Talk:The Town (2010 film)

Wrong director
Contrary to what is said in the introduction, Gone Baby Gone wasn't directed by Ben Afleck, but his brother Casey. Crackettt (talk) 11:05, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Incorrect. Gone Baby Gone was directed by Ben Affleck. Look it up. - Kollision (talk) 16:02, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Casey starred, Ben directed. -- JohnWBarber (talk) 17:18, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Clarification requested
If "The motion picture is one of a number of films set in Boston, Massachusetts over the past decade that have formed a "sub-genre" of crime movies, including Affleck's own Gone Baby Gone." is to be included in the article, the statment should be further expounded upon and clarified. Define the "sub-genre", link to it or something. Otherwise this is a meaningless statement that is unsubstantiated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.115.207.38 (talk) 20:43, 28 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Substantiated elsewhere in the article ("Reception" section). If it's substantiated elsewhere, it doesn't have to be substantiated with a footnote in the lead, which just summarizes the rest of the article. -- JohnWBarber (talk) 01:32, 30 September 2010 (UTC)


 * It could hardly be more ridiculous to label movies set in a particular city as a type of "genre" (which is what a subgenre is -- a genre within a larger genre).


 * Even if someone else somewhere else has already made this ridiculous decision, that's a poor reason to copy it.Daqu (talk) 05:59, 18 August 2013 (UTC)

The Release Date also says Feb 11th 2011. Every source I checked (including the reference) says Dec 17th 2010. Why was it changed> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.231.199.10 (talk) 07:24, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

Removed section
I've removed the section containing other films:
 * See also
 * The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), in which the main character is a bank robber in Boston, also includes a scene where a bank manager is blind folded and told to walk to the beach.
 * Recent crime films based in or near Boston:
 * Blown Away (1994), parts of which take place in Charlestown
 * The Departed (2006), concentrating on criminals from South Boston and the police investigating them
 * Gone Baby Gone (2007), based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, directed and produced by Ben Affleck
 * Mystic River (2003), based on a novel by Lehane

Frankly, the number of films set in Boston is likely in the hundreds (Soul Man), The Boondock Saints, and The Verdict are but three). Any section connecting a smattering of them is Synthesis, in that an editor is making a connection between these films not explicitly cited in the text. If someone wants to do some wp:category work, feel free. Otherwise, this cannot return to the article, which is about this film, and this film alone. - Jack Sebastian (talk) 16:13, 19 October 2010 (UTC)


 * The "sub-genre" of Boston crime films, with its own characteristics, is discussed in the "Reception" section of the article (last paragraph). Here it is:
 * As a Boston-based crime drama, the movie forms part of a "crime-movie subgenre" typically marked by "flavorsome accents, pungent atmosphere and fatalistic undertow", according to Chang. Within that subgenre, which includes The Departed, Mystic River and Affleck's Gone Baby Gone, The Town is more of a straightforward crime-procedural and has a more optimistic outlook, Chang wrote.
 * That doesn't mention all the items in the "See also" section, but it does show that we have sourced discussion in the article about the topic of crime movies based in Boston. In fact, I think that's where I got the idea of including those movies in the "See also" section. Our article doesn't state that those particular movies can all be characterized as part of that particular "subgenre", but the passage in the article shows Boston crime movies have been compared to each other and a reader interested in one may find it useful to know about others. I don't think there are an enormous number of crime movies based in Boston. By the way, the "See also" list wasn't WP:SYNTHESIS because it didn't advance a position (not even Chang's position that there is a subgenre). It only stated that the other movies were about crime and based in Boston. If there was a huge number of them, a "See also" list would be inappropriate. It seems to me that the section was helpful to readers. I originally included some other movies in that section as well, but some IP editors took them out without explanation. Here they are:
 * The Boondock Saints (1999), set in South Boston
 * The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009), set in Ireland and South Boston
 * Shutter Island (2010), based on a novel by Lehane
 * I'm not sure how much Shutter Island actually has to do with Boston (I didn't see that one), but the Boondock movies also have settings in a Boston neighborhood. Links to most of the movies could, conceivably, be added to the passage I quoted, but I think they're a bit tangential to the topic of the "Reception" section. -- JohnWBarber (talk) 18:37, 28 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Shutter Island is set in a fictional island in Boston Harbor, I think there were a few scenes in actual Boston during flashbacks.  DC   T • C   19:03, 28 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Hi John and DC. I think that we need more than one citation mentioning a "sub-genre" of Boston crime films to warrant the creation the cretin of an entire section based on it. I am not against the creation of such; I am simply saying that it should not only be in prose format, but heavily cited, so it removes the appearance of not only synthesis (that these movies are related) but of undue weight (creating the section based on one reference's comment). the creation of a category might be in order if enough references about the "sub-genre" are to be found.
 * If they cannot be found, then I think that Chang's comment should remain in the article as is. Thoughts? - Jack Sebastian (talk) 19:48, 28 October 2010 (UTC)
 * (the following is an edit conflict with your post above, Jack, but maybe it answers your post) Chang's review in Variety wasn't the only place where the idea of the "Boston crime film" has been discussed. Here's a review from the Boston Herald (second paragraph), I don't know how reliable this source is, but it exists,, here's novelist Dennis Lehane writing in the Boston Globe on the subject, . It's worth quoting critic Leonard Maltin about this (and maybe something here should be in the "Reception" section):
 * There’s even an homage to The Friends of Eddie Coyle, which in many ways—not the least, its understatement—remains the definitive Boston crime movie. This film ups the ante in terms of energy and excitement, but it takes its place alongside Coyle, The Departed, Mystic River, and Affleck’s own Gone Baby Gone as one of the best films ever made about the city and its zeitgeist.
 * And here's a roundup at The Atlantic website, where more than one reviewer makes the connections., here's another writer making the connection, . Many reviews of The Town mention other Boston-based crime films: Washington Post: "his command of the area's vernacular and milieu allow "The Town" to take its rightful place next to "Mystic River" and "The Departed" as a muscular and authentic Beantown flick." , also (3rd and 5th paragraphs from the bottom); Eddie Coyle mentioned in this one , see the 2nd to last paragraph here , , apparently there's an "homage" to Coyle, as this critic  and others note. A.O. Scott in the New York Times is worth quoting:
 * [...] a solid, minor entry in the annals of Boston crime drama. Not as florid as “The Departed” or as sadly soulful as “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” — or even as sticky and gamy as “Gone Baby Gone,” Mr. Affleck’s previous film — it is essential viewing for connoisseurs of dropped r’s, [...] [Boston] has become a paradise for dialect coaches and a cinematic stronghold of the kind of white, ethnic, blue-collar tribalism that used to flourish in movies about places like Philadelphia, Chicago and, of course, New York." Tomatoes&ei=5083


 * Some of this probably should be in the article, but the idea of Boston-based crime movies being compared to one another is out there in the sources and should be in the article. -- JohnWBarber (talk) 19:51, 28 October 2010 (UTC)


 * As I had stated in my initial post for the section opening, I am not opposed to cited connections being noted; I am opposed to an editor making that connection themselves. It sounds like some of those are turning up, which is awesome. If it doesn't have a citable (and explicit) connection to this film, then it shouldn't be in the article.- Jack Sebastian (talk) 15:01, 2 November 2010 (UTC)
 * If I get the time, I'll try to put this in the "Reception" section, with footnotes, and we won't need a "See also" section for these links. (Since we have sources indicating that there's a "sub-genre" of Boston crime movies (or at least a general recognition that Boston-based crime movies tend to have a number of things in common), I think that should be enough to include any crime + Boston movie since, say, Eddie Coyle. I've never seen a footnote in a "See also" section because inclusion is generally considered a matter of editorial judgment.) -- JohnWBarber (talk) 01:26, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

I think there is a legitimate need to address this film as being part of the new film industry in Boston. In the past decade, there have been many more films set in and shot in Boston than in the past, because Boston mass. has made a concerted effort to attract the film industry. The Departed, Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, The Fighter, Shutter Island, The Town, etc are all part of this growing boston film industry.

Shutter Island has just as much to do with Boston as any of these movies. In fact most of them aren't set in Boston, but in the Boston Metro area and the Greater Boston Area. Shutter Island, like the other films was shot in areas around boston, particularly in places on the North Shore like Nahant Mass. Deliciousgrapefruit (talk) 14:52, 26 December 2010 (UTC)

Also, for those interested, the Boston Globe recently did a slew of articles on Boston in film, because of the release of the Fighter. Among the locals The Town is one of the more highly regarded movies set in Boston. Deliciousgrapefruit (talk) 14:54, 26 December 2010 (UTC)

Heat
I find it interesting that the reviews compare it to Heat - it's the film Afflek is watching at the 20min mark, am I the only person who's spotted that? it's not on IMDB trivia either... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.30.81.254 (talk) 22:05, 18 August 2011 (UTC)

I never noticed - watching it again now. Came in for another topic though. I never saw the trailers, or the assertions made about Charlestown criminals in them. The film itself, however, only states that "One blue-collar Boston neighborhood has produced more bank robbers and armored car theives than anywhere in the world." and then quotes an unnamed Boston Robbery Task Force Federal Agent as saying, "Bank robbery became like a trade in Charlestown, passed down from father to son." I just froze the screen to be sure I got the quotes right, think I'll put that in now. Beadmatrix (talk) 16:12, 12 November 2011 (UTC)Beadmatrix

Plot Summary
I made 2 changes today: deleted a confused reference to literal castration re: Fergie's threats to Doug, and revised final paragraph slightly. Although we can guess that Doug is lliving alone in Florida, we can't know. What we see is Doug standing alone. I haven't read the book, or the script, but this summary is based solely on what is said and shown in the film. I debated adding that depsite Doug's seeming safe in Florida, Frawley did remind Claire that the FBI is "a national organization," leaves room for doubt (and a sequel.) I don't think the plot summary is to long at this point, compared with many other films, but I am kind of new at this. I try to never use 2 words where 1 works well, etc, but I didn't write the article I'm just trying to streamline. Beadmatrix (talk) 16:45, 28 January 2012 (UTC)Beadmatrix

Wrong link to actor Ed O'Keefe
The link Edward O'Keefe as Morton Previt under the Cast section links to an Australian rugby player, who died in 1986 and therefore couldn't have played in the role of Morton Previtt. IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1182080/) lists O'Keefe as still very much alive and also mentions that:

"Ed's uncle, Specs O'Keefe was one of the actual robbers in "The Brink's Robbery" Jan 1950 that was the largest cash robbery in the US at the time,until the Plymouth Mail heist in 1962 and which the movie "The Brinks Job" was loosely based. The getaway scenes in " The Town" go right past the building where the Brink's counting house was located.!"

I don't really know how to edit the wiki and I noticed this discrepancy by mere chance, so if someone can de-link Edward O'Keefe (the wiki to the rugby player seems to be the only article that links to that name) I guess that would be a good idea ;) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.182.42.88 (talk) 19:45, 29 September 2013 (UTC)

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