We Own the Night (2007)
Directed by James Gray
A New York nightclub manager tries to save his brother and father from Russian mafia hitmen.
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12 films that influenced We Own the Night
What critics say influenced We Own the Night
A New York undercover police saga, "We Own the Night" is set in 1988, but it recalls even earlier eras: the 1970s, when movies like "Mean Streets" blurred the line between crime film and art film, and the 1930s, when audiences flocked to such good brother/bad brother gangster yarns as "Manhattan Melodrama," the movie John Dillinger watched before he was gunned down outside the Biograph theater in Chicago in 1934.
The startling turns that take Bobby toward possible reconciliation with his family recall grand crime dramas from GoodFellas to The Departed , and writer/director James Gray (who made the underrated The Yards a few years back, also with Phoenix) graces us with moments so beautifully eerie and grim that they are instantly fixed in the memory as classic gems of cinema -- such as the finale, a footchase for bad guys set among the marshy wetlands at the far reaches of New York City, a setting I’m not sure we’ve ever seen on film before.
Joaquin Phoenix (“Walk the Line”), stars as Bobby Grusinsky, son of the New York Deputy Chief of Police, Burt Grusinsky (Robert Duvall of “Secondhand Lions”) and brother to a decorated policeman, Joseph Grusinsky (Mark Wahlberg of “The Departed”).
Martin Scorsese's " The Departed " (2006), inspired by the Hong Kong " Infernal Affairs " (2002), is also about brothers on two sides of the war.
Then again, seeing as how Scorsese is still in fine form after winning an Oscar for “The Departed,” that makes the arrival of the similarly-themed “We Own the Night” about a year too late.
In a world where movies like State of Grace, Carlito’s Way, The Departed, Eastern Promises, and other dark double crossing mafia dramas didn’t exist, We Own the Night might have worked.
James Gray's "We Own the Night" and director Ridley Scott's "American Gangster" give two glimpses into the world of New York crime at rarely explored times in the not too distant past, but neither movie would probably get nearly as much attention if not for Martin Scorsese's "The Departed" and its success at reinvigorating interest in the modern crime drama.
It's the best of its kind since "The French Connection."
With its washed-out palette of grays and blues, its Scorsese-esque scenes of domestic life in Brooklyn's Polish and Puerto Rican households and a bravura car chase that recapitulates the classic sequence from William Friedkin's "The French Connection," the film's cinematic antecedents are clear.
A New York undercover police saga, "We Own the Night" is set in 1988, but it recalls even earlier eras: the 1970s, when movies like "Mean Streets" blurred the line between crime film and art film, and the 1930s, when audiences flocked to such good brother/bad brother gangster yarns as "Manhattan Melodrama," the movie John Dillinger watched before he was gunned down outside the Biograph theater in Chicago in 1934.
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While there's little doubt that James Gray has long since established himself as a talented (and thoroughly distinctive) filmmaker, We Own the Night - much like his first two efforts, Little Odessa and The Yards - suffers from an overly deliberate pace that ultimately prevents the viewer from fully connecting with the material.
Brothers, loyalty, the Russian mob and New York City's outer boroughs continue to fascinate filmmaker James Gray, whose "We Own the Night" marks his third feature in a dozen years following "Little Odessa" and "The Yards."
Gray, who previously made the impressive "Little Odessa" and "The Yards," has a sinuous camera style that pulls us into the brackish allure of the underworld.
James Gray is an old-school classicist whose two films – Little Odessa and The Yards – were archetypal crime dramas set in the director’s beloved New York City.
We Own The Night reunites director James Gray with two of the stars of his crime drama The Yards, Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg.
The startling turns that take Bobby toward possible reconciliation with his family recall grand crime dramas from GoodFellas to The Departed , and writer/director James Gray (who made the underrated The Yards a few years back, also with Phoenix) graces us with moments so beautifully eerie and grim that they are instantly fixed in the memory as classic gems of cinema -- such as the finale, a footchase for bad guys set among the marshy wetlands at the far reaches of New York City, a setting I’m not sure we’ve ever seen on film before.
Since Bobby is merely the manager of the bar and not at all involved with any illegal dealings that may be taking place there, he is not morally compromised in the same manner as, say, Johnny Depp in “Donnie Brasco.”
Brothers, loyalty, the Russian mob and New York City's outer boroughs continue to fascinate filmmaker James Gray, whose "We Own the Night" marks his third feature in a dozen years following "Little Odessa" and "The Yards."
Gray, who previously made the impressive "Little Odessa" and "The Yards," has a sinuous camera style that pulls us into the brackish allure of the underworld.
James Gray is an old-school classicist whose two films – Little Odessa and The Yards – were archetypal crime dramas set in the director’s beloved New York City.
As a writer, though, Gray seems much more interested in asking questions and setting up familial (particularly fraternal) conflict - his directorial debut, 1994’s Little Odessa, was also about violence and Russian émigré dysfunction in Brighton Beach - rather than actually answering things in concrete fashion.
While certain elements of the plot hearken back to the disappointing The Yards, the complexity of the characters and the ways in which they interact is more reminiscent of Gray's superior first movie, Little Odessa.
Gray revisits the same blue-collar Brooklyn milieu that was the setting for his previous films, Little Odessa and The Yards, and he reunites with The Yards stars, Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg.
We Own The Night employs one of the oldest and most melodramatic chestnuts of the crime genre -- friends/siblings who find themselves on opposite sides of the law -- which has been done in everything from Angels With Dirty Faces to the current Showtime series Brotherhood.
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Scarcely less than ambitious, he's always wanted to be great before he was even good: The most striking thing about Little Odessa, his 1994 debut, was its grim determination to be a classical masterwork of crime and family, and, just to be on the safe side, he's made sure to have at least one actor from The Godfather in his pictures since.
Consummately directed by James Gray (who helmed the 2000 Wahlberg-Phoenix teaming "The Yards"), the film moves at a riveting pace, and develops a mounting emotional power and a sumptuous gangster-epic flair that only a tad too obviously evokes "The Godfather."
The plot has elements of The Godfather and other crime family stories, but in between those cliché moments, writer/director James Gray splinters into some intense moments.
In a world where movies like State of Grace, Carlito’s Way, The Departed, Eastern Promises, and other dark double crossing mafia dramas didn’t exist, We Own the Night might have worked.