*2002*Spike Lee*134m*
Monty has been convicted of a drug related offence and his term starts tomorrow, in another twenty five hours. A sentence of seven years is a one way street since there is no return to respectability and the experience itself a hell from which one returns with indelible scars. It is in a way a death sentence since it spells the death of one's life as it was. One is breaking with one's past and one's acquaintances, and embarking on a hard new life. In a way it may be worse than death since death is a fading away into something unknown. We experience these hours in his interactions with two childhood friends, an English teacher and a stockbroker, his girlfriend and his father. Requires a second view for better comprehension which I fear it may not be deserving of.
Roger Ebert's Great Movie Review
10 comments:
So you like it but not too much?
I don't intend to give it a second view and it's already forgotten.
In any case the majority of films are not amenable to a binary classification.
Not that great of a film, though the ending is mind-blowing and the "Mirror" scene is the only other one that really has energy to it, but even that is just Spike Lee getting his "racial scene" in there. Doesn't seem like a second viewing would really do anything for it. Vastly overrated.
I strongly believe that the mirror scene is one of the defining moments of American film-making in the first decade of the new millennium.
It's a shame that Spike Lee can't keep his game as consistent as his best work.
I seem to have forgotten the mirror bit. Maybe I have to see this again--I seem to have missed out. It sure is a powerful theme and Spike can't have let this fertile theme go for nothing.
It really deserves a second chance. I watched it when it was first released and was apathetic about it. Recently having seen it once more I appreciated the friendship between the 3 buddies and the favor that is asked of one of them. The mirror scene is a cheap gimmick and one of the most unoriginal scene since it is a blatant ripoff of Do The Right Thing. It's as if Spike wanted to revisit a classic scene from his masterpiece and inject it to see how it would play and it fails. he only used it, in my opinion, to vent some anger and frustration at 9/11.
Great blog. I read it often and keep it up! (Javi from NYC)
Javi:
Thanks for your visit.
I would like to see this film a second time since I seem to have missed the point.
Hey S M Rana
I don't think you necessarily missed the point. Don't you feel like sometimes the mood you are in has influence on any given film? I encounter that often and I am pleasantly surprised (sometimes years later!) to explore them again.
Javi
Of course mood and subjectivity are all, like being offered food when you are not well or already too full!!
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