And the Feel-Good Oscar Goes To...

Discussing some of the most pro-urban movies ever made.

2 minute read

March 1, 2014, 7:41 PM PST

Alan Light / Flickr

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?

Humor oscars Movies Urbanism American Cities

Michael Lewyn

Michael Lewyn is a professor at Touro University, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, in Long Island. His scholarship can be found at http://works.bepress.com/lewyn.

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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