And speaking of NYC serious urban decay, no film does this better than 1981's Wolfen, featuring whole, and significant sections of the film, being shot on location in the South Bronx. That infamous church seen frequently was on Charlotte st. in the Bronx, no props or back lots needed when a real city looks like this...
Billed as a werewolf movie, as there were so many coming out at the time, this is not about that at all, it's social commentary on everything from said urban decay, ignoring the poor in favor of the super rich (boy do we know a shit load about that these days!), lose of animal habitat, leftist terrorism, Native American issues and spiritual belief and skyscrapers--lots and lots of skyscrapers.
Despite that it is really, really far fetched, I've always had a soft spot for the film because of it's being shot in actual city neighborhoods that were completely abandoned. I also like the cast: Albert Finney, Diane Venora, Dick O'Niell, Tom Noonan and another serious household favorite Gregory Hines. Native/Latin actor Edward James Olmos comes in as Eddie Holt, the skywalking, (probably) Mohawk, "shape-shifting" Indian, who repairs bridges without a safety harness. This film also boasts one of the only soundtracks by James Horner that I actually like. It tense, and right on the mark. (Of course, movie audiences had to put up with the central motif that he scored for this film for 10 years before he stopped over-using it in other soundtracks!)
It also has a few genuinely good one-liners. What would a good New York horror flick be without pithy sarcasm and sardonic improv?? I especially like the scene where Dewey Wilson (Finney) is ordering dirty water hot dog, while Rebecca Neff (Venora) is graphically explaining a group that favors....emasculation as a form of mutilation....Oh I love hot dogs!
Also the variety of filming locations is a bit dizzying. Battery Park, South Bronx, various location in and around Central Park, Central Park Zoo, Brooklyn Bridge, Uptown, Downtown, Wall Street, Staten Island, etc. If you are looking for New York, this one clobbers you over the head with it!
Of course, most of the Native American stuff (outside of what they do get right about some activism in the 1970's) is pure malarkey. Either these are real wolves that having adapted to an serious urban setting and are killing people for food, or they are spirit that are out to exact revenge. They really needed to make a choice there and stick with it. Then again, what kind of wolves are these anyway?? The kind that can decapitate a man with one single jump??
This director Micahel Wadleigh's only non-Woodstock related film; he originally hired composer Craig Safan to score the film, only to replace him at the last minute when Oscar winner Horner expressed interest in the project. To my knowledge there has been no public performance of the original soundtrack. It's complete, so, I don't know, maybe when can have a first ever 'Composer's Edition' DVD or Blu Ray??
"Skywalkers" were a real thing (still are, but it's fading), and no it doesn't have anything to do with Star Wars. Broadly they were Native American that built on high steel, more narrowly, though other Native Nations and ethnicity's were involved, they tended, for some reason to be mostly Mohawk. They were also called "Iron Walkers." Below are some links:
Info at Smithsonian
Mohawk Lunch Pail--this is really in the British Museum in London!
They responded overwhelmingly to work at Ground Zero
BELOW ARE SOME ACTUAL SKYWALKER PHOTOS:
The "infamous church" was actually on Seabury Pl. at the corner of E. 172nd St. It was a wood frame structure BUILT AND BURNED FOR THE FILM in 1980.
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