The quintessential 1970s NYC movie

[celedhring]

Going off the discussion in the movie thread, what movie do you feel best channels 1970s NYC in it's gritty, crime-ridden, decaying yet culturally vibrant glory?

3 picks since the field is so large.

My picks:

- Taxi Driver: the quintessential "NYC as a rotten carcass" movie.
- Dog Day Afternoon:  Alienation, crime as the only escape from a crooked system, explotation by the media, LGBTQ+ identity, institutional corruption. Yep, it has it all.
- Shaft: There are been way better films about black empowerment in the 1970s, but this one has that "in the moment" feel and raw earnestness that still makes it compelling. And in a list like this, felt I had to pick at least one film showcasing the black experience, even if ultimately it's a blaxplotation movie.

[Syt]

Does Manhattan count, where Woody Allen dates a 17-year-old student (which is the Age of Consent in NYC according to Wikipedia)?

[celedhring]

Does Manhattan count, where Woody Allen dates a 17-year-old student (which is the Age of Consent in NYC according to Wikipedia)?

Age of consent is 16 in Spain    (and it used to be 13  )

Of course it counts. Should be in the shorlist since it's a quintessential NYC movie that showcases a different side to all these crime thrillers I listed.

[Syt]

Does Manhattan count, where Woody Allen dates a 17-year-old student (which is the Age of Consent in NYC according to Wikipedia)?

Age of consent is 16 in Spain    (and it used to be 13  )

Of course it counts. Should be in the shorlist since it's a quintessential NYC movie that showcases a different side to all these crime thrillers I listed.

14 in Austria, with some caveats for the 14-18 age range (i.e. the < 18 person must be "mature" enough to understand what they're doing, there's no exploiting of power dynamics (teacher/student, coach/athlete) etc., IIRC (Not that it's ever been relevant for me or ever will be, tbf )

[Grey Fox]

I'm gonna have to look up some of these but I believe The Warriors is the quintessential movie.

[Duque de Bragança]

So a 1981 film taking place in the then not-so-close future New York of 1997 is a 1970's New York movie? 

[Savonarola]

So a 1981 film taking place in the then not-so-close future New York of 1997 is a 1970's New York movie? 

When I suggested it, I had meant it as a joke, since it was shot in East St. Louis.  That being said, I do think it's revealing as to what a large portion of the United States thought about New York City and its future in the late 70s/early 80s.

[Duque de Bragança]

So a 1981 film taking place in the then not-so-close future New York of 1997 is a 1970's New York movie? 

When I suggested it, I had meant it as a joke, since it was shot in East St. Louis.  That being said, I do think it's revealing as to what a large portion of the United States thought about New York City and its future in the late 70s/early 80s.

Not to mention the – brilliant – model work, scenes shot in California (!) and a few actually in New York. Most is East Saint Louis, however, as you point out.

So Manhattan, the most valuable piece of real estate in New York turned into a maximum security prison? Well, it was a jungle but meant as a warning, I guess, typical of Science-fiction back then, even after Star Wars and its fantasy with Science Fiction trappings.

Well, the  Bronx would have been a better candidate, as is in this 1983 rip-off (year of the Escape from New York rip-offs along with 2019 after the Fall of New York) which correctly predicted gentification if exagerating the means used to evict "undesirable" tenants :


PS: not as fun as the cartoonishly violent Death Wish 3 shot mostly in England.

[Duque de Bragança]

To be fair, The Warriors and its "clown make-up" gangs is not that realistic too, even for an Anabasis transposition.
NYC métro depiction back then, OTOH...

[Barrister]

Other: CHUD (even if released in 1984)

[celedhring]

So a 1981 film taking place in then not-so-close future 1997 is a 1970's movie? 

Sav suggested it, and it's hard to deny it's taking what people thought of NYC at the time and making the over-the-top version of it.

[Duque de Bragança]

So a 1981 film taking place in then not-so-close future 1997 is a 1970's movie? 

Sav suggested it, and it's hard to deny it's taking what people thought of NYC at the time and making the over-the-top futuristic dystopian version of it.

Emphasis mine. 

[The Minsky Moment]

Dog Day Afternoon and it's not even close.

As a kid I spent quite a lot of time in New York City in the 1970s - one set of grandparents in Inwood (just north of Washington Heights) and another in Queens. Not just in the museums and the sites but the playgrounds and the parks and the subways.

As a kid you see things differently. New York was dirty and loud and covered and graffiti.  There was a tinge of danger. But even in that "Drop Dead" era, it wasn't the dystopian hellscape imagined in the Warriors or (by implication) in Escape From New York.  it was fun and exciting and a true melting pot of all different kinds of people thrown together.

Dog Day Afternoon with its carnival atmosphere, media frenzy and recognizable New York characters all over the screens captures the sense of the city I recall the best.

The other film worth considering is Saturday Night Fever, though not as it turns out based on a true story.

[Savonarola]

I think Manhattan is the quintessential 1970s New York City movie (though obviously a different slice of society than the rest of the poll.)  It's even got Bella Abzug in it.

I did vote for The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.  To me that's instantly recognizable as New York and the 1970s (Walter Matthau's tie alone makes that point.)  With luck I'll be helping build a radio tower near the Pelham Station.

I had an uncle who went to NYU in the 1970s.  He thought "Midnight Cowboy," was the most representative film of the era (although the film is 1969.)  There's a scene early on where there's a man lying on the ground with his hand sticking up and a crowd just walks past him; while John Voight doesn't seem to know what to do.  He said that he saw the very same thing.  He thought New York wouldn't be such a culture shock being from Detroit (and riot era Detroit at that), but he was wrong. 

[mongers]

I think Manhattan is the quintessential 1970s New York City movie (though obviously a different slice of society than the rest of the poll.)  It's even got Bella Abzug in it.

I did vote for The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.  To me that's instantly recognizable as New York and the 1970s (Walter Matthau's tie alone makes that point.)  With luck I'll be helping build a radio tower near the Pelham Station.

I had an uncle who went to NYU in the 1970s.  He thought "Midnight Cowboy," was the most representative film of the era (although the film is 1969.)  There's a scene early on where there's a man lying on the ground with his hand sticking up and a crowd just walks past him; while John Voight doesn't seem to know what to do.  He said that he saw the very same thing.  He thought New York wouldn't be such a culture shock being from Detroit (and riot era Detroit at that), but he was wrong. 

Nice stories/color from you and JR. 

I'm null voting as a foreigner and as someone with no great knowledge of NYC and the time.