City of Losers, Losing City

Abstract

In 1965, when John Lindsay was elected mayor of New York City, “the ungovernable city” was spiraling economically, and crime rates were on the rise. That same year, only two major films were shot on location in New York. Just two years later, in 1967, forty-two features were shot in the city, for one straightforward reason: the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting. One actor embodied the New Hollywood vision of the city: Al Pacino. This chapter engages with Pacino’s films of this era—spanning from Panic in Needle Park to Cruising, with Dog Day Afternoon as centerpiece—to examine how New York City, which came to symbolize all that was wrong with the American city in the troubled 1970s.