly - a line about a fallen firefighter friend here, a mention of dangerous air quality there. Lee decided to weave the attacks into his film, finding that the somber mood in Manhattan complemented the already funereal material. The Touchstone Pictures film had already been cast (Edward Norton as the drug dealer, Succession‘s Brian Cox as his dad, and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman as his childhood friend) and was in preproduction when the towers fell. 20, 2002, review, but “palpably set in post-Sept. THR called ’25th Hour’ “unusually aimless” in its Dec.

Edward norton 25th hour