Filmmaker Marshall Curry’s Academy Award-nominated documentary, Street Fight, delivers solid drama. I’m torn between trying to figure out if I was more mesmerized by the actual story about the 2002 mayoral race in Newark, New Jersey or by Curry’s camera work and innate sense of narrative tension. Both contribute so much that I watched almost breathlessly as the events played out.
If there was ever an underdog worth championing, Curry found it in Cory Booker, the 32-year-old challenger to Mayor Sharpe James. At the time, Mayor James was holding down the mayor’s desk in Newark and a seat in the New Jersey senate. The Newark’s mayor position paid over $200,000 a year, which was higher than any governor in the United States. The senate position only paid $49,000. James divided his time between the two political fields.
Curry opens the film up with a quick presentation of Cory Booker as the do-gooder challenger making it a point to knock on every door of every citizen in the city, personally introducing himself and seeking their votes. That was a nice touch, but one that you’d expect from someone seeking an office.
Things immediately got more interesting when a building security officer decided to try to chase Booker from the premises. When Booker refused to go, the police were called to escort him out of the building. I couldn’t believe it. Booker couldn’t believe it either. He was laughing and joking about the experience, without getting angry. He won me over in a heartbeat because I’ve always had a thing for underdogs.
But this was corruption. This was a definite act on part of the existing political machine to shut down a threat. I was incensed, and that was precisely Curry’s point.
Before viewing this documentary, I didn’t know that this kind of political pull was still practiced. The pressure rolling down from on high to crush Booker seemed like something that would have been found in a suspense movie or a summer blockbuster.
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