MovieChat Forums > The Town (2010) Discussion > Classic or not?

Classic or not?

posted 9 years ago by ridderclaude
19 replies | jump to latest

I remember not seeing HEAT until about 2000, but even by that point, it already had a reputation as being a seminal masterpiece. I only heard about it because it was regarded as such a classic, even just five years after its release.

In recent years, there have been a lot of crime dramas and heist films, but none have really even come close to being as seminal and highly influential.

It's been six years, is THE TOWN a classic? I enjoyed it, but like many modern crime dramas, it seems to borrow more from its predecessors than reinvent what's great about them. Do you regard it as a classic or does it need more time? When I think of crime auteurs, I think of Melville and Mann, both combining cool, stylish aesthetics with gritty realism, but now that the latter is near the end of his career, who will take up that artistic ambition of being the next great crime drama director? Is it Ben Affleck? John Hillcoat?

[–] bge85 (18) 7 years ago

watched it loads of times like one of my favourites. doubt whether its up there with the greats overall as a story and film.

The florist scene were the truth comes out about dougs mother and father, is up there with the greatest acted scenes in history. pete postlethwaite deserved an oscar just for that scene alone

[–] mplo (2356) 7 years ago

This:

"it seems to borrow more from its predecessors than reinvent what's great about them. "

is one of the biggest problems with Ben Affleck's "The Town". I think it was quite disingenuous of Ben Affleck to borrow so much of "The Town" from other, better crime films. This is what helped cheapen "The Town" quite a bit, and it doesn't have enough of the really gritty believable scenes and characters that most other crime movies have.

[–] Jones70 (6585) 3 years ago

Yes I think it is.

[–] Jones70 (6585) 2 years ago

Yes I think so, be nice if Affleck made more crime thrillers.

[–] Jes' Sayin' (6398) 2 years ago

I would say the very idea of classic is a dinosaur, or at least disappearing. There aren't anymore movies that everyone watches. Viewers are now divided up into little pockets by genres: superheroes, heists, spy, detective, drama, and so on.