In an America generations removed from the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, the young mayor (Oscar Isaac) of a mid-sized city is faced with a federal court order to build a small number of low-income housing units in the white neighborhoods of his town. His attempt to do so tears the entire city apart, paralyzes the municipal government and, ultimately, destroys the mayor and his political future.

Source

Show Me a Hero is an American miniseries based on the 1999 nonfiction book of the same name by former New York Times writer, Lisa Belkin.The book details a white middle-class neighborhood’s resistance to a federally-mandated public housing development in Yonkers, New York, and how these tensions affected the city as a whole. The miniseries was written by David Simon and journalist William F. Zorzi – who Simon worked with at the Baltimore Sun and on The Wire. It was directed by Paul Haggis. Six episodes were ordered by HBO and will premiere on August 16, 2015.

Cast

Oscar Isaac as Nick Wasicsko, former police officer then Yonkers City Council member running for election to be mayor of Yonkers, eventually the youngest big-city mayor (1987–89) in the nation

Carla Quevedo as Nay Noe Wasicsko, City Hall staffer, Mayor Wasicsko’s wife

Jim Belushi as Angelo R. Martinelli, a six-term Mayor of Yonkers who is Wasicsko’s opponent in the election to be mayor of Yonkers

Alfred Molina as Henry J. Spallone, Yonkers City Council member who was passionately anti-housing

Winona Ryder as Vinni Restiano, Yonkers City Council president who advocated for integration

Jim Bracchitta as Nicholas Long, Yonkers City Council member who was outspoken in his criticism of the federal ruling

Terry Kinney as Peter Smith, the Yonkers Housing Authority director

Jon Bernthal as Michael H. Sussman, civil rights attorney and former federal prosecutor; represents the local NAACP chapter

Michael Stahl-David as James Surdoval, Wasicsko’s political consultant

Clarke Peters as Robert Mayhawk, neighborhood consultant

Catherine Keener as Mary Dorman, an East Yonkers homeowner

LaTanya Richardson-Jackson as Norma O’Neal, a home health aid who lives in the projects, and is struggling with losing her sight

Development

Simon said that Gail Mutrux, a producer Simon knew from working with her on Homicide, had sent him a copy of Belkin’s book. In 2001, Simon sent Zorzi, who at that time was assistant city editor at The Baltimore Sun, a copy of the book, which he was taking to HBO as a potential project. In 2002, Zorzi quit his job at The Sun and began working on what became a long-term project.

The story was in development for over a decade, with co-writer Zorzi working on the passion project during that time, even as he and Simon were working on The Wire. HBO had an option on the book, but it spent years in script re-writes with Zorzi as Simon and Zorzi were both busy working on other projects.

Simon says that Mayor Nick Wasicsko’s story is what drives the story. The concern was if the character’s arc wasn’t written and portrayed correctly, the story would fail. Simon said Isaac was key. Simon said Yonkers was one of the first locations of the birth and growth of scattered site housing and the integration of architect and city planner Oscar Newman’s work on defensible space theory and his 1972 work “Creating Defensible Space,” and that this story went on to impact methods of public housing programs on a national scale. Yonkers was the very public staging ground.

Director Paul Haggis said that when he heard about Simon’s project, he told his agents to say yes even without reading the script, and once he read the script asked to direct not one or two episodes, but the entire miniseries-worth of episodes. This is the first time that Haggis, who typically both writes and directs his pieces, only directed. He said he did this because it was so important to him to work with Simon.

Background

The story is set in the 1980s and 1990s, specifically from 1987 to 1994, in Yonkers, New York, a city north of New York City in Westchester County, and focuses on efforts to desegregate public housing.

Key Players

In addition to the Yonkers City Council members and other local politicians, two groups were on opposing sides of the issue: Save Yonkers Federation, led by Jack O’Toole, who were anti-desegregation and voted to defy the federal order, and the Citizens and Neighbors Organized to Protect Yonkers (“Canopy”), who supported the court order. Wasicsko’s wife, Nay Wasicsko-McLaughlin, who worked at City Hall during the time of the conflict, was a consultant on the show. Wasicsko-McLaughlin met with Isaac, which Isaac said was vital to the story.

Locations

The miniseries began shooting on October 1, 2014, and wrapped shooting on location January 25, 2015. Show Me a Hero made use of primary location in Yonkers, New York, including the William A. Schlobohm Houses public housing projects, which was the subject of a July 2012 FBI investigation of drugs and firearm trafficking by a gang called the Strip Boyz. The Schlobohm Houses were one of the examples of a 1980 case brought by a local NAACP chapter who sued the city of Yonkers with claims of segregation by the city, where the poorest residents were forced into living in the western part of town. The claim was that out of a city of almost 200,000 people with an area of approximately 21 square miles, that almost all non-white residents lived in 7,000 units of low income housing within the space of 1 square mile, in public housing that was located on the west side of Saw Mill River Parkway. The high concentration was the result of years of concentrated 40+ year old racial covenants prohibiting non-whites from living east of the Parkway.

Federal judge Leonard Sand ruled against Yonkers and issued a desegregation order, mandating that public housing for 200 units – possibly scattered-site public housing (“SSPH”), which became the example of new public housing – be built in the affluent, mostly white, east side of Yonkers. The case and resulting politics resulted in national focus on issues of race, class, and housing. Mayor Wasicsko ran on the platform opposing the judge’s order, but before taking office, in the face of a the issue being supported by a federal appeals court, became an advocate for desegregation in Yonkers. Wasicsko faced a hostile city council and entrenched public housing leaders opposed to the desegregation. The city of Yonkers was crippled by heavy, possibly bankrupting fines – estimated to be close to $1 million a day from a compounded charge that started at $100 a day – for not following the orders, money Yonkers could not afford. Basic services stopped and parks and libraries were shuttered, with government workers potentially facing mandatory lay-offs. There were protests and Wasicsko and others were threatened with death threats, including sending him and others single bullets in the mail. Wasicsko was forced to comply. The suit was finally settled in May 2007.

Another Yonkers location was The Grinton I. Will branch of the Yonkers Public Library, where scenes of town gatherings were shot.The Cottage Place Gardens was used to substitute for the garden-style Mulford Gardens public housing project, as it has since been torn down. The show also shot at the Yonkers City Hall, in the Yonkers City Council Chambers where actual events took place.Additionally, Haggis said that Mary Dorman’s house was the actual location.

Working with the show’s art department, graffiti artist Chris Capuozzo, with assistance of his photographer wife Denise Ranallo Capuozzo, who documented the graffiti in Yonkers during the time of the show, created temporary reproductions of period graffiti at the Schlobohm Houses and on Palisade Avenue.

Music

The show makes an extensive use of Bruce Springsteen music, with Springsteen’s music often appearing during the scenes where Wasicsko is featured. The scenes in the housing projects incorporate period hip hop and rap.

Creator Simon said the appeal of the story was a focus on the disintegration of American politics and its corrosive dysfunctional nature in urban cities.And although there are parallels to current events in Texas regarding housing discrimination, Simon wrote that the series “…addresses class and racial segregation in our society, is more about our calcified political processes than directly relevant to the core grievances underlying current events.”Simon said that the show will show a city that is paralyzed by both fear (of integration) and money (valuations of real estate properties). He saw the story as allegorical of a refusal to share and the collapse of civilized behavior (with rage and fury quickly fracturing a city) due to the hyper-segregation of the poor in large WWII era high rise housing projects — ironically not the proposed scattered-site town houses that were actually being mandated.

Regarding the impetus for the choice of the shows he makes: in an interview on Slate, Simon referred to the concept of reportorial instinct, which comes from the efforts by journalists to create new discussion points that are centered upon issues of societal friction; with Show Me a Hero, Simon’s methodical instinct is to focus on these. The idea is not part of a larger whole, a bigger picture, with each of his shows taking up real estate within that vision; it is both disparate and less organized than a global overview. He is not trying to duplicate The Wire, he’s trying to tell a new story here.

The name of both the show and the book that it is based upon comes from a F. Scott Fitzgerald quote: “Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy.”

In the United States, HBO is releasing the miniseries in 2-hour blocks on consecutive Sunday nights.

Reception

Reviews of the miniseries have been very positive. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 96% approval rating with an average rating of 7.8/10 based on 24 reviews. The website’s consensus reads, “Show Me a Hero is an impressively crafted period drama whose timely themes prove as absorbing as its engaging, compassionately drawn characters.” On Metacritic, it has a score of 83 out of 100 based on 23 reviews, indicating “universal acclaim”. Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter cited the strong storytelling as making the unsexy story rewarding, with a commendably even focus on both racism as well as the problems of systemic bias of public housing systems. Ginia Bellafante of The New York Times focused on the relevance to current day issues of race and economics. Alan Sepinwall from HitFix cited Isaac’s performance as being especially strong, describing him as compulsively watchable even during long scenes with a lot of dialog, while Daniel Fienberg of The Fien Print said Isaac is the key to the story and is compelling, inhabiting his character fully. Sepinwall also said the writers did an excellent job of illustrating the conflict, which in its essence is not compelling, but in this depiction, becomes great. Fienberg cites the somewhat dry nature of the source material, and laughingly embraced the what he called “perversely uncommercial” nature of the show.Brian Lowry from Variety also commended Isaac’s central role.

Jacqueline Cutler of the New York Daily News cited the portrayals of the four women who are the focal points of the story, noting the strength of LaTanya Richardson Jackson’s performance. Matt Zoller Seitz from Vulture opined that the supporting characters are the heart of the story, and establish the resonance that careful viewers of Simon’s show will find rewarding. NPR’s David Bianculli calls the show nuanced, requiring focus and attention, but worth the effort. Andy Greenwald from Grantland notes Simon has created a show that is both brilliant and vibrant despite being absurdly uncommercial. In comparison to the last two Simon produced shows, that had more of a downbeat feel, Greenwald sees this show being a return to form, as being both powerfully compelling as well as great entertainment. Greenwald also commends Haggis for his excellent direction throughout.

The New York Times featured a discussion between Simon and Senator Cory Booker, drawing parallels between Booker’s family’s experience growing up in New Jersey where his family was the only black family – and had to take difficult measures to buy their house – and the situation in Yonkers, as well as comparable historical and current scenarios today. In 1969, in order to successfully move into town, Booker’s family went to Harrington Park, New Jersey’s Fair Housing Council aided by the guise of a Caucasian couple in order to break the social covenants of the town housing market.

Source: Wikipedia