City Hall
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | City Hall |
| Original title | City Hall |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1996 |
| length | 107 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Harold Becker |
| script |
Paul Schrader Ken Lipper Nicholas Pileggi Bo Goldman |
| production |
Harold Becker Ken Lipper Charles Mulvehill Edward R. Pressman |
| music | Jerry Goldsmith |
| camera |
John Corso Michael Seresin |
| cut |
David Bretherton Robert C. Jones |
| occupation | |
| |
City Hall is a political thriller from the year 1996 . Directed by Harold Becker , the lead roles were Al Pacino , John Cusack and Bridget Fonda .
Film producer and former investment expert Ken Lipper was deputy to New York City Mayor Ed Koch from 1985 to 1987 . Thanks to his contacts, the film was shot in over 70 original locations in New York , including the city hall . Lead actor Al Pacino met with Koch, David Dinkins and Rudolph Giuliani, among others, to prepare for his role .
action
Kevin Calhoun comes from a small town in Louisiana and went into politics out of conviction. He is assistant to New York City Mayor John Pappas, whom he admires and whose career he also sacrifices his private life. A police officer working undercover organizes a meeting with a suspected dealer who, however, knows nothing about it. There is a shootout in which both of them die. The killed dealer is Tino Zapatti, nephew of Mafioso Paul Zapatti. However, a six-year-old boy is also killed, causing outrage across New York . The public is starting to ask awkward questions. Pappas and Calhoun try to save what can be saved.
When it turns out that Tino Zapatti's probation report is not clean, Calhoun gets to the bottom of the matter. During his research, he uncovered a major scandal. The young, ambitious man bites into the case and does not notice that he is sawing on his own chair. He finds himself in the middle of a wasp's nest of corruption and crime.
Because his idol, Mayor John Pappas, is a popular man for whom contact with the people is important and who always emphasizes his interest in the well-being of the city. However, he also keeps one eye on Washington and does not lose sight of the great goal of becoming president. But he seems somehow involved in the case. Pappas gives a pathetic speech at the child's funeral service.
The investigation turns out to be difficult as witnesses are murdered. Calhoun suspects local politician Anselmo of Kings County , Brooklyn , to be involved in the scandal, which is true. Anselmo has relationships with Mafioso Paul Zapatti. When the pressure to investigate increases, Zapatti calls on Anselmo to face the consequences and "take the pressure off the matter", Calhoun is a terrier who has dogged himself in the matter and will never give up. With that he asks Anselmo to kill himself, which he does. Calhoun himself is soon in mortal danger and also the lawyer Marybeth Cogan, who represents the widow of the killed police officer, makes life difficult for him and confronts him with a conflict of conscience.
Kevin Calhoun has to recognize more and more clearly that Pappas had intervened in favor of the dealer out of loyalty to old clans and pragmatic power considerations, which is why he only received a suspended sentence and thus bears a certain complicity in the death of the child. He finally confronts Pappas with his complicity and Pappas tries to justify his behavior by saying that he has tried to take at least some decency with him to the White House . However, he also admits that over the years he has increasingly shifted the line between decent behavior and moral dubiousness. Calhoun then breaks away from his mentor, who resigns at the end of the film.
Calhoun, however, does not want to lose his belief in decency in politics and decides to continue to be politically active. The film ends with him running for a place on the city council in a hopeless election campaign.
criticism
The Süddeutsche Zeitung noted that City Hall fits into the series of films in which politicians, judges and prosecutors replace “the good old sheriff from the missing westerns” , although the film “consistently softens the rigid moral system and tends to add more to the usual black and white or opposed to less strong gray ” . Al Pacino plays his role "as a monster of the right behavior" , John Cusack is "the typical adept " . The portrayals are realistic, the director has mastered the thriller dramaturgy, but the film is not captivating.
The daily newspaper compared the imagery “between dove gray and black” with a Japanese watercolor. In contrast to The Man Who Wanted to Rule (1949), in City Hall “trust in the system is considerably consolidated” - “Checks and balances, that's how you hold it and you hold it, then it hardly matters who is at the top. ” The film is not “ quite as thoroughly researched and played as Nixon ” by Oliver Stone .
Awards
- 1996: NCLR Bravo Awards / Nomination for the NCLR Bravo Award in the category Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film Luna Lauren Velez
- The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating particularly valuable.
Web links
- City Hall in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- City Hall atRotten Tomatoes(English)