Life and Death in L.A.: Whitey Bulger
Showing posts with label Whitey Bulger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Whitey Bulger. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

JOHNNY DEPP SHOWS HIS BEST GANGSTER FACE


DEA Agents raid Whitey Bulger's South Boston headquarters.
I know ... Whitey Bulger's ties to L.A. are tenuous. His career as boss of the Irish mob in Boston is not the stuff L.A. legends are made of. But, indulge me a bit. He was arrested here, or, in Santa Monica to be more precise, in June 2011, after years of being on the lam.

So, the news is that after some delay, filming of the Scott Cooper directed "Black Mass" is getting under way in Boston. The first shots of Johnny Depp in full Whitey Bulger makeup have been leaked, and the look seems at first glance fairly authentic.

The film is based on Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill's book, "Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, the FBI, and a Devil's Deal."

Johnny Depp, center, in Whitey makeup.
In addition to the tome in which the movie is based, Lehr and O'Neill co-authored another book about the life of James "Whitey" Bulger that covered the crime boss's ascent as a career criminal and eventual downfall. Whitey's  prison terms, including one at Alcatraz, are detailed in the book. Also discussed is his participation in an early test of the drug LSD.

Movie folks are reportedly busy mocking up a Triple O's set in Cambridge, Mass., that will be used for shooting exterior scenes. The real Triple O's, a South Boston bar Whitey used as his headquarters, no longer exists.

So, what are the chances that "Black Mass" will hit it out of Fenway Park, so to speak?

Cooper's previous crime writing-directing assignment, last year's "Out of the Furnace" scored a paltry 52 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
We'd better hope for some of that good Irish luck.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Johnny Depp to Play Whitey Bulger After All

Whitey as the godfather.
You've heard it all here before. So, Johnny Depp is going to take another shot at playing a famous gangster.

The money was finally right, according to Deadline Hollywood

How do you think this one will stack up next to "The Departed," the other Whitey picture that was made before he was captured?

Paramount signed on to partly finance the deal and the shooting begins in Boston in eight weeks. Does anyone know of any Boston locations that are being lined up for themovie? I'm guessing the courthouse on the waterfront where the actual trial took place would be a prime location for exterior shots.


Scott Cooper is set to direct and Joel Edgerton plays disgraced FBI agent, John Connolly.

It's all based on a very good book titled "Black Mass" by Dick Lehr and Gerald O’Neill. 

The Whitey Bulger story is solid stuff -- it even has a third act now that Whitey's behind bars. 

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

British Invasion: Boorman Uncorks Psychedelic Noir


Angie Dickinson, Lee Marvin and Carroll O'Connor
in 'Point Blank' (1967).
Why is L.A. the location of choice for so many crime films and stories about the dark side of life? Maybe it’s just because the bulk of all film production is done in Hollywood and it’s cheaper to shoot in your own backyard.
But that doesn’t explain why so many of the great crime novels take place in the City of Angels. A writer can set his story anywhere in the world without a thought of budgets, weather or union constrictions.

Clockwise from top left, Lee Marvin,
Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn and John Vernon.
It might be that L.A. is different from most American cities, especially those that were built long before the two World Wars. They project stability and tradition, while L.A. is still considered part of the Wild West — a desert outpost full of transients, dreamers and hucksters. The city is branded as uncontrolled urban sprawl with a casual atmosphere that fosters a variety of lifestyles and eccentricities. In other words, it’s what the rest of the country thinks is wrong with America. Be that as it may, the city might just be the perfect laboratory in which to examine 20th century mores.

So, it’s no wonder that British director John Boorman begins "Point Blank" in San Francisco and moves it to the City of Angels. San Francisco may be one of the country’s cradles of personal liberty, but it still has the look and feel of a city built on the bedrock of traditional values.

Staged as a sort of brutally real saga that slips into vaguely hallucinatory passages, "Point Blank" is the sort of altered reality you’d expect to see in a 1967 film, but the director is too good to let meaningless psychedelic spectacle overpower the story.

Walker is double-crossed by his ex.
Lee Marvin’s Walker, the career criminal who wants what is rightfully his, is cool and avoids the obnoxious pleased-with-himself vibe that a lesser actor would bring to the part.  He’s down to earth, deadpan, resourceful and unstoppable.
Some conclude that the entire story is merely Walker’s dream. He’s left alone to die after being double crossed, but of course he gets back on his feet and goes after the ones who did him wrong. 

Keenan Wynn plays Yost, the mysterious agent who always seems to appear on the scene whenever the action is about to be pumped up. Throughout the film, he and Walker never make eye contact — could the agent be a mere figment of Walker’s imagination? But stranger events occur when Walker finds his two-timing wife. Check out the scene with the disappearing furniture – and the disappearing corpse. 

Prior to "Point Blank" Boorman directed only black and white television and the film, "Catch Us If You Can" ("Having a Wild Weekend" in the U.K.), starring The Dave Clark Five. He says that he liked shooting "Point Blank," his first color movie, in the dark because it makes the color palette monochromatic. Trivia fans will want to note that, at one point, the action moves to a house with a swimming pool in Hollywood Hills. It’s the same house that the Beatles lived in during their first tour of America.
Bright yellows and golds prevail in Angie's scenes.
Despite his emphasis on darkness, Boorman uses color as an expressive element throughout the film, and carefully controls the range of tones filling each scene. The film begins in washed out grays and blues, progresses to yellows and golds, especially in Angie Dickinson’s scenes, shifts to greens, and as the action heats up toward the end, reds and oranges prevail. Walker, wearing a red-brick colored jacket seems to fade into the walls as the film comes to its conclusion.
You could call Point Blank a revisionist noir, because it’s in color and is not dialog driven. Perhaps the film's (then) modern-day take on the genre might be the missing link between black and white crime dramas of yesteryear and the sun-drenched Technicolor world of neo-noirs such as "Chinatown" and "L.A. Confidential."

Color aside, "Point Blank" is thoroughly character driven. Walker is relentless in his pursuit of the money he’s owed, but his doggedness only grows more intense even when the money becomes unimportant. He’s driven to get to the bottom of the mystery that has been plaguing him. His world is in shambles, but without this maniacal game of cat and mouse he’s initiated there’s nothing left in his life. Once the battle is over, there will be nothing to celebrate, but he continues because he has no other choice.


Thursday, June 23, 2011

The Bin Laden of Boston Finally Nabbed ... In L.A.

Just for the record, I had no prior knowledge of the whereabouts of James "Whitey" Bulger when he was arrested by the FBI just a few miles from my home. The former Boston gang leader had been on the FBI's most wanted list for 15 years until he was apprehended yesterday in Santa Monica. He's going to Federal Court in downtown L.A. today, maybe even as I write this. In this video, some folks from Whitey's old neighborhood, "Southie," (South Boston) react to the arrest.
This marks the end of an era for organized crime in Boston. Whitey was the last of the old guard. He was the inspiration for Frank Costello, the role Jack Nicholson played in Martin Scorsese's "The Departed." There are also several books written about the legendary criminal. An excellent read is "Black Mass: The Irish Mob, The FBI and A Devil's Deal," by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill.
Authorities will want to discuss with Whitey the 19 murders he is alleged to have committed or ordered. Stay tuned.