The Yards

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the DVD cover for The Yards

The Yards is a crime thriller/drama with Mark Wahlberg, James Caan, Joaquin Phoenix, and Charlize Theron, written and directed by James Gray. It was released in the fall of 2000, although it was shot in the spring and summer of 1998 and first due for release in fall 1999, this due to studio delays.

The setting and plot is in the commuter rail yards in the outskirts of New York City, in the boroughs of the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn. Corporate and political corruption is commonplace in "the yards", where contractors repair railway cars for the city Transit Authority (TA). Companies willing to win the bid sabotage rival companies' work the win the contracts. Murder and bribes toward officials are common.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Leo Handler (Wahlberg) has just been released from prison for a car theft he didn't commit. Looking for a job, he finds his uncle Frank Olchin (Caan) who runs a railway car repair company. Joining on the job, he works with Willie (Phoenix). One night, a night heist goes bad on a rival company and a rail yard supervisor is stabbed and a cop beaten. Leo is fingered as a suspect. He must go on the run and prove his innocence and then bring down Frank and his company.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Trivia

MTA New York City Transit (the city transit authority) first refused the production companies to film at any of its yards because it believed the film portrayed the agency in a bad light. The film was shot in Queens, in Maspeth, Elmhurst, Roosevelt Island, Bronx, and New Jersey. The "rail yard" scenes were shot at the 207th Street shop on the New York City Transit system and at an abandoned freight yard in Brooklyn.

The film was based on an actual corruption scandal in the mid-1980s involving the father of the director, James Gray.