New York in the 70s/80s
I always associate that period with The Equalizer, but expect it was filmed in California not NYC.
I always associate that period with The Equalizer, but expect it was filmed in California not NYC.
-
-
New York in the 70s/80s
Some studio shots, but much of it was filmed on location.
Nothing like the constant presence on our sidewalks that was Law & Order and its progeny, though.Comment
-
New York in the 70s/80s
I would send you a copy but I just sent the last extra copy I had. At this point, royalties are none so buy the cheapest used copy you can find. :-)Tubby Isaacs wrote: Don't pay for it. Just wave your machete at Ursus and take his copy.
I'm really looking fwd to receiving it.Comment
-
New York in the 70s/80s
This is getting ridiculous.
Long Island City, around 2:30 this afternoon
Comment
-
New York in the 70s/80s
dmak, already bought it. Wish I would've known about it in the royalty days.
I've been given many copies over the past 10 years by the amazing authors on this site, and have been absolutely blessed. Now it's time for me to give something back.Comment
-
New York in the 70s/80s
Your giving a fair bit on this thread, and your PMs to me a while back. Been tremendous stuff.Comment
-
New York in the 70s/80s
I watched the movie Shame last night. I don't really remember much discussion about the film when it was released beyond the full frontal nudity and sex scenes. After seeing the film, I now know why since there wasn't really much to the plot. But I mention the film in this thread because it has a look, feel, and rhythm that is very much in line with some of the films discussed earlier in this thread. For me the two films that stand out by way of aesthetic comparison are Saturday Night Fever and Taxi Driver.Comment
-
-
-
New York in the 70s/80s
I often disagreed with him, but will still miss him.
RIP
BTW, when the next royal buys the farm, will the Beeb specify that the funeral will be held at "Westminster Abbey, an Anglican church"?Comment
-
New York in the 70s/80s
Yes, glad they let us know it's a Jewish synagogue, rather than a Presbyterian or Free Will Baptist synagogue.
Ed Koch waved to me (and several other people) once on lower Fifth Avenue as he was getting out of a town car. I didn't actually recognize him at first (not having been a New Yorker during the Koch years), but some of my fellow pedestrians were pretty excited.
R.I.P.Comment
-
New York in the 70s/80s
Sounds like he got a certain amount of market credibility back for the city's bonds. That was an important achievement.
RIPComment
-
New York in the 70s/80s
Talking of which, I was amazed to read that Abraham Beam's big selling point in 1973 was his financial skill...Comment
-
New York in the 70s/80s
Beame with a final "e".
And yes, but his expertise was on the spending side, rather than the income side. He grew up in a world where bond issues were forever.
Interesting piece on Koch's New York in film.Comment
-
New York in the 70s/80s
I met him whilst interning at Howard Stern. In all of his books, he looked like he was 5'5". In real life, he was 6'5." Absolute giant.
That 80 Blocks From Tiffanys was 80 Shades of Awesome.
I love when things that seem the most far-fetched and unrealistic, happen to be the most realistic. For instance, in pro wrestling, the sleeper hold always looked to be the lamest hold of all...until I saw it in a real Mixed Martial Arts match and a guy put to sleep in seconds.
In Oldboy, having a guy put in a personal prison seemed incredibly far-fetched...until you saw this Bronx kid in the 70s doing it. Fly stole the show. Speaking of which, I love how the hot Bronx girl got an "accidental" shiner from her pops for dating Fly. Yeah, if you're dating a sociopathic gang member who has his own two-doored solitarty confinement cell (complete with no light at all,) that's probably just cause for risking jail time to keep your daughter away from him.
It's also not a documentary about the BX in the late 70s if there's no "yes y'alllin" and "freak freak to the beat" on the mike, and this luckily has that. Complete with Fly getting all up in that face asking if you're high.
Somehow I think Fly ended up in a more conventional solitary cell.Comment
-
Comment
-
New York in the 70s/80s
I didn't have time to watch the doc about the firemen. I'll check it out this week, but watched the 80 blocks doc. Great stuff. I really like the scene where the guy asks the filmmakers about where they live and the filmmakers become a bit nervous, not wanting to get into the details. They say that Santa Monica is ok. That's a bit of an understatement. Although the city's size means it differs, the 70s would be very different than today, it is one of the posher sections of LA County.
I also like how that cop functions in this piece. It seems to me that he had to be partially bent. The gang members are just to free-flowing with him.Comment
-
New York in the 70s/80s
Not sure. Policing back then had the "we only bust real criminals" type of mentality. These kids were only stripping cars and had hubcap money, not heroin empire money. The cops that were really bent were the ones in Paul Castellano's part of the city.Comment
-
New York in the 70s/80s
On one hand, we've got a guy who shows up to the block party, who clearly knows the woman who is working with the "kids", and seems to be part of a larger effort (that also includes a priest who once ran with admittedly-milder gangs). The guy is truly a community police officer from this standpoint. On the other hand, we've got gang members who might not be drug dealing units that exist under the banner of a gang, but we do have guys who are robbing apartments and delivery trucks (as we see via the re-enactments), robbing individuals (the story the woman tells about a hypothetical thieving of a boom box), and two guys (Crazy Joe and the guy whose name is something along the lines of RJD2) talking about (maybe) killing people, raping, robbing, etc. It seems that the cop isn't working too hard to solve these crimes as he buddies up with the gang bangers at the block party and in chats on roof tops, etc. Perhaps he uses the guys as sources to bust other people, but each of the crimes discussed is serious enough that I can't believe he is getting anything bigger in terms of busts based on information: bigger than murder and rape. But maybe this is the start of a so-called drug war: the cop is getting info. about drug dealing and focuses his energies there since we all know (read sarcasm in that statement) that drugs are worse than rape and murder of fellow Puerto Rican or African American ghetto dwellers.jasoñ voorhees wrote: Not sure. Policing back then had the "we only bust real criminals" type of mentality. These kids were only stripping cars and had hubcap money, not heroin empire money. The cops that were really bent were the ones in Paul Castellano's part of the city.
I should add about this last part that I am referencing the so-called drug ware as it exists now--although I don't know how one can go to war with a thing and drugs are a thing--but also speaking to the insane sentencing policies that existed under the Rockefeller Drug sentencing. I don't know if Ursus will drop back into this conversation but he may or may not know more about the difference in sentencing under these laws as they existed at the time of the doc in question and sentencing for rape.Comment
-
New York in the 70s/80s
The fireman film was one of BBC's Man Alive films. There was another one which is about the nearest we came to the South Bronx in the seventies about some young tearaways getting into scrapes around derelict parts of the East End.ursus arctos wrote: Links to two documentaries on the South Bronx in the 70s/80s.
I saw it at the Whitechapel Gallery, can't find it online, sadly. The film virtually condemns them to life imprisonment. The Gallery had tracked 3 of the 4 down and none of them had a criminal record at all.
The social worker in the film, Dan Jones, who comes across very well, has also done some paintings and was featured on our Spitalfields thread.
http://spitalfieldslife.com/2011/09/14/dan-jones-paintings/Comment
-
New York in the 70s/80s
Interesting, interesting post d-mak. That's more along the lines of where I was getting at, that there's more to it than "he's bent."
I just feel a real corrupt cop would have nothing to do with being filmed. The culture of corruption in the NYPD was off-the-charts in the Serpico years, so even if he was corrupt, it was because the system was corrupt. There was also an understanding of "taking perps to the basement of the station house." No trial, no jail time, just a bunch of nightsticks. You can easily see that happening with the characters in this piece.
I see it as softer policing, until it got out of control during the crack years and semi-automatics hitting the street.
I completely forgot Tubby, The Great Migration. This was quite possibly the most important event in urban history that wasn't really mentioned until now.Comment
-
New York in the 70s/80s
A real interesting piece in Deadspin, in a kind of reversal of The Great Migration, in which the vast majority of Steeler Nation scattered throughout the country was due to the collapse of The Steel Industry in Pittsburgh.Comment
-
New York in the 70s/80s
I think the Great Migration is key.
LL and others who liked that track on the Bronx video, it's here:
http://beatelectric.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/key.html
Looks a good site too.Comment
-
New York in the 70s/80s
So, is the hiphop generally "nice" from that time?Comment
-
New York in the 70s/80s
Finished the Bronx Is Burning.
If only the sodding baseball wasn't in there. I had to miss all that out after a while.
I found the "Koch got in and things improved" ending very disappointing. 14 more years of increasing murders isn't my idea of improvement.
Otherwise, very good indeed. What's the TV series like?Comment
Comment