On the Bowery

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1h 5m

Documentary

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92%

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26 Reviews

87%

Audience Score

250+ Ratings

Lionel Rogosin's influential documentary centers on the homeless "bums" who frequent New York City's Bowery area. Rogosin focuses on Ray, a former railroad worker, who has recently moved to the Bowery, and still has enough money to buy drinks for his fellow derelicts on his first night there. However, after blacking out, Ray discovers that all his possessions have been stolen. As Ray tries to extricate himself from life on the Bowery, he becomes friends with Gorman, a petty thief.

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Michael Phillips

Chicago Tribune

"On the Bowery" offers some of the most indelible faces in an American docudrama, faces ravaged by alcohol and poverty, creased by defeat and self-deception, surrounded by a New York City that does not care. Yet no one on screen asks for pity.

Rated: 4/4

Jan 23, 2014

Full Review

J. R. Jones

Chicago Reader

On the Bowery runs only 65 minutes, but by the end you can feel skid row in your bones.

Rated: 4/4

Feb 16, 2012

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Wesley Morris

Boston Globe

Shot on 16mm in black-and-white with a Bolex camera, the results remain stunningly authentic.

Rated: 3.5/4

Feb 3, 2011

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Dennis Harvey

48 Hills

It did fulfill its critics’ worst fears by being far more widely seen abroad, including in Eastern Bloc nations eager to expose chinks in the armor of the “American Dream..."

May 2, 2022

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Gordon Hendricks

Film Culture

As a series of skillful separate shots it reminds us of something of which we should be continually reminded. But because it is neither intense nor cinematic it gives these familiar facts little urgency.

Mar 28, 2022

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Mattie Lucas

From the Front Row

Feels real, even amid the sometimes awkward non-professional performances. Rogosin masterfully tells the untold stories of the people society left behind.

Rated: 4/4

Aug 6, 2019

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Colleen W

So hard to watch, filled with so much truth. Worth it for the historical footage alone, but the story is engrossing.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

06/03/23

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s r

Something completely different and an amazing treasure of American history.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

Seedy, interesting look at the lives of a group of lower class men who really have nothing going for them in New York City. Most of them drink profusely, smoke to no end, sleep on the street, are angry, and make everyone, including law enforcement, pity their behaviour. Very grubby movie, but without question, exemplifies its point. The documentary is pretty sad and it does get a little overboard after a while and goes somewhat astray in direction, but I found it worked and that is all that matters.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/18/23

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Audience Member

it's a tough film to watch but an important one too. rogosin was one of the first independent filmmakers in america. his first film shows a bygone skid row section of new york and the men who sleep in missions and on the streets, slaves to demon rum

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/09/23

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Audience Member

Incredibly vivid and authentic portrait of inner-city poverty. But I feel like I wasted my time--I could have just gone to east hastings and took a walk.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

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walter m

The docufiction "On the Bowery" is best viewed as a look back at a time and place that no longer exists when derelicts would congregate on The Bowery underneath the Third Avenue Elevated tracks in Manhattan. Ray(Ray Salyer) has just returned from far flung New Jersey where he was working on the railroads. Once back in town, he goes drinking with Gorman(Gorman Hendricks). Together, they sell a pair of Ray's pants to get a room for the night but Ray does not make it that far, passing out on the street where he is not alone. Seeing an opportunity, Gorman steals his suitcase which contains Ray's prized fob watch. One way that "On the Bowery" goes wrong is in its unconvincingly staged action(Ray never mentions his lost suitcase again) in a moderately successful attempt to mimic Italian neorealism, according to the making of documentary that followed(I didn't stay for the whole documentary since dinner and a train were calling).(Also mentioned is that the filmmakers were very knowledgeable about alcohol, preferring a watering hole in Greenwich Village.) Even with non-professional actors and real locations, director Lionel Rogosin could not quite match the evocative power of those films due to the slightest of storylines which has little to say on the human condition.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Synopsis

Lionel Rogosin's influential documentary centers on the homeless "bums" who frequent New York City's Bowery area. Rogosin focuses on Ray, a former railroad worker, who has recently moved to the Bowery, and still has enough money to buy drinks for his fellow derelicts on his first night there. However, after blacking out, Ray discovers that all his possessions have been stolen. As Ray tries to extricate himself from life on the Bowery, he becomes friends with Gorman, a petty thief.

Director: Lionel Rogosin
Production Co: Rogosin Films
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 18, 1957, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 13, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $13.2K
Runtime: 1h 5m

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