Street Fight

It's interesting to see the first hand documentation of Sharpe's corrupt election tactics. Even if you're aware of these kinds of abuses, it's pretty astounding to see them in action. The true post script to this story gives it a happy ending (Sharpe convicted for fraud and served prison time, Booker went on to become a US Senator.

New Jersey exposed as shit, no one in world surprised. Jersey Shore greenlighted.

It is nice to see this kind of down-and-dirty look at the politics of a small American city as opposed to much larger races. The personalities of the two candidates are in full display and there is a clear bias in one direction, maybe not an unfair bias considering the circumstances. A major point of letdown for me was how little substance there was to any policy discussion, in the rare instance it ever came up.

An engaging, infuriating look at political races in lower-income areas of the United States. Curry uses Booker's struggle against corruption as an inspiration to others to do the same. A high recommendation, especially during Booker's current presidential campaign.

Definitely a good documentary, but with more of a focus on the corruption of Sharpe instead of the nobility of Booker. I liked it, but perhaps could have put its message a little better.

It's pretty short and you don't ultimately feel as if you really know Booker, but once the revelations of Sharpe's tactics and eventually crimes become clear, this is a pretty amazing example of the shittyness of politics and people in general.

I don't think policy comes up once in this movie.

For some reason, I love political campaign docs. Mike Murphy is still my favorite Republican after The Perfect Candidate. This is a pretty good look at urban campaigning, and the power of the police to alter discussion in a way that favors their perspective.

I wish the doc was more objective and not biased toward one side. It still was an interesting look into politics in a place like Newark NJ. The work that Booker put in day and night his campaigning was great to watch. Some of the roadblocks that he faced surprised me because I would not think he would face those things in this time and day, but it just goes to show that politics can be a cut-throat business. I also enjoyed how they set it up as a countdown to the election day.

With a film like Street Fight it's easy to pass a critical judgment of the film being biased. However, before doing so, one needs to remember the following: Marshall Curry tried to film the Sharp James crew and was, literally, physically assaulted by the police. Additionally, Sharp James was convicted of five counts of fraud and sent to prison for 18 months (pretty low considering). With that said, the film isn't one-sided or biased, it's what any sane or moral individual would expect.

Everyone knows now that Newark mayor Sharpe James was corrupt, but watching this doc will still make you seethe at the unethical lengths politicians go through to win an election.

It's obviously one sided but it's still an interesting look into what Booker went through to get as far as he did.