There are so many seemingly smaller iconomic moments in my alltime favorite movie, West Side Story, which I’ve written about mucho times on here, as well as on a number of other forum/message boards, that they’re all combined together in one dynamite package to make this great golden oldie but keeper of a film classic what it is;  one big iconic moment, for me and probably many, many other average moviegoers as well.     Due to my intense love for this great, golden oldie but keeper of a movie-musical classic, I have a really tough time naming any favorite scenes/songs/characters from West Side Story, but I will say this:

After Claire Keesey’s bank  that she managed was robbed at gunpoint by four Townie men, they took her as a hostage, blindfolded her, drove her to a beach, and forced her to walk until she felt the water at her toes.  Claire talks to the Feds briefly, and then, after finding out that Claire resides in The Town (Boston’s Charlestown section), Doug trails Claire to find out what she knows, and ends up supposedly falling in love with her, and Claire falls in love with him, even after Doug had oh so charmingly and subtly warned Claire not to talk to the Feds or else!  In essence, Claire had been sweet-talked and seduced by Doug into a romantic relationship in order to get a promise from her not to talk to the Feds, which Doug pretty much got.  Inotherwords, he now had complete control over her.  

The fact that Claire not only lied to the Feds about who Doug was, in order to cover his ass, but  also helped Doug (a career criminal, armed felon and wanted fugitive) elude the law by tipping him off to the Feds’ presence in her condominium, by giving him the “It’ll be just like one of my sunny days” code,  but she also kept Doug’s duffel bag of stolen money that he left her before skipping town, which she spends on renovating a seedy ice hockey rink.  It was clear that Claire Keesey suffered from what’s called the “Stockholm Syndrome”.

That being said, the following link describes Claire (almost) perfectly:

http://www.womensaccounts.com/…

Please note:  this post was cross-posted from firefly-dreaming.com.

Lately, I’ve had both Claire, the bank manager, whose bank was robbed, and Doug MacRay, a lifelong Charlestown resident who was the leader of the four-man Townie gang who’d robbed Claire’s bank, wearing Hallowe’en masks and ninja outfits, forced her to open the safe at gunpoint, and then took her as a hostage by driving her to a beach in Boston after blindfolding her to  make sure she didn’t see anything, and then forcing her to walk on the beach until she felt the water on her toes, on my mind a great deal, for some reason.    They let her go, physically unharmed, although rather traumatized by the whole incident, which included “Jem’s” near-fatal beating of Claire’s assistant manager, and Claire ends up quitting her job as the bank manager, as a result.  

Ironically, one is supposed to root for Doug MacRay for ultimately having outwitted the FBI and gotten away, at least in part due to being tipped off by Claire, but, unlike many people, I have not been able to do that.  Doug is clearly not the nice guy that he comes across as, even though he came from a dysfunctional family (his mother ran off when he was about six years old and, ten years later, when Doug was a teen, his father was sent to prison to serve a lifetime sentence for bank robbery and murder) and grew up in a rough and tough neighborhood.  He’d had a chance, as a young man,  at around 20, to turn his life around, by being a professional Hockey Player for the Bruins, and not end up like his father, but, due to his own arrogance, nastiness, cocky behavior, and fooling around with drugs and alcohol during his early twenties, he totally blew that chance, and went into the bank-robbing business, like his father.   At one point, he’d also gotten into a nasty fight with another guy on his own hockey team, thus getting him kicked out of the Bruins for good.  

Please note:  This essay is cross-posted from imdb.com (Internet Movie Database, but it’s also posted on firefly-dreaming.com.

At the end of last month, I managed to obtain a copy of the regular DVD version of The Town from our local public library, and I watched it for the third time this week. As much as Doug and his crew really are not nice guys, and Fergie and his bodyguard, Rusty, are quite vicious, I began to think that Claire is her own worst enemy.

Claire seems like a total phony, with her constant pasted-on smile, her pretentiousness, and her always playing “the babe”. Hey…if I were a guy, I’d keep my distance from her, because I think she’s undoubtedly a real bitch who cloaks her bitchery in a mantle of totally fake charm and charisma, pretending to be an all-out fun gal to have around. Scratch that surface, and I’d be the first to bet that Claire is rotten to the core underneath it all despite the fact that she seems so “normal”, spontaneous, communicative, gentle, serene, smiling, sunny, interesting and interested. Not surprisingly, when her idyll turned bad around the edges, she ends up crying a lot, and I find myself thinking; aha….that’s what Claire gets for taking up with a career criminal and a wanted fugitive and then lying to the Feds about her and Doug’s romantic relationship.

So, Doug and “Jem” broke into some guy’s apartment in the housing project, beat the hell out of him and permanently crippled him for supposedly having thrown bottles at Doug’s Lady Claire, who’d been stupid enough to walk through a rough and tough housing project at night in the first place (Claire obviously has no sense, or she would’ve realized that no woman in her right mind would take a short cut through a tough housing project alone at night.), and then Doug shot and killed his and Jem’s crime boss, Fergie the Florist and his bodyguard, Rusty, all in revenge for trying to hurt, or threatening to kill Claire, and partly out of revenge for the death of Doug’s mother, who “Fergie” the Florist  got addicted to drugs to shut her up, and she ultimately committed suicide, although Doug’s father doesn’t tell him that when he visits him in prison.   My, my how touching! Lady Claire must feel flattered that she’s got criminals Doug and “Jem” rushing to her defense. Imho, Claire should’ve known from the beginning that she was flirting with serious trouble when she took up with and continued to date Doug MacRay.  

Please note:  This essay is cross-posted from firefly-dreaming.com.

As everybody knows, I wrote about the movie The Town, which is based on Chuck Hogan’s thriller novel, Prince of Thieves earlier here on firefly.  There are important differences between the movie and the book on which it is based, and, as I also pointed out, I felt that the book was a great deal better than the film, although I never elaborated on any of the reasons why.

Please note:  This essay is cross-posted from firefly-dreaming.com

Based on Chuck Hogan’s novel Prince of Thieves, this movie is about four young men who are lifelong residents of Boston’s Charlestown section, or Townies, as the denizens of the area call themselves.  Although Charlestown is a predominantly working-class Irish-Catholic area, it has become more gentrified in the past 20-30 years, and the denizens of the area often refer to the gentry as “Toonies”.  The four men; Doug MacRay, Albert Magloan (Gloansy), James Caughlin (“Jem”), and Desmond Elden (Dez), pride themselves on robbing banks and armored cars, getting what they want, and coming away clean.  However, one sunny day, when they decide to rob a bank in Cambridge’s Harvard Square, this bank robbery goes wrong, the attractive woman who’s the manager of the bank ends up being forced to open the bank’s safe at gun point, taken hostage and blinddfolded by the four men,  who’ve donned all-black outfits and Hallowe’en masks, and an assistant manger ends up being badly beaten and seriously injured, within inches of his life.

Hi, RiaD.  I crossposted this essay from firefly-dreaming.com.  

Ten years ago, on January 18th, 2001, my beloved father passed away after a long illness (He’d been sick for a year and a half) prior to his death, his funeral, and the big celebration of his life as an exceptionally great person, a fantastic freelance photojournalist, a great conversationalist, and a big jazz buff.  He was also a great tennis player, but a horrible punster, yet,  he had a wonderful sense of humor, which often helped pull people through.

My dad was always an exuberant, vigorous man, who enjoyed life to the fullest, showed a true curiosity and interest in what made people tick,  always walked tall, and had a twinkle in his eye.  Although his work as a freelance photojournalist often took him to various parts of the country, he was always there for the rest of the family, through thick and thin.