New York had it all, and screwed itself over.
Too much arrogance, too much desire to show off, too perfect not to annoy someone. A city born and grown in the light of the American dream, which could originate from either a criminal or a respectable businessman (who could be the same thing). Its strength lay in masking problems or faults, a master in the art of appearing, screwed by its own greed.
September 11, 2001, New York takes it in the ass, and Ground Zero is there to symbolize the defeat.
Spike Lee creates his masterpiece portraying New York in a Norton who masterfully plays his part as a seemingly-good-man-with-faults.
One who had it all, one who appeared clean but was actually the biggest scoundrel, one who was full of friends all promptly vanished at the moment of need. One screwed by his own greed. Everything is perfectly represented: the doubt of being screwed over by your own woman only to find out that it was the Russian friend who did the screwing; masking the pain by continuing to move as if nothing happened, while, as soon as you look at yourself, you realize you screwed yourself; the false condolences from colleagues; the fake well-wishes for a comeback.
But not all is lost.
An old firefighter will save "New York" from defeat and encourage it to start again from Ground Zero to rebuild everything that was lost, but he encourages rebuilding it with consciousness, eliminating everything that led the old "New York" to end up in the mess.
Not everything is lost, as long as there are the White-Gays of Chelsea walking around with their chests out, as long as there are businessmen on Wall Street tearing at each other, as long as there are the blacks defending their territory in the Bronx, as long as there are New Yorkers proud of who they are and who don't let themselves be defeated by a hit that landed.
A movie: message, plot, characters, performances, direction, Spike Lee... The Professional.
The Negro.
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