Discussing some of the most pro-urban movies ever made.
In honor of tomorrow's Oscars, Christopher and Lisa Leinberger recently posted on NextCity about the "top 12 movies about urbanism." Some of the movies are about urban dystopias, while others are about suburban sprawl.
Rather than praising or criticizing their choices, I'd like to praise a few films that I liked for different reasons: not because of their intellectual complexity, but because they are feel-good, pro-urban movies (though I think a couple of the movies the Leinbergers mentioned fall into this category as well, most notably You've Got Mail, a valentine to New York's Upper West Side).
One of the most city-focused and pro-city films I have seen is the 1949 Gene Kelly/Frank Sinatra musical On The Town. In the movie's opening sequence, shot on location in Manhattan, Sinatra, Kelly and Jules Munchin sing
"New York, New York, a wonderful town!
The Bronx is up and the Battery's down!
The people ride in a hole in the ground."
Then Gene Kelly falls in love with Miss Turnstiles, causing them to travel through New York and have all manner of adventures. When I was younger, sprawl and urban decay, like the Soviet Empire in the 1970s, seemed unstoppable. This film inspired me in my youth, telling me that cities had once been magical places.
A more recent, more subtle pro-urban film is the 2012 Oscar nominee Silver Linings Playbook. Most of the story was filmed in Ridley Park, a commuter-train suburb of Philadelphia. The main characters get to know each other while jogging through the streets and sidewalks of a suburb where walking actually seems to be a normal activity. But they don't decide that they actually love each other until a dance competition in downtown Philadelphia.
What about small-town urbanism? The Music Man, set in a small city in Iowa, portrays many of the town's citizens as a gossipy and unsophisticated. But when a town looks this good, who cares?
Honorable mention goes to a couple of musicals that aren't quite as city-focused as these, but still have a stand-up-and-cheer song: the 1936 Gable/MacDonald vehicle San Francisco (because of the song "San Francisco, Open Your Golden Gates") and Hairspray (because of "Good Morning Baltimore").
Any other nominations out there?
Megalopolis: An Urban Planner’s Review
The sprawling film offers a bleak vision of city-building that minimizes the impacts of top-down development on everyday citizens.
Francis Ford Copolla’s Urban Planning Swan Song
Legendary director Francis Ford Coppola’s likely final major film, Megalopolis, celebrates design and urban planning. It is a dazzling mishmash of architectural, cinematic, and literary history.
Friday Fun: Oscars-Nominated Films Featuring Place in a Starring Role
Many of the movies nominated for Oscars this year gain a great deal of thematic and storytelling meaning from their locations.
What ‘The Brutalist’ Teaches Us About Modern Cities
How architecture and urban landscapes reflect the trauma and dysfunction of the post-war experience.
‘Complete Streets’ Webpage Deleted in Federal Purge
Basic resources and information on building bike lanes and sidewalks, formerly housed on the government’s Complete Streets website, are now gone.
The VW Bus is Back — Now as an Electric Minivan
Volkswagen’s ID. Buzz reimagines its iconic Bus as a fully electric minivan, blending retro design with modern technology, a 231-mile range, and practical versatility to offer a stylish yet functional EV for the future.
A Lone Voice for Climate: How The Wild Robot Stands Apart in Hollywood
Among this year’s Oscar-nominated films, only The Wild Robot passed the Climate Reality Check, a test measuring climate change representation in storytelling, highlighting the ongoing lack of climate awareness in mainstream Hollywood films.
Healing Through Parks: Altadena’s Path to Recovery After the Eaton Fire
In the wake of the Eaton Fire, Altadena is uniting to restore Loma Alta Park, creating a renewed space for recreation, community gathering, and resilience.
San Diego to Rescind Multi-Unit ADU Rule
The city wants to close a loophole that allowed developers to build apartment buildings on single-family lots as ADUs.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
