DROP DEAD CITY – Review by Diane Carson
Drop Dead City chronicles New York City’s 1975 debacle
Some documentaries contribute an expansive survey of an issue or topic; some explore one subject more intensively, analyzing in depth. That latter choice guides Peter Yost and Michael Rohatyn’s Drop Dead City. Restricting their focus to New York City’s 1975 catastrophic fiscal crisis, Yost and Rohatyn blend extensive archival footage with comprehensive firsthand interviews adding informative, retrospective insights. They succeed in their goal “to honor the story and the people in it” by lucidly navigating and clearly articulating the serious financial disaster NYC Mayor Abe Beame inherited upon his election in January 1974.
As debts came due, an inquiry into NYC’s accounting practices revealed that checks were not reconciled, books were not updated, and outstanding obligations were not compiled or documented for inspection. In essence, no clarity existed for funds available in bank accounts or the amount owed when and to whom. Meantime interest rates started increasing, due dates for $24,900,000 in municipal bonds and loans approached, and cash flow became a trickle, partly the result of the cost of government increasing three-and-half times in the decade between 1963 to 1973. NYC felt the impact more than many because of its compassionate commitment to supporting its residents above and beyond bare necessities.
Tragically, in the summer of 1975 Beame and his staff realized that New York City was fundamentally bankrupt. Free access to college education could not continue. Pay for police, firemen, sanitation workers, and teachers was impacted and jeopardized, leading to disruptive strikes as trash piled up on the streets. Over the course of the year, Mayor Beame, Governor Hugh Carey, labor leader Victor Gotbaum, and Felix Rohatyn, head of the newly established Municipal Assistance Corporation, formed a coalition seeking to rescue NYC from total financial disaster. Their task demanded unprecedented, tenacious efforts including soliciting President Ford for a last minute rescue. Stunning in its moment, the Ford administration’s refusal to help led to the Daily News’ October 30, 1975 headline, Ford to City: Drop Dead, the catalyst for the film’s title. These details barely scratch the complexity of the city’s impossibly convoluted situation.
Though financial analyses often come across as obfuscating rather than clarifying issues, Drop Dead City elucidates this crisis in an entertaining, accessible presentation seamlessly interweaving a wealth of interviews with historical footage. Significant interviewees include: Counsel to the Governor Judah Gribetz, Budget Director Peter Goldmark, Municipal Assistance Corporation Treasurer Donna Shalala, NYC Mayor David Dinkins, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, Congressman Charles Rangel, among many other notable individuals involved in 1975.
Flawlessly edited, at times the music humorously, implicitly comments on scenes it accompanies. Other times, the music intrudes under footage that is fine on its own. On balance, this superb documentary digs deep, illuminating the ways a city of any size can destroy itself. As the directors write in press notes, “While the film often feels like a wild time machine ride to New York in its good old, bad day, we also hope it inspires conversations on how urban center can fairly cope with the enormous challenge we face today.” Indeed, parallels to contemporary problems become alarmingly clear in the course of the film. Here’s hoping that, for a change, we learn from a lamentable example. Drop Dead City won the prestigious Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for film, is screening at various locations, and will be available for streaming later this year on Apple, Amazon, and Google Play.
Diane Carson, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, has reviewed films for over 25 years and has covered the Cannes, Telluride, Toronto, Palm Springs, and Sundance festivals. She writes for KDHX, 88.1 FM. St. Louis’ community radio. One of the founders of the St. Louis International Film Festival, she continues to serve on juries. A past president of the University Film and Video Association, she taught film studies and production at St. Louis Community College and at Webster University. Her new book, written with two colleagues, is “Appetites and Anxieties: Food, Film, and the Politics of Representation,” Wayne State U. Press, 2014.
