Futon Cinema: Drive-in fare: Bleak city

I broke out Death Wish last night. It had been a long day, a day filled with second handing, meeting an online connection for dinner for the first time and trolling the 'net for work. The date went well, second handing yielded a nice Akai 7 inch reel-to-reel deck for twenty bucks and I managed to find an interesting job opportunity on the Olympic Penninsula. All well and good. So what was it, after that wonderful, feel good day, that propelled me towards Charlie and his mean spirited 32 caliber pistol and the even meaner streets of circa 70's Nu Yawk? Was it that I was missing my neer do well pal The Hot Dog King? Was it because I needed something rugged to offset that warm, fuzzy glow I got from that iffy first date? Maybe it was because the VHS tape had been sitting around FOREVER and needed to be screened? Hell, I don't know for certain but it ended up in my hands and it unspooled before my tired eyes. I made it halfway and the bottle of wine I consumed earlier took over. Missed the last half. Fine. More for later on tonight.

I have to wonder what the hell folks all around the world thought of New York after watching Taxi Driver or Dog Day Afternoon. Those two films, part of the vertible bushel basket of horror...er...crime films and dramas that came out of that place in the seventies, gave that town one hell of a tarnished image. Sure, Times Square has turned into a sort of Disneyland these days but still, it's one of THE world's most magnificent and rugged cities to visit and live in. I know that when I finally go there to knosh on pizza, deli and Chinese foods I want to have a handgun strapped to my side, just to keep those hungry hordes of muggers and department store sale freaks off my back.

Death Wish was bleak, Jeff Goldblum in his debut role even bleaker. Who would have thought that that cool professor who made quirky quips in the Jurassic Park films would have started out his film career as a low level hood in such a dark and hottly debated feature? Maybe it was a real snapshot, a true picture of the NYC of the time, the cesspool of crime, hate, drugs, racism and high rents that so many movie characters and scriptwriters made the city out to be. The crime rates are down these days, sure, but if all you had to go by were a handful of movies from the seventies you wouldn't want to visit the Statue of Liberty or Times Square without an armed escort and a waistband full of armament.

Then there was Taxi Driver. Gosh, that movie changed my life. I never watched a Scorcese before that one. Missed Mean Streets, but everything else after that that Marty directed I was sure to see. I remember pulling a movie pass for the Midway box office..or was it some drive-in in Buena Park?...no matter ..I wanted to see that flick. Took my new girlfriend, a carload of buddies, a trunk-full of beer and wine (lost my liquor store job over that one) and whole hatful of hubris along with me that night. It was a grand thing. Can't remember what the first feature was, but once Bobby DeNiro took over my whole movie world changed once again. It was just like catching that Bullitt/Bonnie and Clyde years before. A truly radical, worrisome, wonderful feature. Went back across the county and saw it twice more. Cinema was never the same after that. Never mind that I couldn't hold onto the girl. The US Navy and a bunch of cinemahead pals kept me from missing her and helped me get over the Dear John letter I got from her in bootcamp. Movies and fellow movie freaks are like that. There's always another one, a better one, next release .

So, watch those seventies NY crime flicks for a bit of unhappy nostalgia and be happy that you missed that time, that wild and crazy era. Go there now and groove on the relative safety of the place and be thankful that only inept bombers have struck fear and guffaws into the hearts of the good people of New York lately.

Action!

Review: Death Wish (M. Winner, 1974):
http://www.allmovie.com/work/death-wish-12933

Need a list of some urban-terror filled titles to watch? Check these out:

Taxi Driver

Cotton Comes to Harlem

Dog Day Afternoon

Superfly

Warriors

Taking of Pelham 1-2-3

French Connection

King of New York

Fort Apache the Bronx

Seven Ups

Shaft
Alphabet City