Monster is a star-studded coming-of-age movie about Steve Harmon (Kelvin Harrison Jr., The Trial of the Chicago 7), a talented New York City teenager who is unknowingly coerced into getting involved in a crime that results in a tragic murder. Steve is a budding filmmaker, and through his love of film and photography, he becomes acquainted with William King (Rakim "A$AP Rocky" Mayers), a charming but dangerous neighborhood kid with criminal interests. Steve is forced to grow up fast when he is arrested and put on trial for allegedly participating in William's crimes. Although it seems that Steve is vindicated at the end of the movie, the nuances of his situation and how it is resolved can use some explanation.
Monster begins with Steve being booked and subjected to an array of dehumanizing practices by police and the district attorney's office. As the movie develops, Steve's terrifying story unfolds, and all the evidence points to him having been wrongly accused. Scenes of him interacting with his family, classmates, teachers, and locals are interspersed with scenes of his nightmarish incarceration and his interactions with his sympathetic lawyer, Katherine O'Brien (Jennifer Ehle, Pride and Prejudice). To add to his enormous challenges, the callous assistant district attorney (Paul Ben-Victor) assigned to prosecute his case is out to make an example of him at all costs, namely because he is Black. Monster tackles the influence of skin color in the city's justice system, but the subtleties of how Steve ended up in his situation are also related to his adolescent mistakes. By the end of the movie, his ordeal has transformed him from a child to an adult.
After what seems like months awaiting trial, Steve finally makes it to court, where the stakes are extremely high for any teenager, let alone one as naïve as he is. As the prosecution parades a litany of questionable witnesses before the jury, the stakes only seem to get higher and higher, despite his obvious innocence. After Steve's film teacher (Tim Blake Nelson, Watchmen) dutifully testifies on his behalf, his lawyer warns him that because of the corrupt nature of the justice system, the trial could still go either way. This terrifying reality is what leads to the movie's gut-wrenching third act.
In Monster's ending, Steve is finally forced to take the stand and provide his own testimony about what happened the day of the robbery. At this point things don't look good for him, and it seems that the trial could go either way. He tells the jury that he was only acquainted with William from the neighborhood and that he wasn't involved in the crime in any way. He explains that he simply went into the store to buy a drink after school and then went home; it was just a coincidence that the crime was committed afterward. His lawyer's final statement begs the jury to realize that Steve is anything but a monster and that instead, he is simply a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
As he awaits the jury's verdict, he narrates a scene in which William asks him to go into the store and give a signal if it's all clear. When he asks why, William intimidates him into doing it. He reluctantly does so and comes back outside. The audience never sees him give a signal, but the scene isn't about that, it's about the fact he didn't tell the whole truth to the jury. He gave them the story he thought they needed to hear in order to judge him correctly. After the trial is concluded, Steve is found not guilty of all charges, but he can't help but feel guilty for not saying anything, for not stopping the crime before it happened. He asks the audience "Boy, man, human, monster? That feels gray. What do you see when you look at me?"
Ultimately, Steve lied about what happened the day of the robbery because he had no other choice. If he had told the exact truth, it would have almost ensured that the jury would convict him. The exact truth is that he was scared, as most teenagers would be, and he had no idea what William was up to. He could have run away and gone to the police when William asked him to go inside the store, but he chose not to because it was easier, and he could not predict that a crime was about to be committed. As a teenager, he naïvely hoped that he could just ignore it. Sadly, he was wrong.
In a way, Steve didn't actually lie, he simply told the truth from his perspective. Although it is a fact that Steve had nothing to do with the crime, it's also a fact that he went into the store for William, despite not really knowing why. These facts are not mutually exclusive, and he was not being judged on facts alone. He was also being judged by the context of the crime. Depending on the context presented to the jury, they could see him as either a perpetrator or a victim of the crime. Steve was luckily able to understand this and tell the truth that the jury needed to hear to judge him correctly. Throughout the film, Steve expressed his confusion, regret, and fear as a teenager whose only mistake was not reporting the possibility of crime about to be committed.
In Monster, Steve was found not guilty on all counts against him in a court of law. In this sense, he is most definitely innocent. However, some viewers might be tempted to believe that he was actually guilty because he chose to enter the store as William demanded. Even Steve himself felt guilty at the end of the movie, but for a different reason. However, despite the reality of his involvement, he is still innocent of wrongdoing. He had no motive, no knowledge the crime was being committed, and there were no credible witnesses except for an old woman, who couldn't have possibly known what he was doing at the store.
Additionally, Steve couldn't reliably predict that the robbery would even happen, despite the circumstances and his gut feeling. It is not reasonable to hold someone accountable for not reporting a crime they didn't know about and that hasn't even happened yet. Ultimately, the main reason that Steve was even on trial in the first place was because of the racist practices of the police and the criminal justice system, not any criminal activity on his part. The prosecutor's desire convict as many people who "look the part" (i.e. people of color) is what really brought Steve as far as he went in the system.
Monster has many layers of meaning, but its main message is that guilt, innocence and justice are not as objective as people want them to be. Steve's final question for the audience, "What do you see when you look at me?" is intended to make exactly this point. Guilt, innocence, and justice can be both subjective and objective at the same time. In a court of law, despite the proclamation that defendants are innocent until proven guilty, both sides of any trial attempt to convince the jury by using not only facts and evidence, but emotion as well.
In Monster, the prosecutor states that "[Steve] wants to make stuff up. Well, this is about facts and evidence. And that is what you're here to judge without emotion, without sympathy. Do not let these people play on your sympathies." The reality is that the prosecutor was obviously trying to sway the jury using emotional appeals, despite his claims to the contrary. The main message of Monster is that everyone must judge these things for themselves, with the caveat that they must be prepared to face the consequences of doing so.
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