25th Hour
| 25th Hour | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Spike Lee |
| Produced by |
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| Screenplay by | David Benioff |
| Based on |
The 25th Hour by David Benioff |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Terence Blanchard |
| Cinematography | Rodrigo Prieto |
| Edited by | Barry Alexander Brown |
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Production
companies |
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| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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134 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5 million |
| Box office | $23.9 million |
25th Hour is a 2002 American drama film directed by Spike Lee and starring Edward Norton. Based on the novel The 25th Hour by David Benioff, who also wrote the screenplay, it tells the story of a man's last 24 hours of freedom as he prepares to go to prison for seven years for dealing drugs.
25th Hour opened to positive reviews, with several critics since having named it one of the best films of its decade.
A canary yellow vintage Super Bee pulls up short on a New York City street, and Montgomery "Monty" Brogan gets out with his buddy Kostya to look at a dog lying in the road. The animal was mauled in a dogfight so Monty intends to shoot him, but changes his mind after he looks it in the eye. Monty decides to take the dog to a nearby clinic instead.
Fast forward to late 2002. Monty is about to begin serving a seven-year prison sentence for dealing drugs. He sits in a park with Doyle, the dog he rescued, on his last day of freedom. He plans to meet childhood friends Frank Slaughtery and Jacob Elinsky at a club with his girlfriend Naturelle. Frank is a hotshot trader on Wall Street; Jacob is an introverted high school teacher with a crush on 17-year-old Mary, one of his students.
Monty visits his father, James, a former firefighter and recovering alcoholic who owns a bar, to confirm their plans to drive to the prison the following morning. Monty's drug money helped James keep the bar, so a remorseful James sneaks a drink when Monty goes to the bathroom. Facing himself in the mirror, Monty lashes out in his mind against everyone else: all the New York stereotypes he can think of, from the cabbies to the firefighters, the corner grocers to the mobsters, as if he hates them all. Finally, he turns on himself, revealing that he is actually angry for getting greedy and having not given up drug dealing before he was caught.
In a flashback, Monty remembers the night he was arrested. Detectives come to Monty's apartment while he's still there. They find the drugs immediately and not after any real search, suggesting that Monty had been betrayed. Monty sold drugs for Uncle Nikolai, a Russian mobster. Kostya tries to persuade Monty it was Naturelle who turned him in, since she knew where he hid his drugs and money. Monty refused to turn state's evidence against Nikolai, but he's not sure what Nikolai will do at the club that night. Monty remembers how he met Naturelle when she was 18, hanging around his old school, and how happy they were. He asks Frank to find out if it was Naturelle who betrayed him.
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Wikipedia