Does nobody understand this film?
The user submitted synopsis and reviews suggest people simply don't understand the frame of context this film was made in and what it was trying to propose.
I'm going to clear it up for you if you really didn't get it, but not too in depth, I'm certainly no expert.
The film makes several very hard criticisms of the modern city of the day. Cities were crowded, dirty, dangerous, and depressing. The film is a propaganda piece promoting a new type of community that was in development. Originally many of these new towns were to be made but the great depression took its toll and I think only about 5 were developed.
Major misconceptions I've noticed:
-They wanted a return to the idyllic past.
The film uses the past as an example of when humans lived in a more balanced state. The effort was not to return to a pre-industrial society, but to illustrate what has been given up for the modern city. Then they proposed trying to be more "green" (anyone who watches this now will probably wonder how long ago the green movement started considering how many times this term is used in the film). Not to eliminate the technology, nor even stifle it, just to not make people live in slag piles.
-They wanted people to live in suburbs.
The cities were neither urban nor suburban. The concept was to put some distance between the habitations and the dirty-noisy-busy factories. The design involved green belts. The highways weren't meant to be used to go to work, but to be able to get around, to go visit other people, shipping, etc. Basically to try to get the commuters off the roads, try to promote people living closer to work, but not in an urban style. This was to be subsidized with public transit, buses trains, etc. that would go to their work so there wouldn't be so much vehicle traffic.
As I mentioned before it had several large criticisms with modern cities that the new city was to resolve.
1.Crowding. The neighborhoods would have zoning restrictions, housing limits, and green belts to keep populations from becoming too crowded.
2. Dirty. The industrial mills would be kept away from the other buildings. Kids would be able to play in creeks instead of street drains. Clean lakes instead of disgusting bodies of water near industrial waste dumping.
3. Dangerous. Notice bike paths and walking paths separated from streets for cars. Walkways over highways. And making things within walking distance to reduce the need for driving, while reducing the grid of streets surrounding housing. The notion of a "green city" suggested the polluting that industrial factories did would be reduced in other ways so as not to poison waters, people, etc.
4. Depressing. People love nature, this was the main idea in building these cities. Attempting to give people more free time, enabling them to have access to libraries, entertainment, nature, etc.
The film doesn't address a lot of things, and who knows what solutions they had for many of them. They don't address the homeless, the extremely poor, whether the wealthy would be in their own neighborhood. Where do the single people live? The whole film was focused on families, where are the prostitutes?
Of course these were real places and they still exist, they aren't exactly pipe dreams, and perhaps they were only ever meant to solve a few problems for some, not all problems for everyone.
Something I realized while watching the film is that many of the issues they brought up in the film have been resolved in big cities since then. Cities at the time had undergone radical transformations and people didn't exactly have solutions for them yet.
Eventual solutions in cities:
1. Crowding. Suburban sprawl has done its part, as well as in city apartments for singles. While poor people are still often crowded together it isn't like in the past, and crowding today with modern designs is like night and day to what it was.
2. Dirty. Industrialization hasn't stopped, it's just moved to China. But even where it still exists here much reform has been made to make them cleaner. Obviously not entirely, and our waters are still taking a beating, but it's nothing like kids playing in slag heaps like in the film.
3. Dangerous. Bike paths, cross walks, sidewalks, overpasses, street lights, street signs, etc. have greatly changed things in cities in this regard.
4. Depressing. Technology has really enabled a lot of entertainment for anyone who wants it. Cities don't look like they used to. Public access to libraries specifically is ubiquitous. You might not understand when the film was made, FDR's programs hadn't changed America yet and there weren't public libraries in every neighborhood. Big cities have many more parks now, schools offer many different programs, sports, clubs, etc. It's incomparable how much more there is to do and enjoy in a city today from back then.
I hope this helps a little in clearing up this film.