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Southie is so last decade: the Town is where all the cool thugs live
By adamg on Sun, 07/18/2010 - 8:45am
"There are over 300 bank robberies in Boston every year. Most of these professionals live in a one-square mile neighborhood called Charlestown."
Contrast with Harvard, where all the annoying geeks go:
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Comments
Safer bet for your entertainment dollar
Bob Mitchum in George V. Higgins "Friends of Eddie Coyle"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070077/
you have no idea how correct you are
In my experience, when natives of Southie move, they move. When Townies move, they often take it with them. I have no idea why but it's really creepy; I have seen this a half dozen times. (Watch what happens when someone in a suburban bar says something derogatory about The Town in front of a Townie. If it's after 9 PM, back away towards the door.) Personally, I think it's pathological rather than cool.
300 professionals?
"There are over 300 bank robberies in Boston every year. Most of these professionals live in a one-square mile neighborhood called Charlestown."
... and 299 of them keep robbing the same stupid Sovereign Bank branch a half dozen times a week.
If we had professional bank robbers I'd expect much higher quality robberies.
It's a pretty dumb line
Which I hope doesn't reflect the quality of the movie.
Hope more of the S. End shows up in "The Town"
"Edge of Darkness" tied up big swaths of the neighborhood for several nights, but only yielded one 30-second scene very early in the movie, in front of Foodies. "The Town" was shooting around here much longer; hope the local scenery gets more screen time for our troubles; ditto "The Company Man".
Sick of Boston movies?
Personally I enjoy seeing our little neck of the woods on the big screen, but if I lived in Peoria, Clearwater, Tucson or somewhere (heaven forbid!) I'd really be sick of these 'r'-dropping tough guys and college geeks. Hope we haven't saturated the market.
I hope we do
Because I've had it up to my eyeballs with Boston Common being a free parking lot for Hollywood. Every single night, there are movie trailers taking up most of the spaces around the public garden. Heaven forbid that public property be available for public use, not corporate.
My friends in the business would disagree
They've kept roofs over their heads and food on their plates thanks to the films shot in Boston over the past few years.
Unfortunately, there has been a sharp downturn lately (thanks in part due to the uncertainty over the tax credit), and many of them are packing up and leaving for LA.
Your friends
Maybe your friends should consider doing the same. You know, moving to where the market for their services is. My tax dollars subsidize that roof and meal, and I'd rather it went toward something Boston had a natural advantage in, rather than to something we can only get if we funnel gobs of cash to make it happen, which defeats the purpose. Or, if we are going to support actors, support the theater, local media and arts rather than Big Film.
Your friends chose the nomadic lifestyle
Hollywood movies are mainly post-production these days. Anything that needs to be done "on scene" really means "in front of a green screen...with some scenery in the foreground". The modern "studio" and "lots" just don't mean much any more since you can shoot where ever you please and then fix it all in post. Since the companies feel absolutely no compulsion to setup a "studio" here, they're nomads looking for the cheapest locale to lavish them with subsidies. They're not "leaving for LA", they're going back where they came from until the next sweetheart deal opens up.
As soon as we stop the subsidies, they'll go film elsewhere. For ever "The Town", there's a "Knight and Day" that has nothing to do with Boston in particular. The subsidies should have been provided in a quid pro quo method: you get a tax break in years 1-3 in return for building a studio and remaining in state for 3-5 more years after the subsidy stops. Instead, it was just sugar for the ants to hang onto for a while. When it's gone...they'll move on.
If you think movies make Boston look bad, wait for reality TV
"Wicked Summer", the Masshole version of "Jersey Shore", should further cement negative stereotypes of locals in ways you won't be able to blame on Hollywood screenwriters or directors.
Boston's already had reality TV
Anyone here remember this?
Key difference
There, Boston was just scenery. The new show will do for Boston what "Jersey Shore" did for, well, the Jersey Shore.
These movies play well in
These movies play well in Peoria, too. There's a cool urban grit found in Boston thug movies that is popular right now, just as there was once a very popular dark moodiness found in L.A. for tough guy movies. The films are shot here because that's what people want to see. Producers can get tax breaks in dozens of locations, so when they pick Boston, it's because they want what Boston offers visually.
Your thoughts on Boston movies
Hello,
My name is Natalie Guillemette and I am a senior at Northeastern university studying communications and journalism. I am writing a short story for our school newspaper on Hollywood's recent fascination with Boston and the reputation of Bostonians on the big screen. Having read your above thoughts, I am very interested in gaining insight from your perspective and would appreciate you answering the questions mentioned below at your convenience. It should take no longer than a few minutes and would be such a great help. Please reply ASAP. Feel free to add any other pertinent information regarding this issue that you feel I would benefit from. If you would rather answer these questions by phone, please feel free to contact me at (603) 479 3915 anytime.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to your response!
Sincerely,
Natalie Guillemette
1. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon recently signed a contract with Warner Brothers to film a movie about Whitey Bulger in Boston. Are you concerned that this film will follow in the footsteps of its crime-filled counterparts like The Town, The Fighter, The Departed, and Gone, Baby, Gone?
2. How do you feel hollywood portrays Boston on the big screen? Do you feel it is a fair depiction or is it sensationalized?
3. Do you think the film The Town portrays Charlestown accurately? Why or why not? Similarly, what is your reaction to how Gone, Baby, Gone depicts Dorchester?
4. Why do you think there has been so many films based in Boston in the last 15 years?
5. Are you concerned that films like The Town, The Fighter, The Departed, and Gone, Baby, Gone undermine Boston’s many achievements by depicting the city to be violent, crime-ridden and the home to trashy, uneducated people?
Yay another movie
making us Bostonians look like sh*tbags.
If you're from Charlestown,
If you're from Charlestown, the shoe probably fits.
-CP
Not another toughguy story out of southie or C-Town...
I agree with the comment regarding pathological behavior among a lot of C-Town natives. I grew up white ethnic working class so I'm not being a bigot or anything. A lot of them do have serious issues, especially those connected to the Bunker Hill projects, same as the various projects over in southie. Paranoia is 2nd nature to them and it's got nothing to do with cocaine.
And it bothers me a little that movies and TV shows, fiction writers, etc., always play up South Boston and Charlestown (especially southie) as if there was nothing else to Boston. You'd get the impression all white people from the city are from South Boston, especially God help you if you're 'Irish'. I'm part Irish (I prefer to call myself American, which is where I'm from and live) was born in NYC but grew up in Boston, and only once have I been to a St. Patrick's Day parade in South Boston, but man a few neighborhoods in this city get way too much publicity, and I think it goes to the locals/natives head or something.
Violence sells.
Just like "Goodfellas", "The Sopranos", etc, I guess.
Wrong.
It's the other way around, my friend.
CTown is so last decade.
Southie is up and coming.
I know, I sold real estate in CTown at the height of the hubbub there. It was the mid-90s. Everything was being done over, huge singles turned into 3-family condos and apts.
Everyone is going to Southie now.