Men at Lunch (2013)

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

11/20/17. There is, perhaps, no other photo of men at work, sitting and eating lunch on an iron girder, hanging mid-air, high up in front of the New York City skyline, that captures how immigrants to the U.S. built the America we know today. Interesting look at researching who these men were and the photographers who took the photos, mostly for newspapers, makes for an interesting watch.

An old man recognized his father on the photograph (from a very dubious resemblance). And the film makers haven't even bother to do at least a stupid google-research about the picture. Because when they did bother, they must've find out, that the man, who's the subject of half of the film is not some Irishman's father, but a Slovak worker named Gustav Popovic, who even sent that photo to his wife with a message - and has it also on his gravestone - AND HE IS OFFICIALLY ONE OF THE FEW POSITIVELY IDENTIFIED WORKERS ON THAT PICTURE! And that's not a secret information, but an official one - you can find it even on such sites as wikipedia. But that wasn't even mentioned, not a word about that, that it's maybe someone else on the picture - and that could've been interesting, confronting the man with that information, maybe traveling to Slovakia, meeting the relatives and find out who's wrong and who's right. And so we must watch how an old man traces his imaginary father and makes up stories. Such a shame!!! I felt pity (for the old guy) and angry for the film makers. Such an amateurism... In one sentence - the movie is too long too fair-taly too boring.

It's well worth taking the time to recognize the salt of the earth that was within the men in this photograph, and the many others who were not photographed.What a crucible this time period and this profession was! It was sink or swim or spend all day walking on a four-inch wide steel girder. Their courage and perseverance represented more than just American culture, but the modern era itself.This documentary film doesn't allow the viewer to miss the "every man" aspect of not just the men who did the construction work, but the photographers who put themselves in harms way in order to give record to those feats of construction.How many of those men on the girder were hired off the back of a truck that same week? None of them including the photographer who took the photo were ever kept in any company record.

This is a documentary about an iconic photograph picture taken on Sept 20, 1963 of 11 ironworkers sitting on a beam high above at 30 Rock having lunch.The movie examines the aesthetics which was interesting but gets repetitive. Then we find the negatives in Pennsylvania's Iron Mountain underground vaults which proves it's authenticity but also cool to see the collection.Finally we get to the heart of the documentary. We go find the identities of the workers on the beam and the photographer. In that, it was rather disappointing. Other than 2 workers, we aren't given much and there isn't a definitive ID on the photographer either. But it drags on and on after that. It's a interesting look at an iconic image. But the film doesn't have the material to fill 75 minutes. It's probably good for 40 minutes.