Barbary Coast (1975), Street Fight (2005), Shower (1999), Aquarius (2016), Gangs of New York (2002), The Fountainhead (1949), Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941), Radiant City (2006) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Urban Development movies.
Storyline: A special agent tracks criminals in 1870s San Francisco.
Plot Keywords: adventure, western, drama, historical, crime, romance, action ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: This documentary follows the 2002 mayoral campaign in Newark, New Jersey in which a City Councilman, Cory Booker, attempted to unseat longtime mayor Sharpe James.
Plot Keywords: documentary, politics, election, corruption, power struggle, social justice, democracy ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Shenzhen businessman, Da Ming, goes home to Beijing when he thinks his father has died. He finds his father hard at work at the family's bathhouse (the false message was a ruse of Da's mentally-handicapped, exuberant brother, Er Ming, to get Da home). Da stays a couple days, observing his father being social director, marriage counselor, and dispute mediator for his customers and a boon companion to Er. Da is caught between worlds: the decaying district of his childhood and the booming south where he now lives with a wife who's not met his family. When Da realizes his father's health is failing and the district is slated for razing, he must take stock of family and future.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: family, father-son relationship, traditional culture, nostalgia, warmth, humor, social change ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Clara, a 65 year old widow and retired music critic, was born into a wealthy and traditional family in Recife, Brazil. She is the last resident of the Aquarius, an original two-storey building, built in the 1940s, in the upper-class, seaside Boa Viagem Avenue, Recife. All the neighboring apartments have already been acquired by a company which has other plans for that plot. Clara has pledged to only leave her place upon her death, and will engage in a cold war of sorts with the company. This tension both disturbs Clara and gives her that edge on her daily routine. It also gets her thinking about her loved ones, her past and her future.
Plot Keywords: drama, family, social, independent film, female lead, aging, urban ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In the god-forsaken district of early-1860's Lower Manhattan known as the Five Points, the vicious Nativist, Bill "The Butcher" Cutting, is the supreme overlord of an area riddled with crime, prostitution, theft and murder, as the American Civil War still rages on. Sixteen whole years after the brutal murder of his father from Bill's blood-stained hands, an orphaned Irish-American, Amsterdam Vallon, returns to this melting pot of corruption to avenge his untimely death; however, a lot has changed since then. Who can remember the once innocent boy and now a young man bent on revenge, who works his way up to the hierarchy of Five Points? Will Amsterdam ever taste the dangerous but sweet fruit of retribution?
Plot Keywords: historical, crime, drama, american, violence, gangster, 19th century ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Individualistic and idealistic architect Howard Roark is expelled from college because his designs fail to fit with existing architectural thinking. He seems unemployable but finally lands a job with like-minded Henry Cameron, however within a few years Cameron drinks himself to death, warning Roark that the same fate awaits unless he compromises his ideals. Roark is determined to retain his artistic integrity at all costs.—Col Needham <col@imdb.com>
Plot Keywords: architecture, capitalism, idealism, innovation, rebellion, social pressure, self-actualization ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In a vacant lot in the middle of Manhattan, a thriving insect metropolis mimics the urban bustle surrounding it. While an impending human construction project imperils the insect city, a power struggle develops between upstanding grasshopper Hoppity and corrupt business owner C. Bagley Beetle, who both love the beautiful bee, Honey. A pair of humans -- struggling songwriter Dick and his faithful wife, Mary -- soon become unwitting pawns in the insects' fight for their home.
Plot Keywords: animation, musical, comedy, fantasy, family, urban life, adventure ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Since the end of World War II, one of kind of urban residential development has dominate how cities in North America have grown, the suburbs. In these artificial neighborhoods, there is a sense of careless sprawl in an car dominated culture that ineffectually tries to create the more organically grown older communities. Interspersed with the comments of various experts about the nature of suburbia, we follow the lives of various inhabitants of this pervasive urban sprawl and hear their thoughts. However at the end, there is a twist that plays on the falseness of the world in they live.—Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)
Plot Keywords: documentary, suburban life, architecture, social commentary, canadian film, modern life, environmental issues ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The architect Daniel Brenner is in his late thirties when he receives his first challenging and lucrative commission: to design a cultural center for a satellite town in East-Berlin. He accepts the offer under the condition that he gets to choose who he works with. This way, he reunites with former colleagues and friends - most of them architects or students of architecture who have since chosen a different profession due to personal restraint or economic confinement. Together, they develop a concept which they hope will be more appealing to the public than the conventional and dull constructions common to the German Democratic Republic. However, their ambitious plans are once and again foiled by their conservative supervisors. As frustration grows, Daniel has trouble keeping his career in balance with his family-life: his wife Wanda wants to leave for West-Germany.—C. Winter
Plot Keywords: drama, german film, cold war, architecture, politics, history, social critique ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The battle in how the urban form of New York City in particular was shaped in the mid-twentieth century is presented, the two leading figures on the opposing sides of the battle being Robert Moses, who held many senior positions related to development of urban infrastructure, and Manhattan resident and journalist Jane Jacobs, author of "The Death and Life of Great American Cities". In this battle, Moses disregarded Jacobs as a "mere housewife" and a nuisance of one at that. As was the prevailing trend of the time, Moses was in the camp of demolishing what he saw as not working to build homogeneous neighborhoods in style and function - most buildings several stories high or taller in the need to accommodate a growing population - that were largely supported by urban freeways or expressways to move people from the burgeoning affluent suburbs to jobs in the urban center. Many of the urban housing developments were social housing for those who could not afford to live in the suburbs, and what ended up having the negative terminology of "the projects". Conversely, Jacobs, who lived in the city with her family, felt that what Moses and his ilk saw as chaos was people interacting with each other in a humanistic way, which often took a generation or more to be established and which was much more livable than the sterile environments Moses was creating. Some of the key projects over which they battled are presented. As an epilogue, current urbanization in many developing countries in particular shows that the decision makers of today in these places are following Moses' lead in a much more aggressive way, these developments which have the potential to be tomorrow's abandoned slums.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: documentary, activist, history, 20th century, social movement, architecture, community ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In 1854, the patriarch Patrick O'Leary of the O'Leary family dies in an accident nearby Chicago while traveling amid-western prairie. His wife Molly O'Leary raises her three sons alone working as laundress. Her son Jack becomes an idealistic lawyer; Dion is a gambler; and Bob helps his mother in the laundry business and marries local Gretchen (June Storey) in the old area known as The Patch. Dion meets the singer Belle Fawcett in the cabaret owned by Gil Warren and they fall in love with each other and become lovers. They also open a business of their own to compete with Gil that becomes their enemy. However Gil invites Dion to join the politics with him but Dion plots a scheme with tragic consequences.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Plot Keywords: historical, drama, american, 1930s, black and white, disaster, family ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Hank owns horses, stables horses and races horses. He favorite horse always wins and he is prosperous and will known. His son (Bob), however dreams only of the future of the horseless carriage and not of the horse. This causes problems between Hank and Bob. As the people in the town convert from horses to autos, Hank detests those who switch - so he looses his friends, his son Bob and finally his livery business. Bob leaves his flame Rose and goes to Detroit, gets involved with the auto industry and does very well. He does not forget Hank and promises to see him again, but Hank's hatred of the auto may cause the death of Bob.—Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>
Plot Keywords: silent film, historical drama, american film, black and white film, 1920s, warner bros, early cinema ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: An American widow living in the London suburb of Hampstead and a man who lives on the Heath form an unlikely alliance against unscrupulous property developers in the neighborhood.
Plot Keywords: romance, comedy, drama, british film, urban life, social issues, independent film ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Activist Jane Alexander (Ally Sheedy) launches a crusade for justice against a former boyfriend (Sean Patrick Flanery) who murdered her beloved aunt.
Plot Keywords: biography, history, documentary, women, new york, politics, social change ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Between memories and an uncertain future, a father and daughter search for other ways to see the world.
Plot Keywords: documentary, architecture, construction, innovation, technology, history, culture ...
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