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Poster for On the Bowery

On the Bowery

1957 · 1h 5m Documentary, Drama
Directed by Lionel Rogosin

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Overview

A mix of documentary and scripted footage on the Bowery, New York City's skid row. Against a backdrop of men (and a few women) drinking in bars, talking and arguing, and sleeping on sidewalks, we have the story of Ray.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
95%
Tomatometer
Fresh

"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.

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
Fresh

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

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader
Fresh

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

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
Fresh

This landmark documentary disturbs and compels as much today in a new 35mm restoration as it did when it opened in 1956 to both criticism and acclaim.

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Fresh

As a record of a time and a place in the history of New York, it's essential. As a depiction of men at the bottom of their lives, it has the same sorrowful, accusatory force as a great Depression-era photograph by Dorothea Lange or Walker Evans.

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor

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