Men at Lunch (2013)

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.

In Men at Lunch, director Seán Ó Cualáin tells the story of "Lunch atop a Skyscraper," the iconic photograph taken during the construction of 30 Rockefeller Plaza.As shown in the film, people today still connected to the image, despite no one knowing who is in the photo and no one knowing who took the shot (it has been credited to Charles Clyde Ebbets since 2003). Many see their ancestors in it, though there is very little to corroborate this -- the men could be Irish, Scandinavian or anything else.Ultimately, the film is interesting but never really gets to the heart of the matter and because of that drags a bit at times. While seeing the archives at Corbis is quite interesting, a few more answers might have been nice.

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.