topidea "Detropia" is a voyeuristic snapshot of Detroit as it is today but offers little insight into how things got so bad so fast. Its creators, like most of America, seem to accept Detroit's condition as the inevitable result of auto companies migrating out of the city. They entirely miss the point that citizens of Detroit have made poor decisions that CAUSED the auto companies, as well as most of the hard-working population and the good teachers, to abandon the town.What everyone misses is that Detroit's decline began at the height of the U.S. auto boom, when everyone was doing so well here that they thought they could afford to give everything to everyone and it would last forever. Some landmarks: -- The big 3 agree to strike demands that are obviously unsustainable including pensions, wages and even a guarantee that workers will get full salaries when they're laid off!-- The white majority, wishing to be "progressive", elects the first black mayoral candidate that comes along...never mind that he's not qualified, hates white people and is blatantly corrupt (Colman Young)-- The same white liberals move out of the city, taking their limousines with them-- Detroit enacts a City Income Tax, driving the remaining productive people and businesses out of town. This money is supposed to be for education but ends up in the pockets of school administration, union leaders and mayoral appointees-- The (now) black majority continues to re-elect Coleman Young for 20 years because he promises freebies for all-- Like a vulture sweeping in for the remains, Quame Kilpatrick gets elected mayor and sucks up every dime left in the Detroit treasuryThese are all DECISIONS made by Detroit voters (white and black) that have brought the city to its knees.The directors of Detropia similarly avoid suggesting any CURES for the city. They blame the suburbs for not supporting Detroit when, in fact, surrounding counties have voted many tax millages upon themselves to fund the Detroit Zoo, the Detroit Institute of Arts, etc. In fact, the city has been largely supported by its suburbs and the state and federal governments for many, many years.The appointment of a Financial Manager by the state was an absolute necessity (no one WANTED it). After 50 years of waste and corruption, someone had to become the adult in the room. One of Detropia's directors(dreamily) said on CSPAN this morning: "It does no good to look at the past, we must look forward." (GAG!) I offer this quote: "He who does not learn from the past is doomed to repeat it".

flinched An opera singer calmly walks thru a large room inside a beautiful piece of architecture, a deserted and dilapidated building being devoured by nature. His beautiful song bounces off walls littered with graffiti. Broken windows, piles of rubble, lost jobs, a city in decay, nowhere to go but up, welcome to Detropia.This movie briefly takes us around Detroit and into the hearts & minds of its sparse population. We see that the only thing surviving and thriving is the indomitable spirit of its citizens. Most documentaries take the approach of inundating us with information. Don't expect to talk to economic experts or politicians, we talk to the ordinary citizen. We watch them live with their difficult day to day existence as they watch the city decay around them, all the while trying to understand complex causes to a complex problem. Solutions seems so distant all they can hope for is a miracle.Detropia shows the viewer a microcosm of the human condition through conversations with ordinary folks amidst a sea of ruins. The lovely cinematography continuously compares and contrasts beauty with ugliness, despair with hope. We see small flowers growing among the rubble, a bird rests upon a heap of garbage, people smiling and clinging to what little joy they have as they struggle to make ends meet.This is a wonderful and calm film that will require the viewer to have patience and be in a sombre mood. Expect sadness tinged with brief glimpses of hope and the answer to the question of whether your cup is half full or empty. I'm left with the feeling that the spirit may be strong in Detroit's citizens, but the realities of the world are slowly crushing them. Let us hope the spirit conquers all.

JoeZilch I watched this flick because people kept telling me it was shot well and it really wasn't. I've seen better urban spelunking videos (or even photos) come out of media censor friendly China. This film looks like it was shot without a budget (like most documentaries, that's not meant to be a strike against it) but also without any permits. I'm not really one to complain about that unless it seems to show in your work.The somewhat bland videography aside the point of this documentary is to talk about and expose people to the problem in the "D". With no history. No context. No real explanations at all. People used to make cars there and now they don't so we get to listen to people whine about how bad things have gotten in the city.I'm not looking for a piece that might match my opinions but you can't take a movie talking about economic hardships in Detroit seriously without discussing pension liabilities, government mandates, unionism in general or any other myriad economic problems that lead businesses to flee to other states or countries and consumers to buy cheaper goods.We hear a lot about China. Nothing about Ohio where cars are still being made. Or any of the "Right to Work" states. I'm not advocating here for "right to work", I'm pointing out that the filmmakers don't even discuss the very economic issues that the "Rust Belt" has been grappling with for more than a generation. Art snobs can afford to move in so we'll show them taking photos and being all artsy, that will take the place of any real expose or discussion.There is a scene in this flick, seriously, where a union refuses to negotiate with a company that is threatening to move the last of their plants to Mexico. This isn't a bluff or standoff, this is a take-it-or-leave-it issue. The union "doesn't even vote on it" because they "have nothing to lose". Can we discuss THAT mentality for a second? How do they have nothing to lose? We're told the plant closed and nothing else of note. Did they all go on unemployment? Why was the plant closed? We see the union meeting with their "greed" talking point but what was the reason from the company? We don't even get the tried and true documentary trope of "nobody from company 'x' would talk to us".I watch a lot of documentaries as they help my wife sleep from boredom and they keep me up at night seething with rage. This was just another in a long line of "what a cool idea" that quickly turned into "86 minutes of movie, 4 hours of my life wasted because now I'm on IMDb complaining about it".

R H All I ask for out of a documentary is that it teaches me something and makes me feel. Although Detropia doesn't belong in the trash heap, it did not live up to these simple expectations I have put in place. Detroit definitely has an interesting story; in the 1930's it was one of the most populated states in the country, certainly the easiest place to find a good job. Slowly (with the passing of NAFTA in the late 90's- thanks Clinton) jobs left, followed by people. Detroit has seen the largest mass exodus in the country. The film informs us that almost 10,000 houses per month are torn down because they have been abandoned. The city is in ruins. I thought this would make for a good documentary.First of all, why is the city going through such problems. I think the directors blame the North American Free Trade Agreement, which is fine because it's probably true. However, they assume that the viewer knows all about NAFTA and exactly how it effected the Detroit auto industry. All they explain is that NAFTA happened and CEO's moved their jobs to Mexico, which caused factories to shut down. I would have appreciated a little more depth into NAFTA; maybe a 90 explanation of why NAFTA meant that companies could move down south, why it passed, who was for it, who was against it? Maybe an interview with a proponent and an opponent. Maybe try to get in touch with spokespeople from these companies. Instead we are left having to pause the movie and do our own research.As a drifter in his early 30's, I'm interested in cities like Detroit. I think places like this are where the revolution is gaining steam. The documentary spends a few minutes describing what is happening. Very briefly they say that there is a plan in the works to move people who live on the outskirts into the city, in order to create more density. Then, they would convert the outlying area to potentially urban gardens. This is a fascinating idea, revolutionary even, yet that's pretty much all we hear about it. We are shown clips of what appears to be a town hall meeting about the proposal, and then we hear three elementary school dropouts saying, "they be playing gardens? That's dumb yo. People be shooting each other over tomatoes." That's it. That's all we're told about the future of Detroit.Finally, I understand that a city that poor obviously has a pretty dismal education system (although that doesn't explain why the older people, who lived most of their lives during the boom, are also dumb as cow poop), but surely they could have found someone to interview who had the ability to put together intelligent sentences. The main characters are a video blogger (the closest of the bunch to an average IQ), a burned out owner of what appears to be a Blue's club, and a union leader/pimp. Are there no professors? Are there no community groups? Talk about lazy; it seems like the directors had a few friends in the area and interviewed them. Or maybe they just found the first few people they saw, and mic'd them up. Regardless, the documentary sucked. The only positive is that I'll now to more research on the city.