Bridgewater State College

Irish-American Film Series

Fall 2003

 

 

 

Monument Ave.

 

(1998; dir. Ted Demme)

 

Image from The Internet Movie Database

 

 

This film by the late Ted Demme, also entitled Snitch, focuses on the drudges in an Irish-American gang in Charlestown, MA.  In a number of low-key, realist scenes, the film reveals more about a residual niche of urban Irish America and the characters' feelings of entrapment there than other, more sensationalized recent films.  Denis Leary is memorable as thirtyish petty criminal Bobby O'Grady, desperately trying to hang on to his way of life, a protracted adolescence of larceny, drinking, drugs, and longing for the girl next door (Famke Janssen), the reluctant moll of the local mob boss (Colm Meaney).  Martin Sheen appears as a frustrated cop.  While the film foregrounds class conflict and racial tension in a contemporary setting, it can also be located in the tradition of Irish-American gangster films such as The Public Enemy (1931; dir. William Wellman) and Angels with Dirty Faces.  Scorcese's Mean Streets (1973) seems to be a strong influence.  Filmed on location in Boston.

 

- Kathleen Vejvoda

 

 

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