Audience Member
The first two things you're immediately struck by in Battle for Brooklyn are the senses of paranoia and grandeur. This literally is a battle, and the film prepares you in appropriately epic fashion. But seeing man after man take the podium in his crisp suit during the film's opening minutes gives you the sense that this battle was over before it even got started. Yet, men like Daniel Goldstein aren't afraid, even if they are being watched by hidden cameras everywhere they go.
The battle is over property in Brooklyn, where some rich developers want to build massive skyscrapers and an arena (to host the New Jersey Nets basketball team). In order to build, however, they need to buy a lot of land, much of which belongs to homeowners and small businesses. Eminent domain, of course, is what you might know such a process as, but typically, that law is only invoked for public needs, i.e. a highway. Goldstein and a whole host of other residents are infuriated that they're homes are being seized in the name of sports. But with their opponents prepared to throw around hundreds of millions of dollars like it was nothing, it's unclear if their defiance can actually do anything.
Despite the somewhat grandiose promise of jobs and prosperity for all, it's debatable whether or not this project is actually in the public's best interests. And it's certainly interesting that both sides have a diverse group of people advocating for it. There are rich and poor for the project, as well as rich and poor against it. What's unacceptable to both the participants and this viewer is the resolute way the residents and business owners were completely left out of the planning process. When the project's detractors come up with an alternative that won't require eminent domain, they aren't even afforded the chance to present it. This gives one the sense that the entire thing is some vendetta, years in the making, over the Brooklyn Dodgers leaving town. Now is that a good enough reason to evict people from their homes?
The film does something else quite interesting in chronicling how his fight against the project impacts Daniel's personal life. He starts the film as an engaged graphic designer, and becomes a figurehead of the resistance who marries a different woman. His first fiance leaves him because he turns down a very big offer from the developers, Forest City Ratner, but he ultimately connects with a fellow activist who understands his passion. In Daniel, a face is given to this situation, which for his cause's sake, and the sake of this film, is a much more successful way to tug at one's heartstrings.
Some would argue that activist documentaries don't have a place in today's world, what with the 24-hour news cycle souring any notion of a smart but slanted discourse. Battle for Brooklyn, however, is a fine example of how to sell someone on a point of view without hammering them over the head with it. The film's points are cogent, and they're presented in a very compelling manner. Yes, it takes sides, but after seeing the film, you'll understand why. The issues shown involve a great deal of passion, and though it might be too late to stop the Atlantic Yards project, one can only hope people take notice and don't let something like this happen again.
http://www.johnlikesmovies.com/battle-for-brooklyn/
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/10/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Although we follow the point of view of those who oppose a development which arguably would provide new opportunities for Brooklyn residents, the viewer remains on the fence as the debate unfolds as to what is best for a community. It also shines a light on the mega project which is such a popular way to spur economic development but which can often have results that are significantly less than anticipated.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/07/23
Full Review
Audience Member
An interesting if not original doc focusing on a david vs goliath story of a Brooklyn resident stirring the community and getting together with various activists in new york to help battle the unjust potential evictions of several hundred families for the impending arrival of the Brooklyn Nets new arena and supposed new infrastructure supposedly promising hundreds of new jobs and transit and the like. Filmed over just short of a decade from the plans initial announcement through to ground break, the film gets most intriguing with the development of the market crash and the adjustments/scalling back of the scale of the project, creating that sense that maybe their is enough chinks in the armour to make something of a difference. If the audience knows the outcome after the fact (film came out in 2011 so obviously the stadium is now open and complete) it adds a small sense of inevitability to the proceedings but still reaffirms the scariness of big business having no regards for the little guy. Might have been a touch better if the one family wasnt a central focus and spread it out to a few more families but otherwise interesting.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/01/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Probably the best doc I saw this year. The producers followed this story for over 8 years and it is a testiment to their perseverance that they stuck around and kept filming until the end. While it is a political documentary with a clear point of view, I would bet that my conservative and liberal friends could watch this film and come away with the same sense of outrage. Definitely recommended if you are at all interested in eminent domain issues.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/07/23
Full Review
s r
Big businessman vs small man. Guess who wins? Big businessman. Funny thing is, my boss is the sister to the big businessman.
The whole premise is that there is a great opportunity for the community of Brooklyn to benefit from. But this man and a bar refused to move for it, even though the business was willing to give you a significant compensation to make sure that you were well taken care of. So much so that those involved were willing to sign a gag order and not talk about it anymore. The man even in the end settled with them, but never told us what he got that allowed him to move into a new apt.
Should people be demonized because they have the means to do things like that? Have enough money to legitimately buy and build things? Yes they should, that is what capitalism is about. It almost went too far though with the unjust movement of circumventing some city officials.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
david f
Fascinating documentary about a huge development coming to Brooklyn in which the government and real estate developers seemingly conspire against a few holdout homeowners and businesses with the aid of astroturf community organizations and eminent domain laws which give the state the right to basically take property away from people and give it to someone else to build on. Itâ(TM)s fascinating and heartbreaking to watch the graphic designer who lives in the footprint of the proposed stadium/shopping/housing complex as heâ(TM)s worn down over the roughly 6 years it takes between announcing the project and the beginning of its construction. The maneuverings of the developers mostly happen off camera but the portrait of the neighborhood in the crosshairs of urban renewal is very moving indeed.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
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