The City
1939·Documentary·44m
7.0
★
A prescient documentary about city planning, which presents idyllic suburbs and nuclear families as a solution to the chaos, poverty and social decay of industrialized inner cities.
Directed by Willard Van Dyke and Ralph Steiner
social commentary
urban planning
IMDB
N/A
Cast
Morris Carnovsky
Narrator (voice)
Crew
Willard Van Dyke
Director
Pare Lorentz
Writer
Aaron Copland
Original Music Composer
Willard Van Dyke
Director of Photography
Edward Anhalt
Camera Operator
Popular Reviews
7 reviews
Donkles
5.0★ · 10/05/25
Propaganda film that honestly isn’t quite wrong
Propaganda film that honestly isn’t quite wrong
savion
3.7★ · 01/08/24
this for class n i don’t typically do this but this was just a fascinating look into the sentiments surrounding urbanism during the depression and how it rlly fried american communities today from talking about the smog generated from trains to cities become too crowded just by virtue of a place being a city
also crazy how weak a lot of this propaganda is but i guess it didn’t even have to be particularly coherent given the conditions at the time like they show how ass cars are in a city then show the same problem in a “suburb” and it’s all chill idk
cool watch tho for what it’s worth very intriguing insight to the times
also crazy how weak a lot of this propaganda is but i guess it didn’t even have to be particularly coherent given the conditions at the time like they show how ass cars are in a city then show the same problem in a “suburb” and it’s all chill idk
cool watch tho for what it’s worth very intriguing insight to the times
this for class n i don’t typically do this but this was just a fascinating look into the sentiments surrounding urbanism during the depression and how it rlly fried american communities today from talking about the smog generated from trains to cities become too crowded just by virtue of a place being a city
also crazy how weak a lot of this propaganda is but i guess it didn’t even have to be particularly coherent given the conditions at the time like they show how ass cars are in a city then show the same problem in a “suburb” and it’s all chill idk
cool watch tho for what it’s worth very intriguing insight to the times
also crazy how weak a lot of this propaganda is but i guess it didn’t even have to be particularly coherent given the conditions at the time like they show how ass cars are in a city then show the same problem in a “suburb” and it’s all chill idk
cool watch tho for what it’s worth very intriguing insight to the times
Alicanen
7.0★ · 11/06/23
Highly subjective and propaganda-like but I really liked how it was filmed especially the montage bits
Highly subjective and propaganda-like but I really liked how it was filmed especially the montage bits
isaac
6.0★ · 10/23/25
Petra Klimešová
8.0★ · 07/22/25