Long one of the cultural capitals of America, Brooklyn has generated an incredible amount of filmmaking talent over the years, from Mel Brooks and Noah Baumbach to Darren Aronofsky and Spike Lee. It’s no wonder, then, that the borough has been the setting for films for over 100 years. The area has long been a refuge for immigrant populations in America, yielding to its rise as one of the most populous counties in the country and making it a melting pot of artistic talent and cultural diversity. It has also been a hotbed of strained racial relations and economic impoverishment, laying the groundwork for topical filmmaking that has pushed it to the forefront of national conversations on American identity and gentrification.
Brooklyn is also an incredibly varied amalgam of neighborhoods, from the housing projects of Bedford-Stuyvesant to the theme parks of Coney Island. Racial relations have been central to many films set in the borough, mainly through the films of Spike Lee, Brooklyn’s proudest son and the filmmaker closest it’s heart. The mish mash of communities has led to a rich history of impressive films that typify the American experience. Here is a list of the most unforgettable movies to come out of Brooklyn.
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10 The Wiz
Universal Pictures
Sidney Lumet’s 1978 remake of The Wizard of Oz gave the musical an all-black cast and a soundtrack produced by Motown Records. In The Wiz, Brooklyn substitutes itself for Kansas as Dorothy’s hometown, with a cast of African American stars including Michael Jackson and Richard Pryor. Despite the incredible ensemble of talent, the movie was a commercial failure, owing to Hollywood’s inability to adequately advertise for and support all-black productions at the time.
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9 Clockers
Probably the most underrated Spike Lee film, Clockers provided a window into the lives of drug dealers in Brooklyn housing projects and the pressures associated with maintaining romantic and personal relationships amidst inner-city struggle. Originally slated to be directed by Martin Scorsese, Lee took over the film, adding authenticity through his use of Brooklyn filming locations and local actors. New York City product Mekhi Phifer made his debut in the movie, which earned critical acclaim despite a poor box office showing. It still stands as a realistic testament to Brooklyn lives, and the beautiful cinematography of Malik Hassan Sayeed captures Brooklyn in its essence.
8 Smoke
Miramax Films
Smoke brought Paul Auster’s literary interpretation of Brooklyn to life when Wayne Wang chose to shoot the film, starring Harvey Keitel, entirely on location in Park Slope. The film is a love letter to Brooklyn, and a cross-section of the multicultural facets that can be found there, often sitting one on top of the other. Wang gave early exposure to actors Harold Perrineau Jr. and Giancarlo Esposito, and the movie is most notable for an endearing performance by the late William Hurt.
7 Requiem for a Dream
Artisan Entertainment
Darren Aronofsky’s turn-of-the-century tour de force, Requiem for a Dream, exposed the dark underbelly of the borough through Aronofsky’s often-vicious perspective. Using innovative camera work, superb acting performances and photogenic locations in Brighton Beach and Coney Island, the film created an anxious viewing experience that cast a harsh light on drug use, prostitution and theft. This is anything but a romanticized vision of Brooklyn, and is most memorable for Ellen Burstyn’s comeback acting performance as the aphetamine-addled Sara Goldfarb.
6 Saturday Night Fever
Paramount Pictures
The calling card of the disco era in movies, Saturday Night Fever was a smash hit upon its release in 1977. It offered a look into Brooklyn’s dance-fueled nightlife, winning Grammys for the incredible soundtrack and even an Oscar nomination for John Travolta. The film was shot entirely on location in Brooklyn, including the 2001 Odyssey Disco, now famous for its floor lights and spinning disco balls. It’s a document of a fun-loving era in Brooklyn, before the crack and AIDS epidemics transformed the borough in the 80s, and remains Travolta’s greatest role.
5 The Squid and the Whale
Sony Pictures Releasing
Noah Baumbach’s 2005 film The Squid and the Whale touches on a different side of Brooklyn than most other films about the borough, focusing on the lives of a middle-class literary family in Park Slope. The film is an examination of how separation and divorce effect children, and the hypocrisy of Brooklyn pseudo-intellectuals who allow their dysfunction to affect their parenting. Baumbach was nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay, and the film does well to bookend a different side of Brooklyn than is normally portrayed in films.
4 Goodfellas
Warner Bros.
Goodfellas shows a much different Brooklyn than most films — the airports, back alleys and truck stop delis where the caporegime concoct hits and heists. Director Martin Scorsese uses neighborhoods like Carroll Gardens and Red Hook to create the authenticity and specificity necessary to tell this story. From brownstone stoops to JFK, the filming locations illuminate the seedy underworlds these characters inhabit and create a tone-setting bleakness. That neutral background highlights the spatter of blood, and by the end of the film Michael Ballhaus’ cinematography escorts us seamlessly through several different eras of Brooklyn, showing the borough as a character in-and-of-itself.
3 The French Connection
20th Century Fox
For The French Connection, William Friedkin turned Brooklyn into an obstacle course. The streets, elevated train tracks and alleyways became a stage for some of the greatest chase scenes ever put on film, and the grit of Gene Hackman’s performance echoes the hard-nosed town. The film is loud, and you can feel every jerk of the camera as you dash up and down subway platforms along with Hackman. It’s not a fun world to inhabit, but we’re somehow able to consume the tension, anxious for resolution as we watch. Friedkin was a master, and utilized the rollercoaster-like quality of Brooklyn to whiz us through the prime 1970s decay.
2 Dog Day Afternoon
Speaking of incredibly tense Brooklyn movies, Dog Day Afternoon took tension to new levels, humanizing the heist movie by creating unhinged but sympathetic characters out of Sonny (Al Pacino) and Sal (John Cazale). It also has a Robin Hood aspect, when Brooklyn becomes a character en masse, and we feel its clanging presence outside the bank as a hostage situation unfolds. No film better conveys the sheer energy of the borough, and Sonny and Sal seem to feed off of it, sweating and frantic under the fluorescent lights.
1 Do the Right Thing
Universal Pictures
The film closest to the soul of Brooklyn, Spike Lee shows us the many vignettes that can be found on one Bed Stuy block in Do the Right Thing. Criss-crossing characters debate, harangue, spit, fight and love all in the same space. It embodies the struggle of different cultures living on top of eachother, and the powder keg of racial relations that has always existed in neighborhoods like Bed Stuy, where Lee grew up. Every shot is pure color, and the crescendo of the film becomes a microcosm of American identity. Here, Brooklyn is a place where heterogeneity meets xenophobia, making it the warfront of national topics from Air Jordans to affirmative action. The film is derived from Brooklyn as much as it’s about it.
