My Favorite Scene: 25th Hour

Spike Lee’s 25^th Hour is a perfect film made by a passionate genius. It’s a movie I come back to often – for inspiration, entertainment, cinematic replenishment – you name it. I love everything about it, and picking a single favorite scene is no easy feat.

The film is inarguably notorious for two sequences: Edward Norton’s extended, lacerating, appropriate “Fuck You” monologue to himself, and the brutal “I need you to make me ugly” testament of friendship. Those scenes are locked; forever imprinted as classic moments of contemporary cinema. As is, in my opinion, Barry Pepper and Philip Seymour Hoffman verbally dismantling their friend and each other for four unbroken minutes as a gutted Ground Zero rests below them.

Unforgettable moments of an unforgettable film. But they’re far from my favorite.

One of the things I respect most about 25^th Hour is its patience in setting up its characters. Roughly 20 minutes into the film, after we’ve met Norton’s doomed drug dealer, and Hoffman’s conflicted teacher, the film inadvertently cuts to a new world. A world established by frantic chatter, ceaseless phone ringing, an ice cold tonal hue, and, most prominently, the very anguished eyes of Francis Xavier Slaughtery.

The swollen-eyed Francis (played by Pepper) is focused intently on the day’s unemployment numbers. Francis is a big time New York bond trader and on this particular morning, he’s gambled $100 million dollars on the hope of a low unemployment number. What a low unemployment number is, and how is it achieved, is beyond me. Doesn’t matter. What matters is the man. The character before us. The brash, aggressive, compulsive predator on the screen. Spike Lee and his screenwriter, David Benioff (who also penned the marvelous novel on which the film is based), want us to know Francis from frame one. And know him we do.

To describe the effectiveness of the scene is to really bring three aspects of filmmaking into the mix: acting, writing, and cinematography. Barry Pepper is a fine actor who is rarely given a role that demands all of his skill. Fortunately for us, Francis is such a role, and it remains Pepper’s finest to date. Just watch Pepper here, I mean really fucking watch him. Watch the way he so expertly lets his nerves manipulate the character. Constantly taking swigs from his Red Bull, squeezing the ever-loving shit out of a Pinky, talking down to a mail boy, becoming subtly furious after his coworker insults him – it’s all so authentic.

Moments later, Francis’ boss, Sal (played by Lee regular, and former stockbroker, Al Palagonia) approaches Francis, and those three aspects of filmmaking I mentioned really take off. Sal starts bitching Francis out for his impulsiveness, which results in one of the best work-related chew outs I’ve ever heard. “You come in here drinking your red bullshit, you stink like booze, you’re out all night partying – and that’s okay. But when you become a cowboy, that’s when I draw the line.” Just brilliant.

During Palagonia’s tirade, the actor’s reflection can be seen next to him, sometimes bleeding into his own dominating figure. When the camera cuts to Pepper, it’s the same thing – as if Pepper’s face is being reflected off of Palagonia’s torso. Which… it is. I have no idea why genius cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto opted to use large panes of glass during this scene for effect, but Christ does it work.

The 25^th Hour DVD contains two separate commentary tracks, one from Lee and another from Benioff. On Lee’s track, I learned that this scene was shot on a set, which makes me respect the heaping clutter of boxes, exposed wires, monitors and overly caffeinated young men that much more. Benioff’s track offers even better insight. The writer recalls a memory from when he visited a friend on a bond-trading floor in downtown Manhattan:

“It’s an interesting place, the trading floor. Lot of testosterone. You don’t see any women. You hear a lot of cursing, lot of people yelling into telephones, lot of locker room posturing. It’s very competitive, and I thought it was kind of fun, too.”

Kind of fun, indeed, my friend.

Listen to my 25th Hour Commentary podcast!