James Gray Talks About The Yards

Oct. 18, 2000 -- James Gray knows New York. Knows not only of the shiny Fifth Avenue New York, but also of the gritty, dirt-under-the-fingernails New York.

The tracks less traveled by — and where Gray grew up, Queens.

Sunnyside, Queens to be exact is where the indie film director takes his second film The Yards. The story follows Leo Handler, (Mark Wahlberg), a man who just got out of prison after taking the fall for a group of friends. He comes home, only wanting to become a “productive member of society.”

However, instead of training to become a mechanic like his uncle recommended (James Caan), he pairs up with his old friend Willie Guiterrez (Joaquin Phoenix) and quickly falls into bad straits. It is then that Leo finds himself drawn into a circle of corruption, ultimately tied to one of the most influential families in New York — his own.

“The work gets more and more personal as it goes on,” Gray said. “Because I can’t really be simpatico with somebody who’s on a space station right now.”

Theme, Revisited

Torn between being loyal to his family and friend Willie, and also being pinned to a crime that could land him in prison for life, Leo realizes that he has to turn in his family, before they do him in.

The theme of boy-coming-out-of-prison-and-wants-to-do-good isn’t a new theme for Gray. His previous endeavor, Little Odessa, set in the Brighton Beach Russian community of Brooklyn, also dealt with the same issue: the lead character fell in with bad company, despite every effort to keep himself out of trouble.

Coincidence? Or perhaps a theme Gray revisits knowing that he always longed for a merry homecoming when he returned home from University of Southern California in Los Angeles-but never got one.

“When I was 18 years old, and I went away to college, before I left, I had a mother, a father and a brother all living under the same roof,” he said. “Within a matter of three months, my brother moved out, and my mother died. It was traumatic for my father, and emotional time for all of us.”

But more importantly, the emphasis on family is very important to him. Especially the sacrifices that need to be made to preserve family and how Gray admits to being troubled by how a society that makes so much ado about material wealth also is expected to make unbelievable sacrifices.

“I think that family life is very interesting in this country because we are in a sit where capitalism is the predominant system,” he said. “It fosters a kind of ethic in which material wealth and material goods are unbelievably important and in fact more important than your ability to establish connections with other people.

“How can a culture that is always implyin that you have to make more money to live a better life also tell you to spend more time with your family [and that] it matters more?” he said.

Although Gray admits to doing his homework before writing and directing his script, he turned once again to his family for inspiration.

“My father helped run a company that helped supply the subways of New York,” he said. “I didn’t make up a thing.”

Role Models

So how does an indie film director get James Caan, Mark Wahlberg and Charlize Theron to take a significant paycut?

Simple. He feels that true actors will be attracted to good filmmaking. He also says he writes and directs scripts that perhaps remind them all of an era long since gone in filmmaking.

“When they get a script like this, frankly I think they jump to the chance to do it.”

“The shape and style of movies is very different than what is was 30 years ago,” Gray said. “Something in the style of American movies that focused the films on not only the story, but also intimate details of characterization.

“Today’s cinema tends to be more or less the domain of the teenager,” he continued. “[And there’s] a degree of subtlety that’s lacking.”

So what’s next in store for Gray?

“Well, I’m happily unemployed right now, going to festivals and stuff,” he said. “But I think my next movie going to be about cops.”