The Yards (2000)

Director:

James Gray

Writers (WGA):

James Gray (written by) &
Matt Reeves (written by)

Release Date:

27 abril 2000 (Singapore)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Frase comercial:

There's nothing more dangerous than an innocent man.

Plot:

In the rail yards of Queens, contractors repair and rebuild the city's subway cars. These contracts are lucrative...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Contractor | Corruption | Ex Convict | Incest

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Terrifically Evocative Capturing of Urban Corruption

Cast

Mark Wahlberg	...	Leo Handler
Joaquin Phoenix	...	Willie Gutierrez
Charlize Theron	...	Erica Stoltz
James Caan	...	Frank Olchin
Ellen Burstyn	...	Val Handler
Faye Dunaway	...	Kitty Olchin
Steve Lawrence	...	Arthur Mydanick
Andy Davoli	...	Raymond Price (as Andrew Davoli)
Tony Musante	...	Seymour Korman
Victor Argo	...	Paul Lazarides
Tomas Milian	...	Manuel Sequiera
Robert Montano	...	Hector Gallardo
Victor Arnold	...	Albert Granada
Chad Aaron	...	Bernard Stoltz
Louis Guss	...	Nathan Grodner

También conocida como:

Otra cara del crimen, La (Spain) [es]
Traición, La (Argentina) [es]

MPAA:

Rated R for language, violence and a scene of sexuality.

Duración:

115 min

País:

USA

Idioma:

English | Español

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sonido:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Clasificación:

Singapore:NC-16 | USA:Unrated (2005 DVD Directors Cut) | Iceland:16 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Denmark:15 | France:U | Germany:12 | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | South Korea:15 | Spain:13 | UK:15 | USA:R | Finland:K-15

Filming Locations:

Bronx, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Industry Entertainment

Trivialidades:

The newscasters on the news that Leo watches are actual newscasters from the New York area.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The cars in the "subway yard" are not actually subway cars; they are circa-1963 suburban commuter coaches for the Metro-North & Long Island Railroads.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Beantown (2007)

Soundtrack:

Happy Shoppers

Terrifically Evocative Capturing of Urban Corruption

While director James Gray's "Little Odessa" focused on ethnic crime in Brooklyn (specifically Russians in Brighton Beach, for Tim Roth's best performance 'til that time), "The Yards" is Queens par excellence.

While the lack of NYC accents causes a bit of suspended belief, the strong acting and devastating screenplay by Gray and Matt Reeves more than compensate.

The depiction of NYC corruption is heads and tails above Sidney Lumet's "City Hall," here with demonstrations of how family and ethnicity get very intermingled in NYC politics. Nepotism is the ultimate explanation.

More, the screenplay is cinematically presented -- the points are made visually and through body language and situation, not banged over our heads with explication.

In my past, I worked both for the Queens Borough President (the one whose name is actually mentioned in the movie and no one west of the Hudson let alone younger will have the slightest idea what the reference means) and for the MTA, where we were constantly stunned by what went on in the bowels of the Transit Authority, while my husband has supervised City contractors for ethics violations, so I was amazed how mostly accurate the movie was--including a cameo by Councilman Peter Vallone as a councilman. (Just a small quibble that this movie would have been more accurate if it had been set in a time period before the Board of Estimate was declared unconstitutional and contracting procedures were changed.)

While Cherlize Theron is somewhat miscast and mis-dressed, Joaquin Phoenix blows the screen away. He steals every scene from Mark Wahlberg, who is supposed to be the moral center of the movie, and his last scenes alone are explosive.

The older male actors are as impeccably cast as "The Sopranos," though the ethnicity of the characters vs. the actors is a bit confusing. James Caan is more comfortable in this patriarchal role than he was in "The Way of the Gun;" he clearly felt at home in Astoria. Steve Lawrence (yeah, THAT Steve Lawrence) doesn't have Donald Manes's charisma as Borough President, though he actually does look a bit like him. Faye Dunaway is surprisingly spot-on; I've been to many of those Queens political dinners and saw wives dressed and acting like her. Ellen Burstyn, in the third bridge-and-tunnel-mom role I've seen her in this month, got to have her hair combed this time.

There is a surprising lack of pop songs on the soundtrack, as so many would have been appropriate, instead it's mostly Howard Shore's score. I kept thinking of Bruce Springsteen singing "Nothing feels better than blood on blood. . ."

There's wonderful views and uses of the Queens landscape throughout this movie. This fully realizes an outer borough. If Gray is on his way to do a pentateuch on crime in NYC, I'll go to the ones on each borough.

There was a guy in the audience who had been an extra or a one-liner or something in the movie, but who didn't provide additional insight as he mostly talked to his friend about his upcoming auditions than the making of this movie.

(originally written 10/29/2000)