Koch Is an Effective Primer on NYC's Voluble and Charismatic Mayor

The New York Post

Ed Koch in the office of his campaign manager, David Garth, in September 1977.

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O Cinema Miami Shores

9806 NE 2nd Ave.
Miami Shores, FL 33138

Category: Movie Theaters

Region: Upper Eastside/Miami Shores/Biscayne Park

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Directed by Neil Barsky. Friday through Sunday, March 22 through 24, at O Cinema Miami Shores, 9806 NE Second Ave., Miami Shores; 305-571-9970; o-cinema.org.

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More About

• Ed Koch
• Neil Barsky
• Yusef Hawkins
• Queensboro Bridge
• Sydenham Hospital

Love him or hate him, Ed Koch was New York in the 1980s, and Koch's bio account of his mayoral tenure offers almost equal measures of celebration and censure. Director Neil Barsky's film never shies away from Koch's controversies, exploring his third term's devastating corruption scandal and giving voice to critics who viewed him as, among other things, a racist (thanks to his closing of Harlem's Sydenham Hospital), a hypocritical homophobe (courtesy of persistent rumors of his gayness and his administration's slow response to the AIDS crisis), and an "opportunist." Still, Koch nonetheless also finds time to flirt with hagiography. In copious archival clips and contemporary footage with family, campaigning for others, and having the Queensboro Bridge named after him, Koch is presented as a no-nonsense loudmouth whose love of New York was matched only by his love of attention. The film has to skim — less a failing of Barsky's than a testament to Koch's involvement in so many pressing social and economic issues, including his landmark housing-reform work and his response to the murder of Yusef Hawkins. Still, if unlikely to change anyone's mind about its subject, it's an effective primer on a voluble and charismatic mayor who embodied the spirit of the city he loved.