Not Helping Manhattan's Image in the 1970s

The nation feared Manhattan in the 1970s.

Manhattan in the 1970s was a mess. Buildings were old and dilapidated. The nation saw Manhattan as a sign of decline. Movies and the news didn’t help. Some ideas and people tried to help make a better image. Here’s a few examples of each:

Not Helping the image:

Death Wish. The movie was about a man driven to violence to avenge the murder of his wife and the brutal attack of his daughter. What moviegoers focused on was the violent dirty streets he walked and how easy it was for him to be attacked in Manhattan.

Graffiti. It would be considered an art form eventually. The pictures would become murals. Graffiti started as a mess of a mess. It’s paint on top of paint on someone else’s property. There was no respect for art or property. It was a mess and had to be cleaned.

Muggers. Don’t walk away from the crowds. The muggings would be so common that it was almost accepted as a part of life.

Martin Scorsese: He showed the grit and grime of the city like it was part of the architecture. Trash blew down the empty streets the way tumbleweeds were in westerns. Prostitutes. Racism. “Taxi Driver” has an unreliable narrator, porn, prostitution and mental issues.