Renowned for its roguish history, Charlestown is finally getting Hollywood's attention
By CHRIS FARAONE | September 29, 2009
Charlestown was baptized in bloodshed. Since the Battle of Bunker Hill (on Breed's Hill) in 1775, the fiercely independent tract has been popularly characterized by violent undertones and bold tribal pride. Notorious for harboring lawless, red-faced rogues, Charlestown, equal parts volcanic geography and hoodlum mystique, has fueled countless poignant tributes, both factual and fictional. It doesn't matter that the majority of Townies (as Charlestown residents are best known), then and now, have never highjacked armored trucks or dealt dope. Charlestown's population has long been a source of ribald, degenerate mythology.
Charlestown in the Movies
Though Charlestown is only now realizing its moment in the cinematic sun, the neighborhood has lured Hollywood location scouts for at least 40 years. The proof is in this list of films that were partially filmed in and/or based on Charlestown. Charly (1968)
The Brink’s Job (1978)
The Bostonians (1984)
Common Ground (1990; made for TV)
Once Around (1991)
Blown Away (1994)
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Monument Ave (1998)
What’s the Worst That Could Happen? (2001)
Mystic River (2003)
Irish Eyes (2004)
The Departed (2006)
Townies (2007; short film) |
And yet this unique, fertile turf has been generally overlooked by Hollywood, which has preferred instead its old rival South Boston, the primary backdrop for Oscar winners Good Will Hunting and The Departed. Now, however, there are signs that the movie industry is falling for Boston's most notorious square mile. This month alone, two feature-length movies are being filmed in Charlestown: Ben Affleck's The Town (slated to be released next year), which is based on Boston writer Chuck Hogan's novel Prince of Thieves, and Oxy-Morons, an independent project written, produced by, and starring Bunker Hill housing projects native Johnny Hickey."Southie has gentrified over the years," says Sam Baltrusis, editor of the Jamaica Plain–based loadedgunboston.com, who keeps close tabs on the budding Boston film industry, "so filmmakers were scrambling to locations like East Boston, Lowell, and Charlestown to capture the grittier side of things. Charlestown still has that blue-collar aesthetic, coupled with camera-friendly scenery that still has an industrial edge to it — filmmakers eat it up." (Baltrusis credits Dorchester native Donnie Wahlberg's in-the-works TNT drama Bunker Hill with catalyzing the Charlestown rush.)
Though both new films are inspired by the locale's troubled past and storied code of silence — and both are set in contemporary Charlestown — Oxy-Morons and The Town are reflective of two significantly different moments, as the headlines and memories from which they're culled occurred about five years apart. Prince of Thieves is a swan song for the foul old days of heroic mid-'90s bank takes, when Irish mobsters publicly assassinated adversaries without fear of retribution. The book's main characters are the last of a now mostly incarcerated underbelly of dust-smoking safe crackers; even the FBI protagonist (portrayed in the Affleck film by Mad Men star John Hamm) fancies himself a relic of the cops-and-robbers age. Oxy-Morons, on the other hand, which is based on Hickey's felonious endeavors with OxyContin at the turn of the millennium, better resembles the lower-class Charlestown of today: frozen with opiate addiction, its toxic citizens even more isolated from across the river than were their proudly territorial ancestors.
Related:
Mobile-home game, The Globe's Plight, Globe-al anxiety, More 
- Mobile-home game
The intersection of Brookline Avenue and Lansdowne Street, in the hours before, during, and after a Red Sox game, is not unlike a trading floor on pre-crash Wall Street: it’s chaotic, teeming with people, and everyone’s trying to make a buck.
- The Globe's Plight
If history is just one damn thing after another, then we are living in undeniably historic times.
- Globe-al anxiety
There were more lumps of coal than holiday cheer at 135 Morrissey Boulevard this Christmas season.
- Luis's Lost Years
It had been nearly half a century since Luis Tiant stood on the Cuban soil where he was born, and where he first learned the skills that would see him become one of the greatest and most beloved pitchers in Red Sox history.
- Flashback: Sox Populi
The October wind plays tricks on a man when the last breeze of summer meets the first chill of winter in the stands at Fenway Park. When other teams in other parks are playing out the World Series, the air in the Fens hangs heavy.
- Post-steroid baseball
The bunting is hung. The chalk lines are laid out with Euclidian precision.
- Sporting Eye
There were 7800 official entries and between 2000 and 3000 others along for the ride. By our crude calculations, the leaders were a mile and a half into the course by the time the last runner crossed the starting line.
- Keeping 'the Hope' alive on Fountain Street
The decline of the American newspaper is a story often told in bold print.
- Blowing up
Everyone’s got the bad-economy blues these days — but the mood among peddlers of the printed word is especially bleak.
- The Year of the Nerd
Barack Obama is many things. Dedicated senator. Devoted husband and father. Adept orator. President-elect. Nerd.
- Busting Balls: 20 ways to improve sports
College football is stupid. Everybody knows it.
- Less
Topics:
Lifestyle Features
, Entertainment, Rebecca Hall, GONE BABY GONE, More
, Entertainment, Rebecca Hall, GONE BABY GONE, THE DEPARTED, Good Will Hunting, Chuck Hogan, Ted Demme, Baseball, Sports, Movies, Less
