The Town
Welcome to the bank robbery capital of America.
The Town (2010)
Production
Budget
$37 000 000
Revenue
$154 026 136
Director
Scenario
Chuck Hogan
Author
Composer
Producer
Actors
Ben Affleck
Doug MacRay
Jeremy Renner
James "Jem" Coughlin
Rebecca Hall
Claire Keesey
Jon Hamm
FBI S.A. Adam Frawley
Blake Lively
Krista Coughlin
Slaine
Albert "Gloansy" Magloan
Pete Postlethwaite
Fergus "Fergie" Colm
Owen Burke
Desmond "Dez" Elden
Short description
Doug MacRay leads a crew of bank robbers in Charlestown, a Boston neighborhood with a long history of producing armed thieves. The gang's robberies are carefully planned and they pride themselves on getting away clean, but a job goes wrong when Doug's friend Jem briefly takes a bank employee, Claire Keesey, hostage. She is released unharmed, yet the crew soon realizes she could identify them. Doug follows her to find out what she knows, and an unexpected relationship develops between them. Doug, who grew up in the shadow of his criminal father, begins to want out of the life, while his partner's volatility and an FBI agent's investigation push the crew toward greater risk.
Ben Affleck directed and stars, working from a screenplay he wrote with Aaron Stockard and Peter Craig. The film is adapted from Chuck Hogan's novel Prince of Thieves. It followed Affleck's directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, as the second of the films he has directed. Jeremy Renner plays Jem, with Rebecca Hall as Claire, Jon Hamm as FBI Special Agent Adam Frawley, Blake Lively as Krista Coughlin and Slaine as Albert "Gloansy" Magloan. Produced by Graham King and Basil Iwanyk, the film cost about 37 million dollars and took roughly 154 million dollars worldwide, a strong return.
With 446,000 votes on IMDb it holds a 7.5 rating, and on TMDB it sits at 7.2 from 5,836 votes. A critics' rating of 7.7 from 234 reviews places it slightly above the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- To get into character, Jeremy Renner communicated with convicted robbers from Charlestown. From them, he adopted, among other things, a specific accent.
- Affleck did not cast his wife, Jennifer Garner, in the role of Claire, as he did not want to repeat the bitter experience of the failed film "Gigli," in which he starred with Jennifer Lopez while simultaneously being in a close relationship with her. Graham King recommended that he pay attention to British actress Rebecca Hall. Affleck decided he would invite Hall to star if he liked her in person and if she "didn't argue every minute." The actress, who flew in from London to New York for one day, lived up to his expectations, and he cast her as Claire without formal auditions.
- Ben Affleck also filmed his directorial debut – the drama "Goodbye, Baby, Goodbye" – in Boston.
- A big fan of crime dramas, Affleck paid tribute to his favorite films in "The Town," with references appearing in the following episodes: The interior of the Cambridge bank branch, and in particular the vault door, is reminiscent of "The Friends of Eddie Coyle." According to Affleck, he wanted to achieve the same level of realism in his work that he admired in this 1973 drama. In the Cambridge bank robbery scene, the noise and chaos in the hall are abruptly cut off, and the security camera in complete silence shows the robbers knocking employees to the floor. Affleck borrowed this contrasting technique, which heightens the tension, from the 1955 film "The Killing," which he rewatched many times before starting to shoot his film. Affleck heard a lot of praise for the cult film "Heat" from the prisoners and FBI agents who consulted with him. Affleck commented that while he is upset that his work will be compared to this film, "Heat" is considered by robbers to be a masterpiece. References to "Heat" appear in several moments: MacRay watches the film on television after the Cambridge bank robbery; during the altercation with Dominican drug dealers, he and Jem put on the same goalie masks used by Neil McCauley's gang during the armored car robbery; in a conversation with his father, in response to Doug's desire to leave, MacRay Sr. skeptically throws: "Either there's heat on our backs or there isn't." McCauley says similar words, but in a slightly different context. Among other films that influenced him, Affleck also named "The Usual Suspects," "Inception," "Point Break," "Reservoir Dogs," "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," "Ocean's Eleven," "The Bank Job," and "Murder."
- Filming began in late August 2009 in Boston and lasted 13 weeks. Police officers who appeared as extras even used their vacation days to continue participating in the film's creation. The film crew sometimes worked 16-hour days, but the actors involved in the film unanimously agreed that it was very easy and pleasant to work with Affleck.
- The initial script envisioned a film lasting over four hours. Representatives from "Warner Bros." refused to release such a long film, arguing that it would be very difficult to hold the audience's attention for that length of time. Affleck cut the script to 2 hours and 50 minutes in three days, but the studio was still not satisfied. Ultimately, the length of the version that reached theaters was 2 hours and 5 minutes, however, a DVD was later released: Extended Cut—a version lasting two and a half hours, with more time devoted to dialogue and character development, and expanded robbery scenes.
- Initially, Graham King wanted to hire Adrian Lyne as the director, but due to numerous disagreements, he abandoned the idea and in 2008 invited Affleck, whose directorial debut in 'Gone Baby Gone' had greatly impressed him. Affleck, who had never before simultaneously served as an actor and director of a feature film, hesitated for several reasons. First and foremost, Affleck believed he risked being labeled a 'Boston guy,' as both 'Gone Baby Gone' and 'Good Will Hunting,' for which he wrote the screenplay, were set in that city. A further argument against it was the biased perception of films featuring Beantown (Boston's nickname) among Boston residents. Weighing the pros and cons, Affleck agreed, but stipulated that he would rewrite the script to his liking. He enlisted Aaron Stockard, a childhood friend from Cambridge with whom he later co-wrote 'Gone Baby Gone,' and got to work.
- Affleck did not cast his wife, Jennifer Garner, in the role of Claire, as he did not want to repeat the bitter experience of 'Gigli,' in which he starred with Jennifer Lopez while in a close relationship with her. Graham King recommended that he take a look at Rebecca Hall. Affleck decided he would invite Hall if he liked her in person and if she 'didn't argue every minute.'
- It was supplied to cinemas under the code name “Criminal Intent”.
- Affleck and Stockard gathered a wealth of information about Charlestown, visited several prisons where they consulted with incarcerated bank robbers, and also met with police officers and FBI agents. As a result, some of the consultants played minor roles, prompting Jeremy Renner to sarcastically remark, 'Almost everyone on set at one point had been a crook of some kind. And there were probably a couple of guys who were still robbing banks.'
- The former Massachusetts Bank building, located in the Melrose area, the Mohegan Sun casino in Montville, the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Walpole, and the Anderson Regional Transportation Center were used as filming locations.
- Significant disagreements during the film's production revolved around the possible ending. In the novel, the protagonist is fatally wounded in a shootout with Fergie and dies in Claire's apartment in her arms, but this option was unanimously rejected. The producers also disliked a potentially saccharine ending of "they lived happily ever after," so Affleck preferred a degree of ambiguity, leaving hope for the main characters. However, an alternative version with the subtitle Extended Alternate Cut was soon released, in which the protagonist dies at the hands of bandits at the end of the film.
- Slyne first met Affleck when he was looking for actors for "Goodbye Baby, Goodbye." Affleck saw an article about Slyne in the "Boston Herald" and invited the rapper to audition. Initially, Ben wanted to offer Slyne a minor role as the drug dealer Cheez, but after the audition, he convinced the producers to give the singer a more significant role as Bubby Rogowski.
- Charles Town native Owen Burke stumbled into acting almost by accident. Released from prison six months before filming began, where Burke served time for "various misdeeds committed as a juvenile," he was searching for work, a difficult task given his background. Hearing an announcement for auditions for Ben Affleck's film, Burke decided he had nothing to lose. He stood in a line that stretched for several blocks, then read a script consisting of just one line, and left, not expecting to get the part, as he was competing against young professional actors. To his surprise, Burke was cast as the youngest member of the gang, and his recent prison experience proved useful, requiring "little effort to play a criminal."
- On December 23, 2010, an armed man wearing a Halloween rubber mask robbed a bookstore belonging to Borders Group in Peabody, taking a significant amount of money. The robber's burned-out car was found the next morning in Salem, and the robber himself remained at large. The mask and method of disposing of the vehicle drew parallels to the film in the press.
- The full version of the film has a runtime of 150 minutes.
- On January 4, 2011, three men – Li Lubin (29 years old), Eddie Solomon (27 years old), and Kay Dofin (28 years old) – robbed a Bank of America branch in Delray Beach, Florida. The robbers, dressed in Halloween masks, stole $67,000 from the bank and attempted to escape in a Cadillac, but after a lengthy chase, police were able to arrest the criminals. In court, Lubin said the idea to rob the bank came to him after watching the film "The Town."
- The film is based on the novel “Prince of Thieves” (2004) by Chuck Hogan.
- All the police cars shown in the film belong to the fictional A-8 unit.
- Affleck had never watched 'Gossip Girl,' which made Blake Lively famous, but noticed her in 'The Private Lives of Pippa Lee.' He edited the script, where Krista was originally conceived as a 37-year-old woman, and sent it to Blake. Blake received the script while on the set of 'Gossip Girl.' The actress was born and raised in California, but her first audition was so convincing that Affleck asked in what part of Boston she had grown up. Before filming 'The Town,' Lively continued to work on 'Gossip Girl,' but flew to Boston on weekends to immerse herself in the role of Krista, spending time in bars and talking to women similar to her character.
- On May 29, 2011, two men robbed a TCF Bank branch in Palos Heights, Illinois. Like the characters in the film, the robbers were dressed in monastic robes and concealed their faces behind rubber masks. Stealing an undisclosed amount of money from the bank and authorities, the criminals fled in a tinted-window Chevrolet.
- During the shootout scenes, Jeremy Renner drew on extensive experience with firearms gained during filming 'S.W.A.T.' and 'The Hurt Locker.' Renner's skill was so apparent that Affleck asked him to be 'more careless.'
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