Movie Details
| Title: | NY 77: The Coolest Year in Hell | |
| Director: | Henry Corra | |
| Year: | 2007 | |
| Genre: | Documentary | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 06.14.12 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 06.14.12 | Internet | This was originally a VH1 documentary and I watched it on youtube but I'm gonna write a note about it anyway because I liked it and it felt like a legit enough documentary to me even if it didn't get theatrical release. It's heavy on the various music scenes that exploded in '77 NYC but also included several contextual areas like Ed Koch's mayoral campaign race, the sleaziness of 42nd street and Plato's Retreat, the 25-hour city-wide black-out, and the Son of Sam murders. Even with all that, a bunch of time is spent on the origins of hip hop in South Bronx, disco mania wherever the paradise garage and studio 54 were, and punk underground in soho and the lower east side. Tons of interviews are included and what looks like a sizable animation and music budget make this quite a polished look at what has become a mild obsession for me. It seems like I've now attacked this period of NYC from every different media from the books like Sleazoid Express and Tales from 42nd Street and Last Night A DJ Saved My Live to movies like Summer of Sam and Times Square and Midnight Cowboy to the music of all the bands that were hitting back then, it seems like i have a near-complete picture of that place at that time in my head. Granted it's probably an extremely romanticised version of that place at that time but still. I'm fascinated by it. So discovering this was a bit like a junkie stumbling across a forgotten crack rock in the couch cushions. I ate it up. Several ideas came out of this. I wish there was more footage of Annie Sprinkle talking about back in the day and the sleaze aspect, which was definitely in the minority compared to everything else. I also wish someone would make a full-blown doc about the Disco Fever like the owner says in his interview. Great doc for a dirty-NYC junkie like me. |
