The Yards (2000)

64% of critics liked it
(95 reviews)
52% of users liked it
(8,267 ratings)

In this drama, a young man joins the family business without knowing that he's entering a world of danger and deceit. Hot-headed Leo Handler (Mark Wahlberg) has had some scrapes with the law and served time for a crime he didn't commit. Hoping to get his life back on track, he takes a job in the New… More In this drama, a young man joins the family business without knowing that he's entering a world of danger and deceit. Hot-headed Leo Handler (Mark Wahlberg) has had some scrapes with the law and served time for a crime he didn't commit. Hoping to get his life back on track, he takes a job in the New York subway yards, secured by his Uncle Frank (James Caan), who has a high-ranking position in the New York Transit Authority. The longer Leo works in the yards, the more he realizes that his uncle controls a corrupt underworld where graft, violent reprisals, and even death are just part of the job. Will Leo turn against his family in the name of justice, or will he keep quiet and ignore the danger and lawlessness that surround him? The Yards also features Charlize Theron, Joaquin Phoenix, Ellen Burstyn, and Faye Dunaway. It was director James Gray's first film after his acclaimed debut with Little Odessa. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 55 min.
Directed By: James Gray
Written By: James Gray, Matt Reeves
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Oct 20, 2000 Limited
On DVD: Apr 10, 2001
Studio: Miramax Films

Critic Reviews

Todd McCarthy, Variety
An On the Waterfront wannabe, directed with a heavy portentousness that smothers the drama in a thick sauce of self-importance.
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer
I can't remember when a film so well-acted and so well-rendered visually was also so oppressive to sit through.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
It's that [moral] ambiguity that makes the film interesting.
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After a point, The Yards crosses the line from portentously atmospheric to merely dolorous.
Jay Carr, Boston Globe
By the end, we're left with a feeling of depletion rather than resolution.
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
A rare and often quite good try at making a thriller with real people and believable contemporary backgrounds.
Nick Rogers, Suite101.com
How "The Yards" shifts toward crime drama through character rather than pure plot is hard to disclose without divesting twists. Inspired by real-life scandal, James Gray lets personal insight color Shakespearean shenanigans of privilege, panic and power.
Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena
Sem medo de evocar comparações com "O Poderoso Chefão", Gray cria um filme repleto de personagens ambíguos e uma forte atmosfera de tristeza e desesperança moral.
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
...the filmmaker's use of dark visuals effectively matches the moody, almost operatic tone of the script.
Michael Dequina, TheMovieReport.com
Understatement is something that one would not normally associate with such a pulpy tale, but that's what makes Gray's film surprisingly effective.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
Writer/director James Gray tells the story with an impressive urban palate.
Geoff Andrew, Time Out
A sensitive, intelligent and ambitious variation on the traditional going-straight story.
Frank Swietek, One Guy's Opinion
Lacks the pizzazz of energetic pulp, but doesn't replace it with any compensatory insight or power.
Nick Davis, Nick's Flick Picks
A very good film, and though obviously flawed, it does generate one form of elation: the feeling of seeing a young director stick to the guns of his tricky, ambitious material, and find the right people to tell his story.
Geoffrey Macnab, Sight and Sound
Self-consciously elegiac, The Yards is a slow-burning but meticulously crafted family melodrama posing as a thriller.
Matthew Turner, ViewLondon
Atmospheric, worthy-but dull crime drama, with a largely wasted cast of greats.
Jean Lowerison, San Diego Metropolitan
This is a story with Shakespeare-league themes -- greed, betrayal, graft, corruption. It's too much to expect Shakespeare-level dialogue, and we don't get it. But what we do get is pretty darned good.
Jeffrey Westhoff, Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)
Though The Yards starts with a familiar crime plot, it becomes fascinating because of its characters.
Peter Keough, Boston Phoenix
Despite Gray's insistence on lighting everything as if this were Don Corleone in a drawing room, The Yards remains a vacant lot.

Read all 19 critic reviews

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Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

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Featured Audience Ratings

Nicki M

Bored the hell out of me. Was not that bad, I guess, if you like these type of crime family stories, but really wasn't in the mood to watch it and it failed to grab my attention. Dark and dingy in the filming, too. Good cast, acting is fine.
♥˩ƳИИ &

This movie started out a little slow, but it got interesting quickly enough. I am really starting to become an fan of Joaquin Phoenix. I enjoy watching him act. Really hope he decides to act again. Mark Wahlberg was great. Once the story gets going it holds your attention. Really… More
This movie started out a little slow, but it got interesting quickly enough. I am really starting to become an fan of Joaquin Phoenix. I enjoy watching him act. Really hope he decides to act again. Mark Wahlberg was great. Once the story gets going it holds your attention. Really liked the movie and its action. Thought everyone was great. Little weirded out with Mark and Charlize relationship since they are suppose to be cousins in the movie. But it explains it later on in the movie. But all in all a really good movie.
Bruce B

Mark Wahlberg makes this movie rise to the top. After getting out of prison, he tries to stay clean but gets caught up in trouble cause by his cousin. All takes place in NYC subway abd train yards. Excellent story, little action but lots of suspense. 5 Stars is not enough,
Arash X

An example of making a good movie with an unoriginal plot, Good perfs from Phoenix & Burstyn
Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]In [/font][font=Century Gothic]"The Yards", Leo(Mark Wahlberg) has just recently been paroled from prison for a crime unspecified to his native environs of Queens. He turns to his uncle Frank(James Caan) who owns a subway repair shop for a job. Frank… More
[font=Century Gothic]In [/font][font=Century Gothic]"The Yards", Leo(Mark Wahlberg) has just recently been paroled from prison for a crime unspecified to his native environs of Queens. He turns to his uncle Frank(James Caan) who owns a subway repair shop for a job. Frank suggests Leo enter a 2-year training program to become a machinist but with a mother to support and too proud to accept handouts, Leo decides to instead work with his buddy, Willie(Joaquin Phoenix) and other "suits" that work to ensure backroom deals and other forms of corruption. And then something goes very, very wrong...[/font] The first thing I noticed about "The Yards" is its cast - Wahlberg(never better), Caan, Phoenix, Charlize Theron, Faye Dunaway and Ellen Burstyn - might seem at first a little too Hollywood for this small-scale story about corruption, politics, loyalty and changing times, but everybody involved does a wonderful job. The movie is certainly well-photographed. But the deliberate pacing leads to a lack of drama in a rather confouding climax. And a subplot involving Theron's character is never fully explored.
Christopher B

Excellent character and morality drama with great performances. I particularly loved Caan as the somewhat kind hearted villain. It would have been easy to play him as a complete dick, but this is a film without any clear good or evil characters, and it's all the better for it.… More
Excellent character and morality drama with great performances. I particularly loved Caan as the somewhat kind hearted villain. It would have been easy to play him as a complete dick, but this is a film without any clear good or evil characters, and it's all the better for it. Unpredictable and exciting, I'm surprised this isn't better known.
Chosen 7

Good film, good writing and some great performances. Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix are a great acting combo, as seen in the recent film "We Own The Night"....which was also directed by James Gray. The two films have a similar feel.
Haley A

Phoenis and Wahlberg are awesome!