New Video / 2011 / 85 mins / NR

THE FILM:
Director Gary Hustwit has taken his passion for design in all its various forms and guises and self financed a documentary film series about the subject. What started as a little film about fonts and typography with 2005’s HELVETICA, grew into a second feature about industrial and product design with 2007’s OBJECTIFIED and has now grown to an even larger scale with URBANIZED, a look at city planning around the world.

URBANIZED is not a history of city design and city planning. It is far more current and immediate in its scope than a mere following of the dots showing how we went from cave dwellers to apartment tenants. Hustwit attacks his topic from a variety of angles in cities considered both triumphs and failures from around the globe. He shows us simple and extremely successful ideas of managing a growing population like how bike lane placement in Bogota, Colombia roads increased bicycle use to over 30% of the cities population. How lighted walkways and local (and safe) civic buildings have drastically changed neighborhoods in Cape Town.

Building and planning a city is not always successfully accomplished, however. Hustwit points to Brasilia and Phoenix, Arizona as two prime examples of good intentions and ideas gone horribly wrong; Brasilia being an ideal looking design on paper but a complete disaster in practical life and Phoenix being an ecology destroying example of out of control sprawl. He also shows cities and once popular urban designs in their decline with the desolate city of Detroit and how a group of people in New York are transforming the abandoned High Line elevated railroad system into a popular local attraction.

While recent changes and urban designs are indeed fascinating to talk about, the hottest and most pointed example in how a city is developed has to go to the currently ongoing battle in Stuttgart, Germany and their “Stuttgart 21” plan. Originally planned to clear away the massive spiderweb of disused train tracks that litter the city and build an entirely underground transit system, the proposition is being violently fought by protesters trying to save a century’s old forest the new plan would destroy. More than any other example, the Stuttgart 21 section beautifully demonstrates how city design is not just in the hands of architects and politicians, but the community as well.

URBANIZED may not cover everything there is to know about urban design or even touch upon all of the influential and important historical figures that have shaped the way we live, but it is an intensely intriguing and very personal look at a subject that affects every one of us. This is being marketed as the final segment of a trilogy, but Hustwit has a crafted a series of great and thought provoking films that hopefully will continue for many more installments.

THE DISC:  
The 16:9 widescreen image is very nice offering crisp detail and rich colors. It looks as though this was originally shot in high def and New Video’s transfer does it justice.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround mix is not really needed and only truly kicks in with the background music, but dialogue is very clean and clear which is the all important aspect of this film.

THE EXTRAS:
About an hour worth of odds and ends are in the supplemental section. It mostly consists of more interview footage and shots of various developments including two sections titled “Cities we love/hate” and “A few shots we liked that didn’t make it in” which are self explanatory. Happily, there is a “play all” function so you can just back and let it all roll.

MY SAY:
A fascinating documentary that gives an interesting overview of problems, triumphs and failures of city planning by looking in detail at a wide variety of cities around the world. Even if the subject seems dry to you, URBANIZED will make you think about how your city is put together and maybe even look at things in a different light.

Reviewed by Jeff Allen