The Changing City

★★★★★ · What Change? · Dodsworth the Cat · 2023-12-06

There's an irony calling this film. "The Changing City." The problems of urban sprawl it warns about 60 years ago haven't changed at all. Sprawl continues unchecked, though cities today seem to ensure there is some green space. Excellent footage, combined with map drawings, hold the viewer's attention. Vic Perrin is the narrator.

★★★★ · who's running your life? · tgoyle · 2005-01-11

perhaps this film was dry if forward-thinking for its time. listen to its warning of the problem of running our society, er, letting businessmen run our society into oblivion. solutions come from thinking about the problem -- or did we give that up to businessmen too? it's good to see someone was paying attention in the 60s. PS i think the next review is complaining that the film car-bashes. but it's really bashing the development that requires commuter cars. ->

★★★★ · Great perspective · Miss_Xanthippe_Svanstrom · 2012-05-23

Really fascinating to see the contrasts and comparisons between city living and suburbia. I wish I knew what year this was made (guessing mid-1960s), will ask the fella when he wakes to see if he can identify the cars more specifically. Too bad about the projects (which are maligned in 'The Changing City'); there is another at archive.org--might actually be a series of two parts, I don't recall--that made them seem so promising and made me wonder what went wrong... why are they ghettos now? This film makes vague references to sterile parks and walkways and crime after dark. My assumption was…

★★★★ · Excellent footage of suburbia · AppleGirl · 2004-06-12

Cool shots of Orange County suburbia (circa 1963), especially "modern" housing developments around Dana Point and billboards advertising $24,000 homes on Harbor Drive. Hey! We're movin' to Disneyland! I love one point that this movie makes: "Suburbia is exciting for children, but mom may feel trapped and miss the stimulation of the city." As a child, I recall my mom being totally stranded in our suburban shangri-la; dad took the car to work each day. Excellent aerial shots, shopping centers, cars, billboards, post-war housing developments. I took away a star only because they showed the same…

★★★★ · Change of view on what makes cities great · seetheoceanblue · 2005-05-15

This film was done in the Jane Jacobs vs Robert Moses era of great awakening. I'm surprised to see a documentary of this kind this early. Further to some of the other commentaries - yes this film does not offer solutions - but no one really was offering solutions because too many people were making too much money off what was going on back then. Still the same, will never change. Capitalism is a temporary success but a long-term catastrophe in its overconsumption. We are near the edge of the cliff...but the good thing is we always survive...I just wish the cliff wasn't so steep.

★★★ · Need Some Bearings Rebabbitted? · Christine Hennig · 2003-10-11

Fairly dry 60s film about urban problems. Three parts stand out: 1. A scene of fingers doing the walking through the yellow pages of a city and finding places where one can get "bearings rebabbitted" and "singing commercials"; 2. A great sequence of garish billboards advertising housing developments, with an organ soundtrack; and 3. A weird montage of traffic signs and a frustrated driver, designed to portray the problems of city driving, but standing out like a sore thumb in this otherwise dull film. These highlights spice things up a bit, but it's still mostly slow going here. Ratings…