Image via Netflix
Netflix’s The Get Down finally dropped last weekend — which means you’ve probably already watched all six episodes. Baz Luhrmann’s kinetic musical show about the birth of hip-hop in the South Bronx in 1977 has been getting mad love, but what do you watch now that you've finished it? Here are a handful of essential movies that follow up on the show’s themes of disco, early hip-hop, and NYC.
Wild Style / Beat Street / Krush Groove
Year: 1983 /1984 /1985
Director: Charlie Ahearn / Stan Lathan / Michael Schultz
The Get Down is about recreating the birth of hip-hop. But why not follow it up with movies that were made at the time? The tryptic of Wild Style, Beat Street and Krush Groove are regarded as the movies that most perfectly capture the golden age of hip-hop. They were all made in the early 80s, a few years later that The Get Down’s first season, and they captures the likes of Grandmaster Flash, DJ Kool Herc, Run-DMC and LL Cool J at the peak of their powers. Don’t expect great acting or dialogue, but instead the perfect time capsules of an incredible era.
Romeo + Juliet
Year: 1996
Director: Baz Luhrmann
TV is often called a writer’s medium, but The Get Down is undeniably the work of Australian director Baz Luhrmann. His hyper-kinetic, ultra-loud music-heavy style is all over every frame of the show. Luhrmann’s over-blown work can sometimes be a bit much to take (honestly, we don’t think anyone has ever actually sat through the whole of Australia), but when it clicks, it’s magical. And it has never clicked better than his classic 90s version of Romeo + Juliet, which moved Shakespeare’s eternal love story to modern day California and made Leonardo DiCaprio a star.
The Great Gatsby
Year: 2013
Director: Baz Luhrmann
The other Baz Luhrmann film that The Get Down feels the most like is his adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic novel The Great Gatsby, which he re-teamed with Leo for nearly 20 years after Romeo + Juliet. It’s not a musical, but it does feature a soundtrack exec produced by Jay Z, which puts the hip-hop front and centre. It is also another story set at a pivotal point in New York’s history, this time being at the end of the roaring 1920s.
Saturday Night Fever
Year: 1977
Director: John Badham
A lot has been made about the hip-hop in The Get Down, but the old disco is pretty great as well. And if you want more disco, go to the quintessential disco movie, Saturday Night Fever. A more serious film that you might think, given its much parodied costumes and soundtrack, it is also proof that John Travolta was once really cool, and not just the guy with the scary eyebrows on The People Vs O.J. Simpson.
Boogie Nights
Year: 1997
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Boogie Nights has very different subject matter to The Get Down (the porn industry). But if you’re loving the late 70s vibes, fashions and sounds, Paul Thomas Anderson’s hilarious, sprawling porno drama is what you need. Mark Wahlberg has never been better than he was as very-well-endowed star Dirk Diggler, and the whole cast — which includes Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Don Cheadle and John C Reilly — are on fire.
Do The Right Thing
Year: 1989
Director: Spike Lee
What happened to NY after The Get Down? Apart from maybe Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee is New York’s greatest cinematic chronicler, and Do The Right Thing remains his masterpiece. Taking place a decade after The Get Down, and moving the action to Brooklyn, it perfectly sums up the next step in the city’s evolution.
