When I die, people are going to be able to say two things about me: "Wow, that good-looking kid never left Medford" and "that really awesome and attractive townie sure knew a thing or two about movies." Until now, I had only appeased the first quote in my Daily Townie column and had yet to venture into the wonderful realm of movies. I'm a columnist, not a movie critic.
However, the movie "The Departed" has given me a reason to talk about movies as long as they have one central theme ... being in Boston. If it happened in Boston, I'd say that's well within my jurisdiction and because of that, I'm going to list the top five movies filmed with Boston as a prominent theme.
5. "Fever Pitch" (2005) - Just kidding. With the exception of some live Red Sox World Series footage (we won, by the way...yes.) this movie misses the boat completely on any legitimate representation of Boston. I put it as number five on my list specifically so you can be warned not to go see this. Putting Jimmy Fallon in the lead role as a life-long Bostonian and Sox fanatic is about as realistic as having me play Michael Jordan in a basketball movie.
It failed on all levels, and to make matters worse, it turned into a sappy chick flick. Don't see it. If you think it's worth it just for the live Sox championship footage, call me ... I have over 15 versions of the Red Sox championship DVD.
4. "Boondock Saints" (1999) - You know this is a great list if I have this excellent movie not even placing in the medals. This movie shows how two brothers are told by God to rid the city of Boston from all dangerous and rotten criminals ... with semi-automatic weapons. If a movie has the phrase "vigilante justice" in the plot outline, I want to watch it.
The fight scenes are unbelievably cool, the characters are believable, gritty Bostonians, and Willem Dafoe plays a flamboyantly gay detective who can crack any case. If those aren't ingredients for success, I don't know what are.
3. "Mystic River" (2003) - First of all, the Mystic River runs through Medford, so that alone makes this movie great. If people actually knew how gross the Mystic was, this would be an entirely different movie that would probably feature mutant townies running amok after drinking from the toxic waters down by the Mystic Valley Parkway.
However, the real "Mystic River" is a poignant look at how the death of one girl can send an entire neighborhood into a tailspin, and the performances of Kevin Bacon, Sean Penn and Tim Robbins make this movie worth the price of admission.
2. "The Departed" (2006) - This may be a little premature, but I'm ready to put this second on my list because it may go down as the best police/mafia drama that I've ever seen. There's so much gunfire they almost had to put a disclaimer at the end saying, "No townies were harmed during the filming of this movie."
Also, the cast is absolutely outstanding and even features two of Boston's own in Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg. Damon really nails his role as a police detective whose real allegiance lies with a mafia boss (Jack Nicholson), making the audience want to wonder aloud "What the hell happened to Ben Affleck?"
It was nice to see Marky Mark in this Boston movie as well, playing the character of a hot-headed police sergeant who trusts and likes absolutely nobody. He seemed to have a chip on his shoulder throughout the movie, probably wanting to scream out, "I'm way more Boston than Matt Damon ... that nerd went to friggin' Harvard", but then again, he probably shouldn't make insults because his big breaks were an advertisement for tighty whiteys and a band called "Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch."
1. "Good Will Hunting" (1997) - Best movie ever. Matt Damon will forever be Will Hunting in my mind, and he will subsequently forever be the man.
Whether it be the ridiculously awesome Boston accents, or the sarcastic Bostonian sense of humor, or shots of the Charles River or the Orange Line, this movie oozes Boston like an untended cut oozes puss. (Gross I know, but puss seemed the best description for townies like me.)
This movie tries to tackle the mind of a math prodigy that's stuck in the body of a hardened tough guy out of South Boston, and it's done obscenely well. Movies don't get any better than the scene where Damon holds a girl's phone number in front of a smarmy Harvard student and says "I got her numbah, how do you like dem apples?"...especially since a majority of Harvard guys are, how do I say, the worst.
The bottom line about all these movies is that they embrace what makes Boston so great: loyalty, wit, hard work, and townies.
Without these, Boston would just be another city, and then who would want to film that?
Pete McKeown is a senior majoring in English. He can be reached at peter.mckeown@tufts.edu.
