Street Fight is a 2005 film directed by Marshall Curry.
It is a documentary of the bruising 2002 Democratic primary for mayor of Newark, New Jersey. 33-year-old Cory Booker, a reformist city councilman, runs against Sharpe James, a veteran Newark politician and 16-year incumbent mayor. Booker cites problems like rising taxes and urban blight and poor high school graduation rates. James for his part calls Booker a carpetbagger (Booker grew up in the prosperous suburb of Harrington Park and only moved to Newark in 1997) and accuses Booker of being a conservative supported by Republicans.
The main theme, however, is the power of the local Democratic machine and how James deploys it against Booker in the campaign. Newark police show up and try to prevent Booker from going door-to-door in housing projects. James campaign vans with loudspeakers disrupt Booker events. Business owners who host Booker events get shut down for code violations. Other business owners are pressured to remove Booker campaign signs from their windows. James campaign mailers spread the false rumor that Booker is Jewish. Booker for his part has to deliberate how negative he's willing to go in response to James. Meanwhile, documentarian Marshall Curry becomes personally involved, as Newark cops and James campaign operators interfere with him whenever he tries to film the mayor.
Tropes:
- And the Adventure Continues: The film ends with a scene showing Booker gearing up again to run in 2006 (the last shot is a "Booker 2006" sticker), with James having not yet announced his intentions. As it happened, Booker won a Landslide Election in 2006 after James declined to run. Later he became a U.S. Senator. Sharpe James was convicted of fraud in 2008 and served 18 months in prison.
- AstroTurf: The Sharpe James "volunteers" wearing hats and red T-shirts that show up on Election Day are people from Philadelphia who were paid and bused in.
- Attack of the Political Ad: The Booker campaign runs a TV commercial accusing James of lining his own pockets by increasing his salary during his tenure as mayor. James's campaign sends out fliers accusing Booker of being a Republican, of getting money from the KKK, and of being Jewish.
- Blatant Lies: After the James "volunteers" tells the camera that they were paid to come in from Philadephia wearing James gear, Sharpe James is seen on TV with another volunteer in the same outfit, saying "This is a volunteer army against a paid army."
- The Cameo: Spike Lee is briefly seen recording a robocall for Cory Booker.
- Distant Finale: A "One Year Later" title card leads to the last scene of Booker giving another speech, before showing a "Booker 2006" sticker.
- Election Day Episode: The 2002 Newark primary, ending with Election Day and James defeating Booker, 53%-47%.
- Film the Hand: Happens repeatedly. Whenever Curry tries to film a James campaign event, either cops or James campaign workers interfere with him. Hands are placed over the camera on multiple occasions. This culminates with a cop grabbing the camera and shoving Curry, ripping off the microphone.
- Insubstantial Ingredients: A young girl is giddy with delight after Cory Booker shakes her hand while walking around a residential neighborhood. She says that if anyone doesn't believe her, they can smell her hands. When a nonplussed Marshall Curry (behind the camera) asks if Cory Booker has a smell, she says "He smells like the future."
- The Ken Burns Effect: Seen with pictures of both Cory Booker and Sharpe James as Curry talks about their lives and careers.
- Match Cut: The camera goes through some areas of Newark that don't conform to the stereotype of urban blight, showing green parks and a prosperous neighborhood. But then there's a Match Cut as the camera goes down a street in that prosperous neighborhood, showing the crumbling dilapidated buildings of the poor side of town, as Curry talks about the parts of Newark that haven't seen the new prosperity.
- Narrator: Marshall Curry narrates the story.
- Plunger Detonator: We see footage of Mayor James and others pushing down a ceremonial Plunger Detonator, followed by the explosive demolition of a decrepit old public housing building.
- Starbucks Skin Scale: Discussed Trope. The James campaign calls light-skinned Cory Booker "white", a powerful charge in heavily black Newark, and one that dovetails with Booker's background as a guy who grew up in a suburb in a wealthy household before going to Yale. The Booker people are offended, with one campaign worker going on an angry rant about people that seek to divide the black community.
- Stock Footage: Cory Booker's time playing college football as a tight end for Stanford is illustrated with a clip of Booker catching a pass and scoring a touchdown.
