The Yards (2000)

Directed by: James Gray | 115 minutes | drama, crime, thriller | Actors: Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, Charlize Theron, James Caan, Ellen Burstyn, Faye Dunaway, Steve Lawrence, Andrew Davoli, Tony Musante, Victor Argo, Tomas Milian, Robert Montano, Victor Arnold, Chad Aaron, Louis Guss

Crime and mafia movies are always popular with the general public. Ordinary people have a somewhat romantic view of gangster life in which themes such as family, loyalty, honour, revenge and extreme violence play a major role. The “Italian” gangster films such as the ‘Godfather’ trilogy and ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘Casino’ only reinforce this image. ‘The Yards’ is also called a Mafia movie in the classic sense of the word, but it differs considerably in style and atmosphere from Coppola’s and Scorsese’s masterpieces.

Leo Handler (Mark Wahlberg) has just been released from prison and is going back to New York, back to his family. He wants to get to work as quickly as possible without any problems and to give his life the right direction. His niece Erica (Charlize Theron) is now in a relationship with Leo’s old comrade Willie (Joaquin Phoenix). Leo can work at the company of his uncle Frank (James Caan) where Willie also works. This company is engaged in maintenance of the trains and rails of the New York subway system. Leo soon finds out that the way of doing business isn’t quite right. Civil servants are bribed and trains are sabotaged in order to win fat contracts in favor of the competitor. Before Leo knows it, he is back in the criminal environment and before long, a dead person falls and Leo is blamed. He has to flee, not only from the police, but also from his own family.

‘The Yards’ tries to take away some of the tinge of romance that surrounds gangster life by portraying the main characters as normal people of humble origins trying to run a business and then have to do some cheating here and there, is perceived as normal. The makers have been reasonably successful in that setup: ‘The Yards’ is a pretty grim and dark film with an intriguing story. Unfortunately, the implementation is not always completely successful. The beginning is promising, but at a certain point the story collapses quite a bit. The script is strong, technically well written, only the slowness causes the tension arc to get slacker and slack.

‘The Yards’ is a film about family ties, trust, betrayal, revenge and of course about power and money. Central to this story is also the suffocating suction that a (mafia) family can have on someone and what consequences this can have for the relationships within the family.

The patriarch of the family is excellently played by James Caan, Joaquin Phoenix is ​​also good as the sneaky Willie. Mark Wahlberg is an excellent actor, think ‘Boogie Nights’ and ‘The Departed’, but in this film it seems like he is out of place. Charlize Theron is also not at her best, she mainly does what she does best, which is cry and be beautiful. It seems that she is the embodiment of the lack of dynamics in this film. ‘The Godfather’ trilogy glorified crime, ‘The Yards’ gives a darker picture, but despite a strong script, beautiful photography and reasonable to good acting, it does not quite come out.