Fun Challenge: Movies/TV shows about NYC

So I watched "The Warriors" the other day and forgot how much fun that movie was on so many levels.

I was wondering what some of your picks would be for movies that represent/ portray NYC very well and very poorly/ ridiculously. The list is vast and endless, but just wanted some opinions. There might be some jewels out there that I missed.

"The Warriors" is a cult classic and an utterly ridiculous representation of NY and gangs in the 70s, but , I can't help it - I love that movie and have to watch it when it comes on cable. It was before crack, hip-hop and the subways were a "hot mess". NYC was still in its very gritty,70s, pre-Giuliani era and no one was wearing designer clothing - except for those punks on the subway after their prom - Swan should have kicked their preppy asses!!

Who wasn't afraid of the 'Baseball Fury' dudes back in the day? I knew I was definitely afraid of the 'Gramercy Riffs'. If they could only see what has happened to their turf today, hope they invested in real estate.

"Warr-iors, come out to plaay-yay"!!!

"Fame" was another movie I remember watching growing up and thought I needed to move to New York to be cool. When I look at it now I keep thinking "Leon was so obviously gay, how'd I miss that one"? He was great and I always loved that movie too.

So help with a list of good and bad movies/TV about NYC - you aren't doing anything else right now, you slackers!

Law & Order is obvi teh awesome

I'm a big "Dog Day Afternoon" fan - filmed right here in WT on PPW.

Warriors is great!

Many of the Woody Allen movies

King of New York was good

Taxi Driver

Moonstruck

just some off the top of my head

Scorsese's After Hours

The Incident

if we're including TV shows, then Sex and the City........part of the fun of watching that was to see if you could recognize the places where they filmed

Do the Right Thing strikes me as very NY as well

Saturday Night Fever....especially the opening and him putting two slices of pizza on top of each other and strutting down the streets of Brooklyn

Flexichick wrote: Saturday Night Fever....especially the opening and him putting two slices of pizza on top of each other and strutting down the streets of Brooklyn

Definitely.

I like all those listed above.

Some more:

Liquid Sky

Kids


Just Another Girl on the IRT

Little Odessa


The Fisher King


The Pope Of Greenwich Village


Gangs of New York?

I'll think of some more later...

Carnivore and Livetotravel great flicks!
I'm going to rent "The Incident" ASAP- doubt if blockbuster on Flatbush would have it...I may have to go "local".

I know this is the improper use of "oh snap", but you guys inspired me!
I love the internets.

Can you imagine the Grammercy Riffs today? They'd be wearing Burberry

Oh Snap!
The Warriors Trailer from 1979!!
How do I get a Warriors Vest!!??

Paris Is Burning

Stranger Than Paradise

Torch Song Trilogy
High Art
(Patricia Clarkson is AMAZING in this)
and that cheesey early 80s thing with Madonna and Aiden Quinn

Nice ones, pitu!

and
omigod
Sweet Smell of Success

She's Gotta Have It
Do the Right Thing
Juice
Working Girl
Beat Street
Saturday Night Fever
Boomerang

homeowner wrote: She's Gotta Have It
Do the Right Thing
Juice
Working Girl
Beat Street
Saturday Night Fever
Boomerang

All good ones. I gotta give Spike Lee props on his portrayal of NY - and brooklyn specifically. I have some criticism of him as a filmmaker, but I really do like his director of photography and subject matter.
Boomerang - yes!! A great and fun Movie - Eddie at his peak!

Other Spike Lee joints not mentioned featuring NYC

Malcom X
Clockers ( filmed in PH/CH)
25th Hour
Mo' Betta' Blues
She Hate Me
Inside man (not so much - just 1 block really)

New Jack City

Pitu,

Holy Shiznit - those were HOT!!
PAris is burning! LOL!! Yes!!

Ghostbusters

Party Monster (cheeeesey fun, Macaulay Culkin as real life club kid and psychokiller Michael Alig)


And two teen girl punk films...
Times Square (suuuper cheesey, with Tim Curry as mr late night dj)
All Over Me (super sweet east village love story, girls and guitars)

and
continuing the theme of indie features...

Variety, dir. by Bette Gordon, written by Kathy Acker, featuring what might have been Luis Guzman 1st screen appearance

Working Girls (dir. Lizzie Borden) (no, not the one with Melanie Griffith)

I Like It Like That (dir. Darnell Martin) with Lauren Velez
which I totally hope is available on Netflix because I remember loving it

I had to look it up on IMDB. They have little bits of dialogue:

Lisette Linares: You know what your problem is? You never think about the other person.
Chino Linares: Good night, other person.
Lisette Linares: It's morning, Chino.
Chino Linares: Good morning.

Almost goes without saying (like Woody Allen and Spike Lee), but basically any Scorsese movie...

especially Mean Streets!

Here's my short Other Cities list
cause I saw Talk To Me a couple weeks ago and it was really good

DC: Talk To Me
LA: Killer of Sheep, Rush Hour, Rebel Without A Cause, and Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
Detroit: Gridlocked

and this archival music film...

and the great John Sayles'
Brother From Another Planet
Joe Morton plays "a mute alien, chased by outer-space bounty hunters through the streets of Harlem in this thought-provoking cult classic."

(I split my last post to bump this thread since someone bumped a bunch of old stuff over night...)

Oh, and how could I forget...

Black Caesar!

pitu wrote: and the great John Sayles'
Brother From Another Planet
Joe Morton plays "a mute alien, chased by outer-space bounty hunters through the streets of Harlem in this thought-provoking cult classic."

(I split my last post to bump this thread since someone bumped a bunch of old stuff over night...)

Yea, that was my intro to Joe Morton (still underused in my opinion) and even its cheesiness and low budget stand the test of time. It was so low budget film but such a great, fun story.

Speaking of actors, in the hood I often see John Tuttoro, Jeffrey Wright and Paul Calderon walking around in PH/CH.

what's Black Ceasar?

Black Caesar is a classic, set in Harlem in the early 70s. I have it on VHS if you want to borrow it sometime.

Carnivore wrote: Black Caesar is a classic, set in Harlem in the early 70s. I have it on VHS if you want to borrow it sometime.

thx! love to - and I even have a working VHS deck that I could hook up to the teevee . . .

omigod, thought of another great indie shot in NYC, teh uber indie
Shadows
the first film of John Cassavetes

p.s. they have a trailer (that does it no justice) if you're willing to watch a stupid ad
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053270/trailers-screenplay-E14251-10-2

MUCH love for The Warriors, yay!

I wish that someone would put out a map with locations of well-known movie/t.v. scenes so that you could do your own walking tours -- or even a book -- and I'm kind of surprised nobody's done that yet. If anyone knows of such a thing, let me know!

A little more specificity to the above mention of Dog Day Afternoon (one of my favorite movies EVER): The exterior bank scenes were on Prospect Park West between 17th and 18th. You can see a lot of the surrounding buildings in some of the shots from the awesome "Attica" scene:



Some additional stuff: The real location of the robbery the movie was based on was a Chase Manhattan bank on the corner of East Third Street and Avenue P in Gravesend. It has been torn down since then.

John Wojtowicz, on whom the character of Sonny was based, lived in Brooklyn after he was paroled until he died of cancer in January of '06:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wojtowicz

In 2005 a documentary called Based on a True Story came out about the robbery. I don't think it's out on DVD yet, but there are several video clips on the film's official website -- the "Opening Film" clip has several shots from that day as well as what the block looks like now:
http://www.basedonatruestory.nl/

Elizabeth Eden, Wojtowicz's girlfriend, ended up getting her sex change operation with money Wojtowicz gave her after getting paid for his story to be used in the film. She died in 1987 at 41 of AIDS. And in 1977 a law was passed to prevent criminals from receiving profits from selling their stories, so the rest of Wojtowicz's money went to some of the former hostages.

apollonia666 wrote: I wish that someone would put out a map with locations of well-known movie/t.v. scenes so that you could do your own walking tours -- or even a book -- and I'm kind of surprised nobody's done that yet. If anyone knows of such a thing, let me know!

Check out this googlemaps hack:
http://www.newyorkinthemovies.com/index.php

Unfortunately, it only covers Manhattan.