“By 1989, Wiseman’s place as a landmark documentarian was well-established. He’d made films about monasteries and meatpacking plants, fashion models and military maneuvers, schools for students with disabilities and horse racing tracks. So for his 25th film, Wiseman went to the park. Specifically, he went to Central Park, the 843-acre center of life in Manhattan. In the 1980s, Central Park was still considered to be a crime-ridden, dangerous place after dark; the film, in fact, was released just months after a woman jogger was raped in the park, a case that became famous for triggering the trial and (unjust) conviction of the Central Park Five. But Wiseman focused on the park during the daytime, capturing the buzz of life it represents. There are joggers and lovers, political rallies and marathons, skaters and drug dealers, homeless people and wealthy donors who try to figure out their role in preserving one of the city’s most vital public institutions. In this way, Central Park also foreshadows what Wiseman would do in 2017 with Ex Libris, where many of the same issues are revived in connection with the New York Public Library. Central Park is considered one of Wiseman’s most accessible films, and it’s also among the best examples of one of his favorite themes: the ways that public institutions are a microcosm for the life of a whole city — in this case, New York City — and, by proxy, a whole nation.” -Alissa Wilkinson, Vox
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“His film… is a fine medium for understanding New York itself, how it needs the park and how the park means different things to different people… It is a lab for bird-watchers, gardeners and dinosaur lovers… It is a public commons for ideas… and exiles… and artists… It is a huge repository for every imaginable sport: Wiseman peruses over remote-control boat racing, lawn bowling, tai chi, marathon races, cross-country skiing and acres full of tennis players.” –Robert Koehler, Los Angeles Times
“One of the most accessible and salutary films ever made by master documentarian Frederick Wiseman… Central Park celebrates not the Earth but the 840 acres of it in the middle of Manhattan where New Yorkers retreat and repair and lapse into modes of behavior one might actually classify as civilized.… Wiseman is one of the great filmmakers of our time.” –Tom Shales, The Washington Post
