Being that I was born midway through Ed Koch’s twelve years in office as Mayor of New York City, my most vivid memory of Koch is his cameo in The Muppets Take Manhattan since I saw it so many times growing up. Although I’ve since read and heard much about Koch and have seen his remarkable post-mayoral popularity firsthand, his role in The Muppets Take Manhattan sticks with me. There’s nothing wrong with that enduring association I have of him because as Koch, a new documentary about the now 88 year old former mayor demonstrates, Ed Koch is — and always will be — a character.
Between New York City’s Taxi Driver grime of the 1970s and the Disney-fied Times Square of the 1990s, there was Ed Koch. Serving as mayor from 1978 to 1989, Koch came into office in a city plagued by crime, bankruptcy, and fear and utilized his huge personality to become “America’s Mayor.” Much like another 1980s political icon, Ronald Reagan, Koch understood that politics were essentially a form of showbiz or, as he puts it in the documentary, “You have to get the attention of the public. You have to get them to follow you.” The documentary follows a year-by-year breakdown of Koch’s three-term run as mayor with recent interviews with Koch, his associates, and in some cases, his opponents.
Though the documentary is a profile and not investigatory, it is thankfully not a hagiography as documentaries on living subjects tend to be, especially subjects as charismatic as Koch. Koch was far from a perfect mayor, and his third term was mired in political controversy and led to his loss in the primary election for an unprecedented fourth term. It would be easy to dismiss Koch’s loss as a sign that his charm and wit wore off, but a very active post-mayoral life in which he is still considered a political powerhouse shows it really hasn’t.
It’s remarkable that director Neil Barsky has created such a vivid portrait with his first film. Barsky credits Juliet Weber with forming the narrative from the hours of footage he shot and countless hours of archival material. But Barsky’s background in journalism — he is a former Wall Street Journal reporter — was clearly invaluable in finding narrative threads in Koch’s career in public life.
One of these threads is that Koch is a very funny man, especially in his old age. In fact, the best parts of the film are when the camera simply follows the nearly ninety year-old Koch around. Even watching him put jam on bread is humorous. In another scene, Koch and his former Chief of Staff visit his tombstone, which is already standing in a New York cemetery. Despite being proudly Jewish, Koch rejected being buried in a quiet, secluded graveyard and opted for a high-traffic one in upper Manhattan. “I want to be in a bustling cemetery,” he explains, showing that even in death he wants to maintain his popularity.
In fact, this ties into the other narrative thread of this documentary — Koch’s enduring popularity and his craving for it. Several interviewees point out that Koch could be seen as an opportunist who adopted positions that would make him politically popular. This is because Koch’s entire life was being Mayor of New York City — an unsuccessful 1985 run for governor by Koch was derailed primarily because he insulted upstate New York by comparing it unfavorably to New York City. Indeed, Koch never married or had children — and the documentary addresses long-standing rumors of his sexuality, though draws no conclusions — and he lives his life instead for public attention. At one point in the recent footage, a staffer mentions that he is going home to see his daughter and says, “Some things are better than politics.” Koch, who is already looking down, never flinches — for him there is nothing better and no one to go home to. This is especially poignant because much is made of Koch’s one-time political rival, Mario Cuomo, living on in politics through his son, Andrew, the current Governor of New York. For a man as obsessed with his legacy as Koch, Andrew’s subsequent actions toward him during his 2010 election night victory party after Koch went out of his way to mend fences with him had to be hurtful. But the documentary ends on a happy note for Koch with his 2010 birthday party and a very special announcement — one that cements Koch’s legacy and one he takes a lot of pride in.
Nonetheless, although a 95 minute cannot fully or even fairly document a 12-year career as mayor and 88 years of life, there’s a lot for New Yorkers to love about Koch. Those from other states might have less interest, but I doubt Ed Koch, the consummate New Yorker, would give a damn about their opinions.
Rating: An informative — and wonderfully funny — documentary about a difficult time in New York City and one of its most celebrated citizens (8.5/10).
Koch opens February 1 at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and the Angelika Film Center, March 1 in Los Angeles, and other cities to follow.
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