What About It?
(Click on "What Happens?" below for complete summary of the movie.)
Kurt Vonnegut once wrote "That is my principal objection to life, I think: It's too easy, when alive, to make perfectly horrible mistakes." 25th Hour is a film that deals with exactly that problem. We're watching a man say goodbye to his whole life because of mistakes he made without even thinking about them until they became habit.
An interesting aspect of the film is that Monty Brogan is not outwardly a cold hearted criminal, but seemingly a pretty nice guy. We're introduced to him stopping on the side of the road to save an injured dog, even following through when the dog bites him. Monty's father tells him "it's a gift, you make friends wherever you go." and we can see that in him. One thing that Monty is not, however, is a martyr. He's been a drug dealer for most of his life, and his looming prison sentence is a direct result of his activities. When Frank points out that Monty deserves it, he's not wrong. The prison sentence is a result of his actions and this should not be a surprise. He was not an unknowing pawn, as he dealt directly with the Russian mafia. As Slaughtery points out, all the nice things he bought were paid for "with human misery." Monty never tries to escape this accusation, he knows its true. However, in this film, it's too late to change any of that. He doesn't show remorse for dealing drugs or working with the mafia. As he points out to his father, "When Sal and his crew were squeezing you for the payments, I didn't hear you wishing I was a law school student then. I won one from you back then. Where did you think that money was coming from?" His occupation provided him benefits that were simply not obtainable through any other means and he enjoyed that. He doesn't feel badly about his occupation, although he feels badly that he threw his life away. It takes his seven year prison sentence to make him realize he shouldn't be doing what he's doing. He takes the opportunity to sever his ties with Uncle Nikolai, which is something of a Pyrrhic victory, but it's at least an attempt to extricate himself from the life he's trapped himself into.
Monty is a drug dealer but in his own way he's a moral person. His morals are simply skewed far differently than normal. He's kind to people (and animals) when he can be. His friends, his girlfriend and his father all love him. It's very clear that Monty tries to uphold his own principles, loyalty being one. His choice as to how he obtained money and influence must have seemed a sensible one at the time. Money is a concern for all of our characters and we see this in Monty's friends as well as himself. We have Frank who lives his whole life to make money in a legitimate fashion. As a result he is lacking any real relationships and presents himself as an egomaniac, constantly reminding others about the desirability his earnings give him. This is not lost on anyone around him, including a bartender, who has clearly heard him bragging about his desirability too many times. Jacob is another story, He comes from privilege, and feels guilty about it, keeping a teaching job in order to contribute something perhaps. Monty is able to work without sacrificing his whole life (until he's busted) like Frank, and still make a lot of money. It would seem he took up dealing drugs as a shortcut to success. Perhaps like many drug dealers, he rationalized that drugs would be sold whether he sold them or not. In Monty's world (and our own) he has the Enron scandal for comparison, as well as his problems with the Bush administration, and corrupt cops. This is not a world of simple good and bad guys. The "legitimately employed" Enron executives belonging much more to Frank's world than to Monty's. He's surrounded by people crossing moral lines. He's a drug dealer but he didn't trick anyone, he can reason he gave people what they wanted.
In the "Fuck You" bathroom scene we see him devote a lot of energy to this practice of comparison. We're given a tour of NY via Monty's angry and convenient stereotypes. After spending the whole day walking around and thinking, he blows up and blames everyone around him, before finally getting to the true cause of his problem, himself. By throwing everything out there, he's able to look and see how ridiculous his justification via comparison is. Sure, he's surrounded by people doing what they shouldn't, but he had his own choices, so he's left with "No. No, fuck you Montgomery Brogan. You had it all and you threw it away, you dumb fuck! " This monologue also tells us how much a part of Monty, his community is, as only someone tied to NY would rattle off the caricatures he's learned so quickly. On a deeper level, every accusation, asserts that his position is the correct one, which is of course not sustainable and ends with him pointing in his own direction.
Of course taking responsibility, doesn't eliminate the terrifying prospect of seven years in prison. His epiphany can't absolve him. Everyone's actions have consequences and in this film with the shadow of 9/11 everywhere around our characters, it would seem difficult to believe in storybook endings. It's fitting then, that his revelatory moment happens closed off in a small bathroom, looking at himself in the mirror. As if to say, sure there's a cruel and unfair world all around you, but you still have to look at yourself. The atmosphere of 9/11 is a heavy presence in the film, although it's not talked about directly much other than Frank and Jacob looking out the window at ground zero. Even so, it's everywhere, the towers of light, the flags, Brogan's Bar with it's firefighter memorial. The tragedy is part of the atmosphere.This is a loss that looms over the whole city, and it mirrors Monty's impending loss of his future.
Edward Norton is perfect in this role and he gives his Monty a contradictory depth. We like our movie drug dealers to be nasty and evil, but here we have someone who isn't that at all, but a guy who made a big mistake a long time ago and naturally built his whole life around his error. We know he earned his sentence, yet we feel bad that one of his friends betrayed him. We dread his prison time, knowing that the things which make him likeable will only be problems inside. We also know that while Monty serves his time, Nikolai's operation will continue as it always has. While the film doesn't come out and directly critique drug laws it does pose that question. Nikolai is the nasty ruthless drug dealer, and he's untouched by the Rockefeller law cited here, Monty certainly being just a means to try and get to Nikolai. Monty's sense of loyalty aside, he knows that to turn on Nikolai is certain death, so the penalties would seem ineffective, only working on someone deluded enough to not realize this. Perhaps seven years is a suitable sentence for a kilo, but the efforts of the DEA seem paltry against the bigger movers and most effective against those like Kostya who aren't smart enough to know better. But again, ineffective drug laws are simply part of the world Monty lives in, not any justification for what he's done. Monty's speech regarding this being his first offense, is just another part of the mistake he's made, and likely a part of the justification he made for his lifestyle a long time ago.
This is a movie with an important supporting cast. We learn a lot about Monty and the world he lives in through his friends. Rosario Dawson is great as Naturelle, who seems like a good girlfriend for Monty. Even when he thinks she betrayed him, he can't bring himself to accuse her or ask her about it, knowing that even if she had, she's good in ways he can't be, and he still loves her even if she has. She appears to be loyal and devoted, but she has her own moral dilemma. As Frank points out when he confronts her, she has enjoyed the benefits of Monty's drug dealing. While she might have told him he should quit, she has to wonder how convincing her arguments were intended to be.
Barry Pepper is great as Frank, and he has a lot in common with Frank. He has the same desire for influence, but rather than take a shortcut, he's pursued his ambition through legal means. As a result Frank has devoted himself strictly to making money, and by his reasoning, increasing his desirability. Frank is the realist of the group, and not afraid to point out that Monty deserves his sentence, although he still "loves him like a brother." He spends a lot of energy reinforcing his own status as one of the "99 percentile." We see at work however, that Frank's security is not as solid as he would have others believe, having his job threatened based on daily decisions. He attempts to set himself up as detached, but again, in his confrontation of Naturelle, we see that he blames himself for not speaking up and trying to stop Monty. His scene towards the end, where Monty asks him to make him ugly, reveals that he's a better friend than perhaps he wants to be. We see that it hurts him very much to beat on his friend, and we wonder if Frank didn't get hurt more than Monty.
Philip Seymour Hoffman's Jacob, is in a different world than Frank and Monty. He's never had to worry about making money, so teaches English to make up for this. Jacob is socially inept and constantly awkward even with his closest friends. He's clearly struggling with many different issues, although his attraction to his student is the most crucial for this film. Jacob has a different sense of reality than his friends, even the idea of prison is strange to him, as we see when he suggests that Monty should be able to bring his dog to prison with him. He has a poor self image and feels inferior around most people, especially guys like Monty and Frank. His problems could well be as big as Monty's, as we see when he kisses his student in the club. Although we don't know the consequences of this action, one thing he has in common with Monty is the idea of consequence looming over him.
Brian Cox, while having limited screen time, is an immense presence in the film. His James Brogan has, as Monty puts it, "endless grief." We get that his character would gladly take all of the blame for Monty. He's not an infallible figure, and we know he, like everyone else, looked away from Monty's activity when it suited him, perhaps feeling he had no other choice. He knows what Monty has lived with growing up and while Monty won't blame his childhood for what he is, his Dad would be happy to let him, and ultimately he just wants things to be easier for his son. The ending of the film is one of the most touching sequences I can recall. Cox's narration is like a lullaby, and we know that all Monty has to do is say the word and maybe this other life can happen. The tragedy is that Monty knows he can't blame anyone but himself for where he is, and as a result he knows he can't get away and he won't say the word. Maybe it's a victory, but its a hard and painful one. As Cox points out when Monty tells him it would be "easier" to let him walk away. "My God, you don't understand." Their lives are tied together, "easier" isn't possible.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of the film is watching the friends interact with each other. As Jacob points out, he and Frank are his "friends of the past." As a result they know things about each other that they never discuss. Frank is able to needle Jacob about his trust fund. Monty is able to point out how Frank looks at Naturelle, Jacob can reveal uncomfortable secrets, but they all remain friends. Their interaction with each other reveals more about themselves than they would like, most notably in the one on one moments they have with each other. Monty can only admit to Frank that he doesn't think he'll make it, and Frank in turn reveals that he cares a lot more than he lets on, trying his best to encourage him, even though we know a part of him knows this is the end. Monty treats Jacob like a little brother, knowing he has a very fragile ego. Naturelle will always be an outsider in their group, and it becomes clear that Monty is not the only one who is suspicious of her, although Frank's reasons for accusing her are likely more complicated than he lets on. As we see in the scene when Monty pushes Frank into beating him, the understandings that they have with each other are delicate things and a big part of friendship is not saying everything you can even though you may know it's true. They trust each other with great knowledge, knowing that one thought or inclination does not necessarily define them.
Spike Lee gives us an amazing and complicated piece, which at the same time seems very simple because it moves so clearly.While the movie clearly reflects the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, it's not limited by this. He shows us a city and a life that moves on in the shadow of many larger forces, where lives can be easily lost at any time and people can easily go astray without even realizing it until it's too late. No matter the tragedy, lives continue and people do what they think they should do (or not.) The city footage is amazing, particularly the opening with a look at the light towers against the city. A sense of the inevitable hangs over the film. At the opening, its already too late, for the towers, and for Monty, but of the three choices that Monty has, he chooses prison, because as doomed as he is, he can still hope like Jacob and Frank propose that there is something afterwards. The techniques Lee uses are masterful, like the mirror narration, illustrated by action in the background, (in contrast to the smiling faces Monty sees when they start the drive to prison) His father's narration at the end, where we're shown a life that maybe could've happened. It reminds us what a movie can do with some skill and imagination behind it.
Here we have a story where people are not black and white, they have many motivations and justifications, and often do the absolute wrong thing. Monty is a likable, but not an admirable character. In the course of his final day of freedom, he does manage to look at himself more honestly than he has in many years. He takes an inventory and finds he had a lot more in his life than he realized, and finally taking responsibility for himself, he hopes to have something again. The focus he gains from what hangs over him, gives him a look at his life he would probably not have seen under normal circumstances. What prison does to him is a bleak unknown, and not really the point of the movie. This is a film about the clarity that comes from knowing you can't escape what awaits you. In the brilliant ending we're left with the knowledge that people will keep hoping for a better alternative right until the very end. It's so tempting to hope that they're following that plan, taking a left turn and starting a new life. When you realize you're hoping this for a drug dealer who earned his sentence, you've arrived at the heart of the puzzle, and the idea that people have more to them than the mistakes they've made. We, like Monty, can sit with the fact that he is responsible for his actions, but still see it as a tragedy that a whole life is being thrown away.
