The Yards (2000)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

James Gray

Writers (WGA):

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

Release Date:

27 April 2000 (Singapore)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

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:

Contractor | Subway | Corruption | Railroad Yard | Politician

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Mark Wahlberg	...	Leo Handler
Joaquin Phoenix	...	Willie Gutierrez
Charlize Theron	...	Erica Soltz
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 Soltz
Louis Guss	...	Nathan Grodner

MPAA:

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

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

USA:Unrated (2005 DVD Directors Cut) | Iceland:16 | Singapore:NC-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 (PCA #37362) | Finland:K-15

Filming Locations:

Bronx, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Miramax Films

Trivia:

For Leo's and Willie's fight, the actors agreed to actually fight each other. Although they wore knee and elbow pads, everything on screen is actually Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg beating each other up. There are no stunts and the entire thing was taken in two takes from three different angles. The next day, the actors were black and blue.

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:

I'm Beginning To See The Light

Too much plot, not enough time

The cast and acting in this crime/drama is great, but the actors are let down by a melodramatic script that is too busy. "The Yards" is a character-driven story, but the problem is that the script has too many subplots going on which doesn't give us the time we need to know and care about the characters. By the end I really didn't care what happened, because I didn't know the characters and didn't care how the plot was resolved.

Basically "The Yards" tells the story of Leo, a working class young man who returns home from a stint in prison to his ailing mother. His best friend, Willie, takes him on at Leo's step-uncle's subway train outfitting business, where things aren't exactly above-the-board. Leo gets more involved in the business and things go awry. And along the way, there's a hundred and one subplots.

This movie had some nice moments, and great acting, but it can't rise above a script that tries to pack too much plot into too little time.