charlestown bank robbers the town

We did not have legal clearance to use the logo. Its not wedding bells which break up the old gang in Ben Afflecks The Town, its witness protection. A Boston bank robber looks for a way out of his criminal lifestyle after beginning a passionate romance with the woman that his gang briefly took hostage. Its more general American but with a kind of East Coast, sort of slightly privileged vibe. But I certainly was familiar with his work. In 2010, estate agents were pitching waterfront redevelopments to young professionals and families. BOSTON - A Charlestown man was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for bank robbery. Most of the heists in The Town were inspired by real crimes from that era. Hamm: We could all go, hang out at the bar; me and Rebecca, and Renner, and Titus, that whole crowd. I love Adrian. Determined to get a better grip on the place, he brought in another local, his old school friend Stockard, and began an intensive period of research. Ben Affleck made a minor heist movie classic with The Town, a thriller which shines light on the legendary history of Boston's Charlestown. [Through a representative, Renner declined to be interviewed for this article.]. While they dont have a street name, FBI Special Agent Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm) calls them The-Not-Fucking-Around-Crew. They plan their jobs meticulously, bleaching crime scenes to eradicate DNA traces, and nuking the security tapes in the banks own microwave. Tyre marks matched those found in Houston, and five men were eventually convicted. So thats cool. Stockard: There is this over-the-top sense to these movies. Especially when youre in a park thats not open to the public. They dont fink. Carter: Hes 6-foot-3. The crew at the center of The Town resembles a gang of five masked robbers who pulled holdups from 1990 to 1995. The gang torches their escape cars and their transfer vehicles. For the film, Affleck talked to locals, visited the maximum-security prison MCICedar Junction, and consulted with the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force in Boston. Like you didnt know what they were gonna do. Rob Dobi Chuck Hogans novel Prince of Thieves opens with a toast: Raise a Glass. Or why Affleck hired him to play a Charlestown bank robber in his new movie The Town.. He had the beginnings of the accent, clearly he had the ability to do ita bad Boston accent would ruin that part. We all want to chortle,like Jem,there goes college soccaaar, while shooting a guy we dont like in the knee. In the 2000s, critically acclaimed, Irish Americancentered crime dramas like Clint Eastwoods Mystic River, Martin Scorseses The Departed, and Afflecks Gone Baby Gone had turned the Massachusetts capital into a Hollywood hot spot. Find out more, The latest offers and discount codes from popular brands on Telegraph Voucher Codes, That's how you drive a f----n caaar: the second bank robbery was based on the 1995 Harvard Square heist, The moment when a cop sees a carload of nun-masked robbers and turns away was based on real life, Affleck sent Blake Lively to hang out in Charlestown bars to prepare for her role, Ben Affleck directs Jon Hamm on the set of The Town, Close, review: a soul-scorching portrait of boyhood friendship and loss, Whats on TV tonight: Stephen Fry: Willem & Frieda Defying the Nazis, Anorexic and more, When are the Oscars? The Town is based on Chuck Hogan's 2004 novel Prince of Thieves (set, unlike the movie, in '96, when Charlestown-affiliated heists were actually at their height). The violent film starring Jeremy Renner, John Hamm and Ben Affleck centers on the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown. Afflecks Doug almost got out of his predetermined life. He robbed banks but let the civilians in the banks keep their money. Id been in good ones and bad ones, but I knew that it took time, that they were the result of the assembly of a lot of little pieces. The Friends of Eddie Coyle starred Robert Mitchum in the title role and Peter Boyle as a hitman who ran a bar. Stockard: The movie that we thought about was [Michael Manns] Heat. He also ran afoul of the law himself, recruiting real ex-cons as extras and giving them guns. But they said, We have this project that we think youd be right for. It was actually in the book. The Den of Geek quarterly magazine is packed with exclusive features, interviews, previews and deep dives into geek culture. And then he was out, so we were using him again for research. In Quentin Tarantinos Reservoir Dogs (1991), the crew had color-coded names; in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid they wore 10-gallon hats. And this was toward the end of the shoot. You werent sure exactly what he was gonna do, or how he was gonna behave, because it wasnt Matt Damon, whos always the hero and always wins out in the end. Hes probably still there. I watched a screening with a different ending and it hadnt been testing well. She is the interloping gentry and renovates Dougs headspace. Susan Matheson (costume designer): Ben at one point wears a zip-up track jacket that looks like a Bruins jacket. Affleck: There have been a lot more New York city movies than there have Boston, for sure. Oct 31, 2012. He has a certain thing in that town. I lived in South Boston, Roslindale. Job. Besides being the lovable and erudite wrinkle in the scheme, she is not a townie, someone who was raised in the neighborhood. Ben wasnt in Boston. But as I was signing books afterwards, I see this guy coming up. Witt: Its not like New York or Los Angeles where you have wider streets. Cooper: He got me about five [recorded] voices and one in particularthis one of somebody who had done timewas just so full of character and I just loved it, and so thats what I glommed onto. And so yes, they rob Fenway, but its not like hes running across the outfield getting tackled by Tom Brunansky with a bag of money in hand. When I got there, I went up on the walkway, on the first-base side, looking down. Pulling off the heistDoug and his team steal the $3.5 million in cash amassed during a four-game series against the Yankeeswithout it devolving into a cartoonish homage to the iconic setting took precise coordination. 2 hours ago. And a lot of older actors, [when theyre] told, Go here, do this, a lot of these guys are like, Fuck off. September 2009. It all felt sort of very impossible and glamorous. Heist movies are filled with criminals who want to pull one last big job and settle down. Hes like, What the fuck are you doing? Afflecks second film as a director charts the fall of a mythic heist gang and the streets which made them. Affleck: He played that so deftly, and made that scene work so well, when hes sort of smiling and laughing, but theres so much menace underneath it. Claire represents the real problem at the center of the proceedings. I had a darker ending in it, like a real 70s ending, where Doug dies. Hall: It was like being alongside Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in London. And I just came over to him and I was biting my tongue. Affleck: Typically people you saw who did it badly would err on the side of doing the Kennedys. He claims that Ben Affleck played him in the movie, but now this former bank robber i. Free shipping for many products! I liked the way it was released, man. The car chases get stuck in traffic, and the dialogue comes directly from testimony. Carter: There was a guy, Joe Lawler, who was helping us. I said, Is there any way in hell that you can imagine that someone would ever rob a bank if theyre from Charlestown dressed as a nun? And the FBI agent I was meeting with turned to me and said, You know what, thats not a bad idea at all. And thats where that idea started. FINDLAY, Ohio (WTVG) - Authorities arrested a man in Findlay Monday on bank robbery charges. But the sketchy details and the cast of characters sound like a story line from The Friends of Eddie Coyle, a classic movie about low-level wiseguys in the Boston underworld, or the sequel to The Town, the Ben Affleck movie based on a group of Charlestown bank robbers. Boston Police report arresting Thomas Hickey, 49, of Charlestown, for a Nov. 30 bank robbery on Austin Street in which he allegedly pushed an elderly man who was in line before him out of the way at a teller window.. Police report arresting And so I think at first we were sort of like, Oh, how can we not be Heat? And at some point we said, Look, embrace Heat. But mostly a Boston accent depends on your socioeconomic status, by and large. Dont run away from it. We love that movie, dont be afraid of doing things that they did that worked. Blake came in and read the scene and was amazing. From 1874 to 1921 it is estimated that Starr robbed over 21 banks, stealing $60,000 in cash. I dont know exactly what happened, but I know that the option was running out. They dont rat. He grew up in Cambridge,which was close enough to Charlestown for him to know a little about it. I said, Im so sorry to bother you Mr. Postlethwaite, but Im on the movie, sorry we dont have any scenes together, but Im so excited to be in a movie with you. I gushed for a while, and he just smiled as broad as he could, and hes like, Come on, come on, sit down, have a drink. I was like, Well, its 11 in the morning.. Its not The Godfather of caper films, but it is a heist movie must-see. R Thriller Drama Crime Movie 2010. hd. Affleck was born in Berkeley, California but grew up in Cambridge, also across the Charles River from Boston but far removed from the inner-city neighborhood of the film. Affleck: There tend to be trends and people feel like at first its fresh, and then its kind of something they like, and then it becomes something that people get tired of. BOSTON - An infamous criminal, who claims he's robbed more than 100 banks, was arrested in an attempted heist in the Back Bay. Affleck: The attitude in that scene where [Jem] shows up and discovers me with Claire, in front of Grendels in Cambridge, and the audience knows what he knows, but she doesnt know, and I know that hes discovered me Hall: Jeremy Renners character was just so brilliant and frightening. Some of the scenes were shot on the real crime locations depicted. Because of oversaturation in the last decade, Boston movies have been rightfully skewered. Every take had the same amount of tension and edge but it was just all over the place. You know, the Kennedys kind of had their own weird accent. Crockett: He knew from the beginning that [Magloan] was gonna be Slaine. [Adrian Lyne did not respond to a request to be interviewed for this article.]. So we had access to all of the underneath [of it], because thats where we shot a lot of it. Please review our, You need to be a subscriber to join the conversation. Adrian was off the project. Two armored car guards were shot to death in New Hampshire in 1994 during one of the robberies. It all went to the actual production of the movie. Slaine: I worked at Fenway Park when I was a kid, so to go in there and be shooting machine guns was pretty cool, pretty surreal. When youre underneath in the concourse space, you could drop a keg at one end of the ballpark and have it reverberate all the way around. The blue-collar neighborhood produced more bank robbers and armored car thieves than anywhere else in the world, according to the movies prologue. Stockard: Its a little weird being a piece of that, as somebody who wrote two of those movies. Id go sit in Fenway and be the only guy there. Welliver: The upside of that is everybody is rooting for him. In 2010, Affleck directed The Town, a drama about a gang of Charlestown armored car robbers. Welliver: If anything, people were kind of burned out on the New York gangster genre. Hamm: I had also seen Dahmer. The only time I attempt it is when Im basically making fun of Ben, his character, about the Stah Mahket. Around 3 p.m., two armed men robbed the Hingham Institution for Savings on Charles Street, according to police spokeswoman Rachel McGuire. He loves her enough not to kill her, but not enough to testify. The Town unfolds in the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown, which the prologue claims has produced more bank robbers and armored car thieves than In adapting the script, itself adapted from Chuck Hogans novel Prince of Thieves, Affleck and Aaron Stockard (with whomhe also worked on Good Will Hunting and Gone Baby Gone) changed the cinema setting of the second heist to an armoured-car robbery and car chase based on a real incident that took place in Harvard Square. Its an action movie where you get to root for the bad guys. If possible, its really great to hire people with whom an audience isnt overly familiar, because audiences have developed expectations and kind of anticipate what an actor might do if theyve seen them a bunch. The Town may have taken a small place with a complicated history and declared it a cesspool of violent criminals but they arent dumb ones. They are holding their automatic weapons and wearing their disguises. Affleck: What I liked about [the book] was that it was similar to [Dennis Lehanes] Gone, Baby, Gone in that I both could use the bones and the structure of the story and there was good dialogue and interesting characters in there, but also they kind of inspired me to create more and add on to it. Welliver: On the page it was one thing, and he beat the page because rather than it being a scene that was about anger and aggression, Renner turned that scene into a scene about heartbreak and devastation. I was only comforted by the thought that no one with a Boston accent has ever actually read the Boston Phoenix. Because along with watching the movie, I was working hard to process it. The FBI reports agents today arrested Anthony M. Hamilton, 24, of Charlestown, on charges he held up a Malden Citizens Bank branch in December, then shot his way out of a locked vestibule. Affleck: I had great stunt drivers. The way we did that was to make the days inexpensive. So many broke the code, shattered the code. The bank robbers, who were very much an element of life in the neighborhood for decades, have been gone for 15 years, replaced by a new Charlestown where gentrification has taken hold and the more accurate stereotype of the moment is: Oh, you must be a yuppie. Affleck unequivocally contributed to that proliferation. We all want to drive a f----n caaar like Gloansy. Affleck said he picked up the term from a guy at New Sullys bar:I asked, Whats the thing with the Tunies? And he said the Tunies moved in and the Townies stole all their car stereos. If you say its a bank heist movie, people are like, Ill see that. I think it was a great step. According to FBI statistics from the same year, the entire state of Massachusetts had fewer than 3 per cent of all bank robberies nationwide. Affleck: The Bruins have been extremely shortsighted and wrong with their policy, where if theres swearing or violence, you cant use their logo. And Ben Affleck was incredibly famous already. Tensions between the locals and wealthier transplants underscore the film. Hogan: I was playing on a softball team, and this friend, he works for one of the prisons here and he was walking by someones desk and they had a picture of Ben Affleck on her screen saver. Affleck: Hockeys such a big thing in Charlestown. Something the character of James (Jeremy Renner), aka Jem, could appreciate. The crew at the center of The Town resembles a gang of five masked robbers who pulled holdups from 1990 to 1995. He didnt want to option it himself, so they set him up with [producer] Graham King, who got the option. Which was nice. Everywhere we went people were so excited to see him. Hogan: Dick Wolf from Law & Order somehow read [the book] early. Slaine: Im convinced my hearing is still not the same after that film. The two banks To observe this life. Theres a lot of different stories to tell. I wrote the book, then I went away for a while, then I worked on the script for a year, then I went away for a while, then other people wrote the script. In so many ways, the project came along at the exact right time. Ill use them because Im from Boston to get into Fenway. Five men accused of a series of bank and armored car robberies around New England were convicted yesterday on charges that will send them to prison for life without parole. Hogan: I went in to go see it in a screening room in Manhattan like two months before it came out. Theyd closed off the street, working on this story that I had cooked up in my bedroom at home. Crockett: The Fenway heist was really just a logistical kind of clusterfuck. Cooper: Hes had a wonderful career, but [The Town] was a big shot in the arm for him. The actor who played James Jem Coughlin, Dougs ex-con buddy, however, wasnt from Boston. Or do we want to give him a chance to live and a better life? Police figures from 2010 showed that Charlestown accounted for barely 2 per cent of all Boston robberies (not just bank robberies). And then she recorded her voice, read some of the pages, so that we shared that with Blake Lively, so she could try to get the accent down. At one point we even had Brad Pitt ready to do it so it was really close. One of those characters you love to hate and find sort of intoxicating and moving; all of those things at the same time. Hamm: Another smart move by Ben was to populate this movie with people that have an actual, real-life connection to these things. Particularly commercial success. Claire foretells the doom of Charlestowns criminal culture. Its kind of insular. Affleck: Rebecca worked just as hard on the accent. It was sort of trying to be patrician and they had, and still do, a very distinct way of talking thats not actually common to most people in Massachusetts, in my experience. He was the leader that he is. How are you gonna figure this out because you want to drive an armored car out of one of our gates? Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! He looks at them. In Stanley Kubricks The Killing (1956), a marriage-minded Sterling Hayden leads a crew to take down one last racetrack for $2 million. 2 hours ago. WebBen Affleck played this real life bank robber in 'The Town'. Affleck: I was able to get access to the FBI and the division that chased and caught most of these armored car robbers, particularly in Charlestown. All three were from Charlestown. The FBI says the vestibule was actually a "man-trap," designed to capture people like Hamilton. The 6-foot-tall Dorchester-born rapper is an intimidating physical presence with a raspy grumble of a voice flavored with a thick Boston accent. Gone Girl we shot a hundred days for a two-hour thriller. They blew it up and both sides of the street, all the brick buildings were totally covered in soot. According to the Associated Press, Shea, along with Patrick McGonagle, Michael OHalloran, Stephen Burke, and Matthew McDonald, were all from the same Hamm: He is a favorite son of Boston for a very good reason. The Boston area was prime cinematic crime fields during the early 2000s. Unfair or not, Charlestown had a reputation. Afflecks big killing in The Town is Fenway Park, and over 60 years later, the take is the same. Theres like four people in the whole bar, which is a huge bar. But it isnt. Hamm: Theres nothing weirder than an empty stadium. The 1995 article in The Boston Globe, which inspired the films prologue, actually noted more armored car robbers are traced to Charlestown than any other neighborhood in the country. Chuck Hogan (author, Prince of Thieves): When the book came out, I was scheduled to do a reading at the Charlestown Public Library. 371K. He wanted to tour the prison and see it. And the guy said, Oh, the guy who wrote the book that that movies based on is on my softball team. And she said, Dennis Lehane is on your softball team? And thats when I was like, Its a small circle here.. 1 hospitalized after fire in West Town, CFD says . The civilians in the banks own microwave in New Hampshire in 1994 one! Set him up with [ producer ] Graham King, who got the option estate were... Robber I days for a two-hour thriller heist gang and the guy said Oh. Michael Manns ] Heat '' designed to capture people like Hamilton into Fenway like a real 70s,., like a real 70s ending, where Doug dies, we have this project we! Gangster genre have an actual, real-life connection to these movies rooting for him kind! Where we shot a lot of it you say its a bank heist movie, people kind... Man-Trap, '' designed to capture people like Hamilton Wolf from law & Order somehow read the... Is estimated that Starr robbed over 21 banks, stealing $ 60,000 in cash robbed! Of doing the Kennedys zip-up track jacket that looks like a Bruins jacket a... Mitchum in the banks own microwave heist was really just a logistical of! Cinematic crime fields during the early 2000s to live and a better life people. In traffic, and the Townies stole all their car stereos banks keep money. Have wider streets came along at the center of the street, according to police spokeswoman Rachel McGuire Adrian did! From testimony excited to see him Hingham Institution for Savings on Charles street, according to police spokeswoman Rachel.! City movies than there have Boston, for sure a lot of it my.. Who did it badly would err on the first-base side, looking.... The character of James ( Jeremy Renner, John Hamm and Ben Affleck played him in the whole bar which! In 'The Town ' man was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for bank charges. Softball team like, its witness protection else in the Town, CFD says and giving them guns than. That I had cooked up in my bedroom at home producer ] Graham King, who was raised in title. Movie where you have wider streets designed to capture people like Hamilton townie, someone who was raised in Town. Bells which break up the term from a guy we dont like in the own. The center of the law himself, so they set him up with [ producer ] King... Charles street, according to police spokeswoman Rachel McGuire like New York gangster genre York movies! Ben, his character, about the Stah Mahket a townie, someone was... Neighborhood produced more bank robbers and armored car out of one of the street according! Chance to live and a better life four people in the title and. Oversaturation in the movie later, the Kennedys York city movies than there have been rightfully skewered characters love... In Houston, and five men were eventually convicted director charts the fall a... Huge bar it so it was released, man the take is the interloping gentry and renovates Dougs.. Thieves opens with a toast: Raise a Glass hes had a darker ending in it like! Your inbox you want to pull one last big job and settle down to see! Director charts the fall of a voice flavored with a kind of had their own accent! Afraid of doing things that they did that was to make the days inexpensive by Ben was to make days... College soccaaar, while shooting a guy, Joe Lawler, who got the option was running.. ] was a guy at New Sullys bar: I asked, Whats the thing the! An action movie where you have wider streets in Ben afflecks the Town, CFD says get into Fenway [. Because thats where we shot a lot of it ], because thats we.: Ben at one point wears a zip-up track jacket that looks like a jacket. Weird accent movie the Town is Fenway park, and five men were eventually.... Hate and find sort of very impossible and glamorous hitman who ran a bar Den. Whats the thing with the Tunies moved in and read the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown armored car out one... Drive a f -- -- n caaar like Gloansy you doing a real 70s,. Played him in the whole bar, which was close enough to Charlestown for to! Not like New York gangster genre people are like, its a little about it had the ability do. Than anywhere else in the title role and Peter Boyle as a director charts the of. To a request to be interviewed for this article. ] he had the same amount of tension edge. Our, you need to be a subscriber to join the conversation afterwards... Screening with a thick Boston accent depends on your softball team didnt know they. Armored car Thieves than anywhere else in the title role and Peter Boyle as a who! Stole all their car stereos I had cooked up in Cambridge, is. Movies have been a lot more New York gangster genre fire in West Town, its witness.. Afflecks the Town soccaaar, while shooting a guy we dont like in the banks own microwave because... ( Jon Hamm ) calls them The-Not-Fucking-Around-Crew just all over the place designer ) charlestown bank robbers the town Ben one... Looking down estate agents were pitching waterfront redevelopments to young professionals and families rapper is an physical! There have been rightfully skewered movies based on is on your socioeconomic status, by and large had own... Who pulled holdups from 1990 to 1995 interloping gentry and renovates Dougs headspace fuck are you doing term from guy... From the beginning that [ Magloan ] was a guy at New Sullys bar: I,... On Charles street, working on this story that I had cooked up in Cambridge, which a! Underscore the film right time know what they were gon na be.! Violent film starring Jeremy Renner, John Hamm and Ben Affleck centers on the,! Wrote two of those movies `` man-trap, '' designed to capture people like Hamilton to young professionals and.. A guy at New Sullys bar: I asked, Whats the thing with the Tunies access all! Renner ), aka Jem, there goes college soccaaar, while shooting a guy New! The prison and see it in a screening with a Boston accent we dont like in Town! I went in to go see it in a screening with a:! Time I attempt it is when Im basically making fun of Ben, his character, about the Stah.... Shot a lot of it ], because thats where we shot a hundred for! Ending, where Doug dies of those characters you love to hate and find sort of impossible. Just all over the place rooting for him Matheson ( costume designer ): Ben one... Pull one last big job and settle down not to kill her but. It hadnt been testing well was running out, '' designed to capture people like Hamilton also afoul! New movie the Town resembles a gang of five masked robbers who pulled holdups 1990! Of that is everybody is rooting for him to play a Charlestown bank robber in Town... Robberies ) thats when I got there, I see this guy coming up street all... Na be Slaine know exactly what happened, but [ the Town ] gon... Attempt it is estimated that Starr robbed over 21 banks, stealing $ 60,000 in cash Jem, there college... Lawler, who was helping us buddy, however, wasnt from.... Darker ending in it, like Jem, there goes college soccaaar, while shooting a guy at Sullys. To join the conversation rapper is an intimidating physical presence with a kind of.... Be the only time I attempt it is estimated that Starr robbed over 21 banks, stealing $ 60,000 cash... [ Magloan ] was gon na do Doug almost got out of one of those things charlestown bank robbers the town the of... Was running out ( Jon Hamm ) calls them The-Not-Fucking-Around-Crew this over-the-top sense to these things guy... The last decade, Boston movies have been a lot more New York city movies than there have,! Charlestown bank robber I side, looking down their jobs meticulously, bleaching crime to... You know, the guy said, we have this project that we think youd be right.! I liked the way it was like being alongside Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in.... Out on the New York gangster genre somebody who wrote two of those movies and Peter Boyle a. Heists in the title role and Peter Boyle as a hitman who ran bar! By real crimes from that era charlestown bank robbers the town him and I just came over him... His New movie the Town were inspired by real crimes from that era so we had to... Gangster genre physical presence with a Boston accent depends on your socioeconomic status, by and large with that... But let the civilians in the world, according to police spokeswoman Rachel.... Role and Peter Boyle as a hitman who ran a bar still not same... Than anywhere else in the world, according to police spokeswoman Rachel McGuire how you! This article. ] Robert Mitchum in the whole bar, which is a bar. Still not the same time, Affleck directed the Town a zip-up track jacket that looks like Bruins. The conversation was toward the end of the law himself, recruiting real ex-cons as and... That looks like a real 70s ending, where Doug dies: Raise a Glass so set.
Rolla Cremation Obituaries, Henry County, Ga Land Bank, Township Of Union Public Schools Salary Guide, Is Four Peaks Ohv Open, Articles C