Southie (film)

Southie
Directed by	John Shea
Written by	Jimmy Cummings Dave McLaughlin John Shea
Starring	Donnie Wahlberg Rose McGowan Will Arnett Jimmy Cummings
Release dates	May 28, 1999
Running time	95 min.
Country	U.S.A.
Language	English

Southie is a 1999 American film directed by John Shea and starring Donnie Wahlberg. The film centers on Danny Quinn (Wahlberg) who returns home to South Boston from New York City and gets stuck between his friends, who are supported by one Irish gang, and his family, which are members of another. The film also stars Rose McGowan, Anne Meara, Will Arnett, Lawrence Tierney, Robert Wahlberg, and Amanda Peet. Memorable scenes were shot at the South Boston Yacht Club and Bowlarama on East Broadway.

Production

Southie was originally written as "Brass Ring" by two young first-time screenwriters from Boston, James Cummings and Dave McLaughlin. In 1995 they brought their screenplay to New York where it was given by the original producer, Merrill Holtzman, to Shea to read. Shea met with Cummings and thought that the script was "full of promise". Shea felt that Cummings and McLaughlin, who had both grown up in Boston, had captured the flavor of the dialogue and of the characters in the Irish American community but felt that the beginning of the movie and the original ending, in which Danny Quinn kills Joey Ward needed to be changed . Over the next year Shea spent time in South Boston with Cummings getting to know the neighborhood that Cummings had grown up in, worked with the writers on the screenplay and eventually agreed to direct the film. During the next year they continued to write in partnership as they scouted locations and put the pieces of the film production together.

The lead role was originally offered to Mark Wahlberg but when his film "Fear" became a hit the production could no longer afford him. Cummings had the idea of approaching Mark's brother Donnie Wahlberg who at that point had only played minor roles in movies. Cummings met with Donnie and the two hit off. After spending time with him Cummings called Shea, they met with Wahlberg and Shea realized that Wahlberg was, in many ways, born to play the role. At the invitation of Ron Howard, Shea spend a day watching Wahlberg do vocal dubbing for scenes from Howard's film "Ransom" in which Wahlberg had a supporting role. Wahlberg was then offered his first starring role without an audition. He was already a star in the music business as a member of the Boston singing group "New Kids On the Block" but was ready to test himself as a serious actor. Independent financing came from young producers, Bill McCutchen and Hugh Wilson. Shea then offered the lead female role to Rose McGowan and the rest of the cast fell into place. Amanda Peet joined the cast in Boston just before production began. Will Arnet was a friend of Cummings in New York and Anne Meara, a friend of Shea's, agreed to play the key role of the mother of the Quinn clan. Shooting was scheduled for February 1997, in the middle of a brutal Boston winter. The film was shot with a full union crew in twenty-four days. Many of the people in the film had never acted before but Shea wanted the real-life quality they possessed and tried to bring out their natural talents. Sue Costello, Bo Cleary, Phil Barineau, Steve Sweeney, Jere Shea, Robert Wahlberg (Donnie's real older brother), Jay Giannoni, Jeffery Cook, Steve Koslowski, James Cummings as the antagonist Joey Ward, and others all make their feature debuts. Celebrated jazz drummer Johnny Blowers also makes an appearance in The Quencher tavern, "telling Sinatra stories." The film ends as the real St. Patrick's Day parade goes through South Boston. The film makers were given permission by Thomas Menino, the Mayor of Boston, to shoot the parade, the first time that had happened. Directors of photography Allen Baker and Michael Bulter used five 35mm cameras, some of them hand-held and hidden on the parade floats.

After almost a year of post-production editing and scoring (by composer Wayne Sharp) in New York the film makers changed the film's name to "Southie" at the suggestion of Wahlberg. It was the first feature film ever shot entirely in the old South Boston neighborhood, a place once described as "the last white ghetto in America" and the home of the Irish mafia headed by the controversial James "Whitey" Bulger, called in the film "Colie Powers" and portrayed by Lawrence Tierney in his final screen performance. In 1998 "Southie" won Best Picture (The American Independent Filmmaker Award) at the first festival it entered, The Seattle International Film Festival. It then played to sold out houses at the Nantucket Film Festival, the AFI Festival in Los Angeles, and was acquired for distribution by Lions Gate Pictures after its screening at the Montreal Festival du Monde where it represented the United States in the main competition. In April 1999 it played at the 14th Dublin Film Festival. Critic Padraig Browne wrote in the Irish Times: "Shea directs with a nice lean style and Wahlberg shows that he's every bit as good as his brother, Boogie Nights' Mark."

Critical Reception

The Film opened in Boston in May 1999 to good reviews and strong box office. Film critic Jay Carr of the Boston Globe wrote that the film had "heartfelt urgency" with "an intense individual and communal commitment that seems to boil up from the streets." He added: " There is no question that James Cummings, who wrote the film with director John Shea, has successfully captured the flavor of his South Boston world, or that Shea's direction transfers it to the screen with gritty intensity." James Verniere of the Boston Herald gave it three stars and wrote that there were "powerful performances" with an "electric charge especially by leading man Donnie Wahlberg... James Cummings brings a terrific sense of malevolent entitlement to the role of the spoiled hothead." He added: "The film evokes the soul-gripping tediousness of this world and the way the past can cast its shadow over everything, imprisoning an entire community. Southie has the ring of truth."

See also

• List of films, operas, and plays set in Boston

External links

• Southie at the Internet Movie Database