Arguably both the most beloved and polarizing political figure in late 20th-century New York City history, former Mayor Ed Koch presents an uncommonly juicy subject for a documentary, and filmmaker Neil Barsky makes the most of the opportunity.
Koch, an unapologetic egomaniac who has rarely shied from the spotlight during the past 50 years, looks frail but feisty in interviews for the film that appear to have been taped in 2011, when the Queensboro Bridge was named after him. Koch died Friday at the age of 88.
This quintessential New Yorker has long been a mass of contradictions — a liberal congressman and political reformer, he first captured the mayoralty in 1977 (over several far better-known rivals, including Mario Cuomo) by campaigning on a law-and-order platform and forging an alliance with the Democratic machine he had formerly condemned.
New York was pulled back from the brink of bankruptcy under Koch’s watch, but even as the city prospered its reputation as a hotbed of crime got worse and worse, and didn’t begin to significantly reverse until the tenure of Koch’s successor, David Dinkins.
Koch was immensely popular, though, at least through the first two of his three terms, re-elected by remarkable margins of 75 percent in 1981 (when he was on both the Democratic and Republican lines) and 78 percent in 1985. His 1984 memoir, “Mayor,” was a best seller that was turned into an off-Broadway musical.
In between, Koch ran unsuccessfully against his longtime bête noir Cuomo for governor in 1982, losing after alienating upstate voters by admitting he was less than thrilled about the prospect of living in Albany. (Years later, we see Koch being snubbed by Cuomo’s son Andrew, who Koch had supported in the younger Cuomo’s successful bid for governor.)
There were significant minorities in the city who didn’t share the enthusiasm for Koch, either. He admits that one of his biggest mistakes — one that got him labeled as a racist for years — was his tone-deaf decision to close an expensive-to-run but symbolically important Harlem hospital.
Koch’s insensitive response to the shooting death of Yusef Hawkins during a racial melee in Bensonhurst was also widely criticized by African-American leaders, but one of his most important legacies was a housing rehabilitation project that reclaimed entire minority neighborhoods that had been written off by previous administrations.
This warts-and-all documentary doesn’t shy away from Koch’s controversially mixed record. Though he signed the nation’s first anti-gay-discrimination law, Koch was criticized for acting inadequately during the AIDS crisis of the early 1980s.
Some of Koch’s critics accused him of being a closeted gay man and a hypocrite. Asked about his sexuality by filmmaker Barsky, the never-married, now-elderly Koch once again responds — with a well-chosen profanity — that it’s nobody business.
What finally punctured Koch’s popularity — he lost his bid for a fourth term to Dinkins — was a massive corruption scandal that never touched him personally but involved many of his political allies.
Barsky, a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal, offers a balanced portrait of the man and an era that is far more nuanced and sophisticated than “The Central Park Five,” a recent documentary about an infamous incident — the rape of a jogger — that took place very near the end of Koch’s term in a racially divided city.
“Koch” ends with the former mayor showing off a typically flamboyant gesture that embodies his contradictions — choosing to be buried in a Christian cemetery in his beloved Manhattan, complete with an already erected tombstone proclaiming his Jewish identity.