It's generally considered that there are two periods in New York film industry, the pre-Giuliani and the Post-Giuliani one. The pre-Giuliani, spanning from the mid-60's to late 80's, was characterized by an grim and gritty style mostly composed of anti-heroes, a lot of them detective, using violence to get their way. Most of the memorable (if not all) films are set exclusively in New York City. Since a lot of those movies didn't have any major backing a certain crudeness can be perceived from those movies which sold relatively well outside of New York. With time a style of intellectualism started to develop.