Free Republic

Ask many Americans what first comes to mind when you mention the name of Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani and most are likely to recount the heroic image of Giuliani, covered in white ash from debris, bravely walking through rubble-filled streets of lower Manhattan moments after the towers collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001. At least that's the image most white Americans are likely to have. The man even received honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for his role in the wake of the attacks. But many blacks, particularly those who witnessed Giuliani firsthand during his two terms as mayor of...

Kevin Keating's film, the latest in a seemingly never-ending series of politically themed documentaries presumably designed to have an impact on the upcoming elections, deals with former New York mayor and possible 2008 presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani. But while "Giuliani Time" offers a wealth of important information that many might have long forgotten, its impact is diluted by its heavily biased nature and lack of balance. The film, actually in the works for nearly a decade, offers a comprehensive overview of its subject's career, from his early days as a prosecutor to his stint in the Justice Department to his...

A new documentary, Giuliani Time, premiers in New York today. Fair and balanced it’s not. Publicity materials trumpet that the film is “certain to bust open the myth of Giuliani” as America’s Mayor that developed after 9/11 and reveal his inner “totalitarian” impulses. (The think tank where I work, the Manhattan Institute, plays a starring, albeit nefarious, role as the shadowy right-wing organization where Giuliani got many of his extremist ideas.) The film’s main indictment charges Giuliani with ushering in policing tactics that led to widespread brutality against minorities. “It’s not Dinkins Time anymore; it’s Giuliani Time” is the taunt...

Among other things, the film suggests Giuliani was obsessed with ridding the city of pesky "squeegee men" who ambushed drivers by washing their windshields and demanding payment, but cared little about reducing poverty or creating jobs. He is also painted as a moral hypocrite, one who threatened to pull public funding from a controversial art exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum but had no qualms about parading a mistress before the public and the press. And some analysts say the film's criticisms of Giuliani might actually help him among Republicans, many of whom are skeptical of his moderate views on abortion,...

Rudy Giuliani better hope that a new documentary on his mayoralty, "Giuliani Time," never makes it to cineplexes in Iowa, New Hampshire and other presidential battlegrounds. The two-hour film, which debuts May 12, casts Giuliani not as the hero of 9/11 - the role that won him acclaim as America's Mayor - but rather as the iron-fisted ruler of a city where children went hungry, the poor were forgotten and many city cops were racists.

Rudy Giuliani better hope that a new documentary on his mayoralty, "Giuliani Time," never makes it to cineplexes in Iowa, New Hampshire and other presidential battlegrounds. The two-hour film, which debuts May 12, casts Giuliani not as the hero of 9/11 - the role that won him acclaim as America's Mayor - but rather as the iron-fisted ruler of a city where children went hungry, the poor were forgotten and many city cops were racists. In short, "Giuliani Time" seeks to do for Giuliani what Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" did for President Bush - namely, shine an unsparing light on...