Tonight, we’ll be talking a set of films that almost form a genre of their own.
These films were often, though not always, “respected” by critics and the general public at large, but all bore that dark, almost despairing claustrophobia and realistic feel of what I and others were living every day out on the streets locally, far from the dayglo nonsense of the 60’s reruns or the sunnier Hollywood based fare of the day.
The streets were crowded, filthy, filled with the detritus of the post-hippie era – the junkies, the odd artsy types, the gangs, the whores. The days where you were damn glad to see Curtis Sliwa’s Guardian Angels on a subway…if you were crazy enough to use them at all. Everything covered in graffiti, buildings collapsing into tenements, crack houses, illicit hookup spots for rough trade cruising types. Garbage in the streets, and decay in every sense of the word.
These are films that wallow in what in later years would be referred to as urban blight, but not so much “celebrating” as providing a window into all the palpable danger and decline of an impoverished post-blackout Manhattan in the days after the Watts and Newark riots, not long past Ford telling the mayor and city to go screw ourselves when asking for Federal relief.
These were the days of Studio 54, CBGBs and the original Saturday Night Live – but filled with menace. Hard drug use was rampant. Muggings were so commonplace as to be a shrug of the shoulders. Nobody in their right mind stepped into Central Park after sunset. Washington Square was known for decades as Needle Park. And the East Village? Forget about Alphabet City, the Bronx or Brooklyn.
This was a special breed of film, that focused on crooked, flawed cops working outside a busted system…but not with the heroic vibe of Reaganite action heroes. These guys paid for painting outside the lines. The denouments were never triumphant, all victories were pyrrhic. Vigilante justice and community action were about as fantastic as these films got, and as close to actual comeuppance as anyone got.
This is the story, in a way, of our childhood and early youth to young adulthood, as told in some very memorable films.
So join us as we go dumpster diving in the back alleys of most dangerous of neighborhoods, only here on Weird Scenes!
Week 111 (11/30/23): Take a Bite of the Rotten Apple - NYC cop/crime films of the 70s
https://weirdscenes1.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/WeirdScenes1
https://twitter.com/WeirdScenes1 (@weirdscenes1)
TheThirdEyeCinema @Threads
https://thirdeyecinema.podbean.com/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/third-eye-cinema-weird-scenes-inside-the-goldmine-podcast/id553402044
https://(open.spotify.com)/show/4s8QkoE6PnAfh65C5on5ZS?nd=1
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/09456286-8956-4b80-a158-f750f525f246/Third-Eye-Cinema-Weird-Scenes-Inside-the-Goldmine-podcast
Take a Bite of the Rotten Apple - NYC cop/crime films of the 70s
Third Eye Cinema 9/15/13 with Mat Sinner of Primal Fear
Third Eye Cinema 9/8/13 with Rick Rozz of Death and Massacre
Third Eye Cinema 8/25/13 with Venomous Maximus
Third Eye Cinema 8/18/13 with Ace Still of Goatlord
Third Eye Cinema 8/4/13 with Mirai and Dr Mikannibal of Sigh
Third Eye Cinema 7/28/13 : Dream Death - the resurrection
Third Eye Cinema 7/21/13 with Sono Morti
Third Eye Cinema 7/14/13 with Gothminister
Third Eye Cinema 7/7/13 with Bill Grefe
Third Eye Cinema 6/23/13 with Sam Rosenthal of Black Tape
Third Eye Cinema 6/16/13 with Adam Zaars of Tribulation
Third Eye Cinema 6/9/13 with Nico Mastorakis
Third Eye Cinema 5/26/13 with Gloryhammer and Serenity
Third Eye Cinema 5/19/13 with Alex Krull of Atrocity
Third Eye Cinema 4/21/13 with Udo Dirkschneider
Third Eye Cinema 4/7/13 with Grandmaster YK Kim
Third Eye Cinema 3/24/13 with Davy Vain (pt. 2)
Third Eye Cinema 3/17/13 with Davy Vain (pt. 1)
Third Eye Cinema 3/10/13 with Diego Valdez of Helker
Third Eye Cinema 3/3/13 with Bill Rebane
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Cinema: A to B
I Finally Watched...
Star Wars Escape Pod
Pod Meets World
Pop Culture Happy Hour