The Urban Spectacle: New York's Evolution in 70s and 80s Exploitation Cinema. A Critical Examination of How Gritty Narratives Reflect the City's Complex History and Identity

This article explores the cultural and social impact of exploitation films set in New York during the 1970s and 1980s. To conduct this study, we focused on a sub-database of 75 films made in and about New York between the 1970s and 2000s, all identified in the IMDB and Rottentomatoes databases. We extracted the content and examined the themes mentioned in the scripts and synopses, including justice; corruption; social isolation; social stratification such as race, ethnicity, class and gender; and the city's transformation. This article discusses how these films reflect the social tensions and sociological changes of the time and how they use New York as a symbol of existential struggles and identity crises. Additionally, we examine how legislation and social change affected New York's exploitation cinema and its reception.