“Drop Dead City” Spotlights a Lost Era of Liberal Government
The New Yorker: The delight of “Drop Dead City” is that it’s a symphony of voices, past and present. The film’s interviews mesh, even rhyme, with archival clips documenting events as they unfolded, participants discussing their activities in the moment, and news reports that aired at the time.
‘Drop Dead City’ Review: A Gripping Look at How New York City Almost Went Bankrupt in 1975, Foreshadowing the Current Moment
Variety: “Drop Dead City” falls into a category of documentary I think of as wonkish but gripping. Produced and directed by Peter Yost and Michael Rohatyn, the film is about the financial cataclysm that hit New York City in 1975, when the powers that be figured out that the city was $6 billion in debt.
When New York Was ‘Drop Dead City
NY Times: A documentary about the city’s fiscal crisis of the 1970s, co-directed by the son of one of its saviors, wins the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film.
DOC NYC : ‘Drop Dead City’ Focuses on New York’s Fiscal Crisis of 1975
Cinema Daily: Who knew that a film about accountants, bureaucrats, and municipal bond offerings could ever be interesting, let alone downright enjoyable? After all, hasn’t economics often been referred to as the “dismal science”?
Movies Can Take New Yorkers Back to the ’70s. But Why Go There?
The agony of the subways also has more than a few New Yorkers worrying that they’ve begun an inexorable descent, maybe even back to the 1970s, when the city endured what could reasonably be described as a near-death experience.