Union Square (2003) User Reviews

excellent documentary

[vocal_warchild · 8/10 · 23 April 2006]

i really enjoyed this doco, well enjoy is not the right term by any means but i cant for now find a better word to describe how i feel towards this film.

the film itself is really pretty poorly shot and the audio is really bad at times, but i was not watching this to have a cinematic experience, i was watching it to try and get an insight into the world of the people involved and on that level it really delivers. it focus's on 6 or 7 different heroin addicts, all homeless and living in union square, hence the name of the film. it trys to give an insight into what makes these people users and trys to highlight the severity of the problems that stem from being a heroin addict. clearly homelessness being the primary problem but also other problems come to light throughout the telling of their stories.

i was a little shocked by the injection scenes, i have always been uncomfortable watching people shoot up, be it on screen or in real life but i guess these scenes were being used to emphasize the complete awfulness of injecting and hope that non users who see this will be steered away from trying it due to the disgusting images portrayed in this film.

anyway i feel this could really become a great educational tool for the social welfare sector worldwide and hope that it gets picked up on by social workers worldwide for this purpose. i am a youth worker and shall be using it to highlight the obvious but often overlooked effects of heroin.

also please not that although IMDb has this listed as being rated R here in Australia it is actually rated M15+ so can be viewed by a larger target group.

Union Square.

[moviesaccordingtodes · 4/10 · 21 October 2010]

I was drawn to this film on a personal level. I am no drug addict but I do work with this particular population. I work in AIDS prevention as a Harm Reduction Educator. I had a few problems with this documentary because I work with heroin addicts on a daily basis.

Documentaries normally capture the audience and allow them to experience the lives of other populations they are otherwise unaware of. This allows the audience to sympathize and have empathy for those in the documentary. That was not the case with Union Square. Union Square not only lacks the ability of engaging the audience in sympathetic emotion but it actually does the complete opposite. Watching Union Square, I was angered and put off by these seven individuals, some more so than others. Shockingly, the documentary leaves you with a strong dislike for these homeless and struggling addicts. Though we see them begging for money, sleeping wherever they find some space, and shooting up, many of them state that they have alienated and stolen from their friends and families. A few were parents but had not seen their children in years. One man shared an encounter of his with police. He said he was drunk in a star bucks. Because of this employees would not allow him to use the restroom. Out of anger and frustration he kicked a glass door and it shattered. Of course, police arrested him. The smug, 'I hate everyone and don't care about the world or anyone in it' attitude of the individuals does not exactly make them likable or charming.

One man stated that he makes about 80 dollars a day. This is more than a full time minimum wage employee makes daily.

Union Square was a great idea. Homeless drug addicts are a tragedy in this country. They do need help and this situation needs to be made aware of. What I don't like is that this documentary shows us stereotypical drug addicts. The documentary was intense and chaotic. The music of the film intensifies the already intense mood. The music was as chaotic, loud, and disturbing as was the documentary itself.

Artless documentary

[jjrous · 5/10 · 1 November 2010]

Union Square is an interesting, but artless, documentary; with the subject matter and a colorful cast of main characters it could have been much better.

Viewers who aren't familiar with Union Square in New York City will learn nothing of the neighborhood. Where does Union Square sit in relation to other Manhattan landmarks? What are the immediately surrounding blocks like? Who hangs out in Union Square other than the heroin users? What are relations like between the police and the users? What about neighborhood merchants and the users? Also, the repeated use of five or six talking heads should have been broken up with, perhaps, newsreel footage about the history of drug use in that neighborhood, movie or literary treatments of the subject matter, etc.

very good

[imdbyes · 27 November 2006]

I really enjoyed this documentary, I liked that it was straight to the point, matter of fact, not a lot of fat in it. I got involved in everyones story. I felt bad for the guy who wanted to go to detox but then he ended up on the streets again (the one who the director said that the last time he saw him he had lost like 30 pounds. It was interesting to see how articulate some of them are, but they just got stuck in a rut. Each one was different. Other suffered from low self esteem (like the guy who had lost 30 pounds when he was last seen. And looking at them in the cold, wow, it just looked so cold, I don't know how they survive out there in that cold. This was a solid, good documentary.