The City (Movie Review)


The City.
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Thesis The Progressive era that dominated the earlier stages of the 20th Century brought with it many positive and negative factors. It leads to the rise in industrialization and increased immigration to the United States. During this period, United States had a fast growing economy, industrial and agricultural sectors. These are the mouthwatering facts that are always presented to anyone bothering to inquire about the Progressive era. It is expected that a true patriot and nationalist would always depict his country in a positive note while holding their heads high. However, as is the case, any action has an equal and opposing reaction. The negative aspects of the Progressive period are never discussed. We cannot assume that a perfect society just mushroomed from oblivion. There had to be underlying factors and external forces that led to betterment of society during this period. The movie “The City” better depicts the actual situation as it were. The main aim of this paper is therefore to bring to light the actual situation, and discuss the social, economic and political impact of the type of life during the Progressive era. It is hoped that by the end of the paper a proper understanding and correct inferences would be drawn to understand the situation and how it affected the society.  Movie Review The documentary The City well depicts the industrial revolution in North America in the period between 1900 and 1939. It envisions cities and urban areas which are well planned. The film depicts a lot of urban related problems that our upcoming cities also face in the current century. One of the most outstanding urban problems that the city faces is congestion due to poor planning. From the film, we can see houses are clustered together to an extent that children miss a playing ground. Towards the end of the film, we are given a glimpse of a city, which the producer of the film envisions, that will be well planned and designed, so that people can live the good life - children can have a clean place to play, and mothers can have space to plant groceries and flowers. Issues Arising Lewis Mumford has adapted this short documentary film, The City, which produced under the ageis of the American Institute of Planners in 1939. Lewis has written the film towards the end of the depression to illustrate the populist and utopian principles which were being practiced at that time. Lewis, who lived at that time, saw cities as one of the most dehumanizing places to be staying, but Lewis has hope that by embracing technology, the problems which were brought about by the city would become history. Careful scrutiny of the film suggests to us that his ideas had limitations. The new cities Lewis is talking about are what we call suburbanization in the society today. Lewis seems to forget to incorporate racial diversity in the film. The depicted new cities in the film seems to portray and reinforce the issue of gender roles, just the same way as it was in the old city, that is also depicted in the same film.
Intention of the Movie The film is intended for people in developing countries, who are faced with the challenge of reordering their existing urban cities, to become better places to stay.
Cities and their attendant institutions have been the primary engines of the knowledge creation that islargely responsible for human demographic success. Wealth creation, technology, governance, the arts, science, and many other attributes of modern civilization have theirorigin in the emergence of cities (Ronald, 1998).
From Ronald’s arguments above, we can clearly see that the writer of the film had a clear picture of the kind of city he would like to live and work in. In the beginning of the film, he tells us the story of how cities used to look like, during the late eighteenth and early nineteenthcentury in the North America. One aspect that clearly comes out in the film is congestion, buildings are erected in all places, without planning, even the fields left for children to play were grabbed and buildings erected.
Cities have shaped the international social, economic, and political processes. As a result, a lot of people tend to move to cities to look for better paying jobs. Two writers, Armen Ovanessoff and Mark Purdy summarize all this in their journal in the following ...