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25th Hour [2003] (REGION 1) (NTSC)


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Thoughtful movie - but not as good as the book!
Review date: 2008-09-21 Rating: 8 out of 10

While much focus under reviews of the movie has been on Spike Lee's involvement in the film of the book and use of the post 11/9 setting, this in large part overlooks that the movie started with the great asset of a well written novel with a unique and timely story. In addition the using of the author David Beniofff to also write the screenplay seems to have ensured that much of the book's strengths were not lost in the transition to the screen.

Despite the few sops made from the book to Hollywood storylines (an over emphasis on did the girlfriend betray the lead character now destined for 7 years in jail and the resultant conversion of the ending), there is much to admire in the movie especially in tracking the story mix of the course of the lead actor Ed Norton's last day of freedom and the flashbacks needed to explain why matters have turned out as they have.

While the film's main emphasis is inevitably on Norton, what is more interesting is how he pales (relatively) against the ensemble of other support roles from the spot on Wall Street financial trader aggression of Barry Pepper; the adrift personna of introverted academic Philip Seymour Hoffman; the confused Puerto Rican girlfriend of Rosario Dawson and the pained widowed father of Brian Cox. The film makes great use of long set up fixed shots where the book's core themes of friendships and personal loyalties under pressure are endlesssly explored, with most dramatic effect in two scenes from an apartment overlooking the cleared World Trade Centre site and in a bar scene before the party moves on to a dance club.

While Spike Lee deserves full credit for evoking the NY story and setting, this is definitely a production that is the sum of its many great parts (and the audio commentary from Lee and Benioff included as a DVD extra reconfirms this).

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Reviews


What is that Scorsesean temptation about?
Review date: 2008-07-06 Rating: 8 out of 10

A strange and disquieting film more than an interesting one. It tries too much to demonstrate something and that something is just as unreal as the mind who thought it over, if over at all. A drug lord in New York is supposed to go spend seven years in prison. He must have been convicted and sentenced by a court. So what is he doing free outside the prison he is supposed to go to by his own means tomorrow? What's more on the very day before this move to the prison his apartment is raided by the police with a proper search warrant and money and drugs are found in his own couch, apparently on some information given to the police by some fink. And he is not arrested on the spot. So the whole film is a dream, the dream about the last day before going to prison during which the ex-drug-lord is meeting with his two childhood or teenage school buddies, one being a high school teacher and the other a stock exchange trader. Plus the father who is summoned into the film before that big event. The film thus starts with a beaten up dog the hero saves in some abandoned lot in New York and ends with this hero completely banged up by his own trading friend for him to be "ugly" and not to attract too much attention from his prison inmates to come on the following day, with details about how many teeth would get broken out of his mouth for his biting to be harmless, and a few other gritty details like this one. And just before this last picture of the banged-up hero in the passenger's seat of his father's car being driven by his own father to his prison, the dream of an escape, like in "The Last Temptation of Christ": go west, disappear, change identity, bring your girl friend and raise a family. Martin Scorsese revisited. But what comes out of the film? Are we supposed to cry for a drug-lord who has sold poison on the street of New York? Are we supposed to cry for his fink of a friend who just played his own game and lost? Are we supposed to cry for a girl friend who enjoyed easy money and luxury for years and is going to lose it all, if she does? Are we supposed to cry for the high school teacher who kisses his 17 year old student in a night club? Are we supposed to cry for the trader who gets redressed by his own boss because he is overspending and gambling more than trading? What is the object of the film, if any other than voyeuristic pathetic grossness? So in fine it is more disappointing even than disquieting, or disquieting about Spike Lee's movie making.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines


Marginally better than watching paint dry!
Review date: 2008-04-22 Rating: 2 out of 10

I cannot believe I just wasted 129 minutes of my life watching this - 129 minutes I will never get back! Spike Lee really has over stepped the mark in indecent self indulgence. Not only is this film a complete waste of time, it is also a shameful waste of some of America and the UK's best acting talent. The characters are neither likable nor dislikeable; it really is impossible to feel anything while watching this film other than "when will it end"? Edward Norton really should have known better. I can only imagine that Brian Cox fell asleep in the middle of the script before he got to the thoroughly embarrassing "Speilberg-esque" monologue at the end, either that or he needs a new agent. And to waste the acting genius that is Philip Seymour Hoffman on a snivelling, mono-syllabic character that adds little or nothing to the "storyline" (and I use storyline in the loosest possible sense here) is positively criminal! The whole experience was only marginally better than watching paint dry!

Criminals are always playing spin the bottle and sooner or later it is going to point to the ugly
Review date: 2008-04-11 Rating: 10 out of 10

One of the many things that make 25th hour such a special film to me is how Benioff and Lee didn't attempt to cram too many events into this plot. This film does take place in just one day, and it's a perfect snapshot of the lead protagonist Monty Brogan's thoughts and actions in that final day before he begins a 7 year jail sentence for dealing heroin, expertly put together by David Benioff and Spike Lee. We see Brogan (superbly played by Edward Norton) walking his dog, talking to his girlfriend, having a meal with his father, going out to a club with his friends, preparing to go to jail and being driven there. It's not over the top, it isn't brash, but it does do what is necessary.

Brogan is clearly worried and regretful. This is faultlessly portrayed by the mirror scene, in which he rants incessantly about the variety of people populating New York, and then realizes that he only has himself to blame for the situation he is in. It's such a human moment, since how many people can honestly say that they have never chosen to blame others, and take their anger out in a vicious way, even if it is just personal thoughts? But it isn't just Monty who feels regret, virtually every other character we focus on does, Monty's father is weighed down by his former alcoholism, and he partly holds himself responsible for Monty's fate. And so do Monty's friends, not preventing him from his choice to deal drugs.

Monty Brogan is not really shown in a 'good' or 'bad' light. Norton plays him as a normal person. He's easy to relate to, and it's a reminder of how anyone can turn out depending on what choices they make. His choice of drug dealing is looked down upon, the interrogators ridicule him, but that is only in the context of drug dealing, not as a normal person. Benioff and Lee were keen to show his actions like this.

The film is skillfully made, from the very tasteful opening credit scene acknowledging 9/11 (another honest feature about the film, which is an important theme throughout), where we see the lights at ground zero dropping from the sky, to the fantasy scene with Monty and his father in the car near the end, where they think about the family he could have had, all surreally dressed in while. Terence Blanchard's score too is one of the most beautiful I've heard in a recent film along with Michael Andrews score for Donnie Darko - The Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition). The film tells it like it is. It's about decision making, it's about responsibility and it's about real friendship. It's realistic on an emotional level and is now one of my favorite Spike Lee Joints.


Spike's best?
Review date: 2007-12-14 Rating: 10 out of 10

Being a much more subtle and mature film than 'Do the Right Thing' the above statement may actually be true. A fantastic film that doesn't have a grand plot but holds your interest through making the character and their friendship wholly believable.

This all happens without ever asking you to sympathise with the lead character, but instead asking you to examine the effect his actions have had on those around him, from the drug addict, to his girlfriend (played by Rosario Dawson who is on top form). In all a great film, go watch it.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Rosario Dawson
Barry Pepper
Anna Paquin
Edward Norton
Philip Seymour Hoffman

Creators:
Edward Norton (Primary Contributor)
Edward Norton (Producer)
Barry Pepper (Primary Contributor)
Spike Lee (Producer)
Jeff Sommerville (Producer)
Jon Kilik (Producer)
Julia Chasman (Producer)
Nick Wechsler (Producer)
David Benioff (Writer)

Director(s):

Recording label: Walt Disney Video
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Video
EAN: 0786936218497
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Colour, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen,
Release date: 2003-05-20
Universal product code (UPC): 786936218497
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 135 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2003-01-10
Language: English (Original Language)

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