[影片]强烈推荐：Street Fight
Posted: 2008-03-27 18:21
It's a story of American election and democracy.
On one side is a young candidate: highly educated, passionate, energetic, idealistic, and an outsider with little political experience. He runs on the promise of change. On the other side is the establishment candidate who is much older, has spent decades in politics, has the political machine in the palm of his hands, and is not afraid to push every button in the voters' mind and heart. He runs on the ticket of experience.
Both are smart, sharp, capable, charismatic, appealing. Both have a group of loyal followers.
The election becomes a heated and often rough-and-tumble battle and ignited people's passion. The process was fraught with lies, smears, dirty tricks, low punches, and everything in the playbook. Many celebrities are swept into the fight and endorse one or the other, and the division perfectly illustrate the division of generations. The results are extremely close.
No, this is not 2008 Presidential election or Democratic primaries. The documentary "Street Fight" records the fascinating, dramatic mayoral election of Newark, New Jersey in 2002. The younger candidate is Cory Booker, a Yale-educated, Rhode-scholarship-backed lawyer who, before the election, had only served one term on the city council. The older candidate is Sharpe James, the 66 year-old incumbent mayor who had been in power for 16 years prior and started in local politics three decades ago. The voters were overwhelmingly black and Democratic.
Everything in this campaign as documented in the movie is so familiar in American politics: Booker's campaign headquarters were burglarized; James called Booker a "Jew", a "white faggot", a "Republican", or taking money from KKK; people were bussed in from other states on the election day. New Jersey governor (our favorite Jim McGreevy) and Senators at the time endorsed James. Older people supported him because they felt they knew him through the past three decades of history; they trust him because they knew what to expect from him. Younger people supported Booker because they wanted change and they were inspired by him.
The movie was made by a young man named Marshall Curry who does not hide his support for Booker. James and his staff blocked his access to his side of the campaign, so most of the footage is focused on Booker's campaign. The inside look shows a shabby but enthusiastic "War Room" and the messy process of campaign. There was much footage showing Booker knocking from door to door talking to people in the neighborhoods at night. Old fashioned campaigning.
Curry shot his film on hand-held camera (digital?) and cut and narrated it himself. The movie has a home-made, intimate urgency that looks low-budget and takes you right in the middle of the whole thing -- which was indeed down and dirty and completely unglamorous. It was also fun and raw and real.
The documentary was released in 2005, but I recognized so much in past and present politics that it seems eerily prophetic. If you are curious about American elections, watch it.
On one side is a young candidate: highly educated, passionate, energetic, idealistic, and an outsider with little political experience. He runs on the promise of change. On the other side is the establishment candidate who is much older, has spent decades in politics, has the political machine in the palm of his hands, and is not afraid to push every button in the voters' mind and heart. He runs on the ticket of experience.
Both are smart, sharp, capable, charismatic, appealing. Both have a group of loyal followers.
The election becomes a heated and often rough-and-tumble battle and ignited people's passion. The process was fraught with lies, smears, dirty tricks, low punches, and everything in the playbook. Many celebrities are swept into the fight and endorse one or the other, and the division perfectly illustrate the division of generations. The results are extremely close.
No, this is not 2008 Presidential election or Democratic primaries. The documentary "Street Fight" records the fascinating, dramatic mayoral election of Newark, New Jersey in 2002. The younger candidate is Cory Booker, a Yale-educated, Rhode-scholarship-backed lawyer who, before the election, had only served one term on the city council. The older candidate is Sharpe James, the 66 year-old incumbent mayor who had been in power for 16 years prior and started in local politics three decades ago. The voters were overwhelmingly black and Democratic.
Everything in this campaign as documented in the movie is so familiar in American politics: Booker's campaign headquarters were burglarized; James called Booker a "Jew", a "white faggot", a "Republican", or taking money from KKK; people were bussed in from other states on the election day. New Jersey governor (our favorite Jim McGreevy) and Senators at the time endorsed James. Older people supported him because they felt they knew him through the past three decades of history; they trust him because they knew what to expect from him. Younger people supported Booker because they wanted change and they were inspired by him.
The movie was made by a young man named Marshall Curry who does not hide his support for Booker. James and his staff blocked his access to his side of the campaign, so most of the footage is focused on Booker's campaign. The inside look shows a shabby but enthusiastic "War Room" and the messy process of campaign. There was much footage showing Booker knocking from door to door talking to people in the neighborhoods at night. Old fashioned campaigning.
Curry shot his film on hand-held camera (digital?) and cut and narrated it himself. The movie has a home-made, intimate urgency that looks low-budget and takes you right in the middle of the whole thing -- which was indeed down and dirty and completely unglamorous. It was also fun and raw and real.
The documentary was released in 2005, but I recognized so much in past and present politics that it seems eerily prophetic. If you are curious about American elections, watch it.
Booker is a true idealist, and he actually lives the way he preaches. After getting out of Yale, he lived in the project for 8 years before becoming the mayor of Newark. And he went door to door to collect signatures to run for mayor, can you imagine what that's like knocking door to door in a neighborhood like that? I read the Newyorker piece on him back in February, he made Obama look like a white-washed fake on a fast track, so comfortable with his suburban life and multi-million-dollar book deal.
