City Hall (1996)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Harold Becker

Writers (WGA):

Ken Lipper (written by) and
Paul Schrader (written by) ...

Release Date:

16 February 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Murder...Corruption...Cover-up...Scandal...

Plot:

The accidental shooting of a boy in New York leads to an investigation by the Deputy Mayor, and unexpectedly far-reaching consequences.

Plot Keywords:

New York | Mayor | Drug Dealer | Mafia | Probation

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Al Pacino	...	Mayor John Pappas
John Cusack	...	Deputy Mayor Kevin Calhoun
Bridget Fonda	...	Marybeth Cogan
Danny Aiello	...	Frank Anselmo
Martin Landau	...	Judge Walter Stern
David Paymer	...	Abe Goodman
Anthony Franciosa	...	Paul Zapatti (as Tony Franciosa)
Richard Schiff	...	Larry Schwartz
Lindsay Duncan	...	Sydney Pappas
Nestor Serrano	...	Det. Eddie Santos
Mel Winkler	...	Det. Albert Holly
Lauren Vélez	...	Elaine Santos
Chloe Morris	...	Maria Santos
Ian Quinlan	...	Randy Santos
Roberta Peters	...	Nettie Anselmo

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some violence.

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby | SDDS

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #33992) | Iceland:12 | Australia:M | South Korea:15 | Philippines:PG-13 | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Germany:12 (bw) | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Belt Parkway, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Castle Rock Entertainment

Trivia:

The scenes at the snowy train station were actually filmed in 80-degree weather.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Kevin Calhoun is crossing this busy street and is almost hit by multiple vehicles you can clearly see the traffic light in the background signaling a green "WALK" for the pedestrian crossing Calhoun is using, so all the vehicles almost hitting him are running a red light.

Quotes:

[Kevin suggests distancing themselves from a man in trouble]
Mayor John Pappas: "Distance"! Distance is something you do to your enemies. It's a thing of the nineties, to make friends extinct. Distance... is the absence of menschkeit!
Kevin Calhoun: Translate that for me.
Mayor John Pappas: You don't know what menschkeit means?
Kevin Calhoun: No, I don't.
Mayor John Pappas: Menschkeit, you know... something between men... it's about honor, and character... untranslatable. That's why it's Yiddish.
Kevin Calhoun: I didn't know you'd taken up the language.
Mayor John Pappas: Abe laid it on me.

Movie Connections:

References "The Robert MacNeil Report" (1975)

Soundtrack:

A Real Nice Clambake

Can't decide if it's thriller or drama

I had been long awaiting this movie ever since I saw the trailer, which made it look like a political drama, starring three of my favorite actors; Al Pacino, John Cusack, and Bridget Fonda. And even though it was directed by Harold Becker, who has done uneven work, he and Pacino did combine on SEA OF LOVE, which ranks among each of their best work. But interference on some level(for starters, several of the scenes in the original trailer don't appear in the movie) and changing of tone(subsequent trailers make it look like a thriller) make this, while watchable, nowhere near as it could have been.

Which is too bad, because I really wanted to like this movie. There was great potential here to be a film about how government can still be worthwhile despite all the corruption, and to make a complex statement about that corruption, not the usual good guys vs. bad guys. And there is good acting here. Pacino and Cusack are both very good, and Danny Aiello gives one of the best performances of his career. But Fonda is wasted in her role, having nothing to do, and while there is merit in the central storyline, when it turns to a thriller, the movie loses its way, briefly recovers in the final scene between Cusack and Pacino, and then falls down completely in the end. I wish I could like this more, but no.