“Drop Dead City” Spotlights a Lost Era of Liberal Government
This documentary examines the economic changes and managerial missteps that brought the city to the brink of bankruptcy in 1975 and the political creativity and enduring cost of the rescue.
By Richard Brody, April 23, 2025
At a time when the very function of government is being destroyed from within, an extraordinary historical documentary, “Drop Dead City,” puts the workings and responsibilities of government front and center, in a meticulous reconstruction of New York City’s fiscal crisis of the mid-nineteen-seventies. Tracing the causes of the crisis, its short-term effects, and the complexity of its resolution, the film brings to the fore the situation’s philosophical implications—the social ideals that put the city in a financial hole and the political forces that very nearly prevented rescue.
