Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Richard Sandler 80’s When Greed Was Good

http://lightbox.time.com/2011/08/03/richard-sandlers-80s-when-greed-was-good/#1

I would always see Richard filming around the neighborhood and we love Angelica’s for great Vegetarian food....great to see his work featured in Time Light Box....


Here is my review of his film from Amazon


3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Gods of Times Square on the money, foreshadows the death of 'old' New York for shopping mall nyc, December 29, 2007
This review is from: The Gods of Times Square (DVD)
I saw this film when it first came out and I thought it was powerful but now looking back, Richard Sandler's film has grown in importance because post-Sept. 11, under a billionaire mayor and a multi-millionaire socialite city planner came a tsunami of community crushing development mostly all for the mega rich and a kind of shopping mall chain story retail explosion city wide punctuated with banks on every street corner that has robbed NYC of it's soul and originality.

There are grey tones. Do I appreciate feeling safe walking down the streets of Time Square and elsewhere in the city? Yes!!! What Richard Sandler shows us is the make-over and take-over by corporations and I understand some of the positives in terms of a cleaner, safer more pleasant city but ultimately what I didn't realize at the time was that film maker had his pulse on was the end of a kind of dynamism and edginess that made NYC what it is. It seems now that we can't have the best of both worlds and my neighborhood (East Village/Bowery/Lower East Side now looks like a bad xerox of midtown even resembling Time Square)thanks to mayor Mike Bloomberg.

Now we have generic chains stores through out the city and every neighborhood looks the same. Only bars, banks and Starbuck like chain stores can afford this "new city" that under the Bloomberg administration brought sky piercing luxury condos and hotels mostly all for the mega rich reflecting a history destroyed and communities no longer welcome.

Richard Sandler "got it" before any of us and he does leave a lot of grey tones for you to come to your on conclusions. Well done. Time to do another masterful documentary..."Welcome to the "new" hideous New York.