One story out of the 8 million

Definitely The French Connection of its day, I found its unique docufiction approach and on-location shooting of New York to be the main highlights. As for some of the characters, details and police procedural aspects of the film’s main crime, I just didn’t find it all that interesting or inventive, its a fairly basic set-up and you don’t really start to feel the sheer adrenaline of it all until the final act, for every film from Jules Dassin I’ve seen has such a phenomenal culmination and resolution. These criticisms however are very much what makes The Naked City stand out and I wouldn’t have them any other way. As we’re told, this is just one story out of the 8 million in New York and the film very much treats each of these characters as being apart of those 8 million as they go about to crack this case which, once solved, a new one begins and the same events will play out again like a cycle. The film’s realism, even with its pulpy moments, are its most admirable aspect. Definitely worth seeing if you just want to see shots of old New York.