Film Tourism: A Cinephile’s Guide to the Capital Region with The Place Beyond the Pines
In this new series, Corey Dempsey does a deep dive into some big screen movies that were filmed in the Capital Region, revisiting iconic scenes and even doing drivealongs for your viewing pleasure. First up is Derek Cianfrance’s “love letter” to Schenectady, The Place Beyond the Pines.
The Talent
Directed by: Derek Cianfrance
Written by: Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, Darius Marder (wrote and directed Sound of Metal - fuck, yes)
Cinematography by: Sean Bobbit (Shame, 12 Years a Slave, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple - all, fuck yes)
Music by: Mike Patton (remember when he did that EP with Dillinger Escape Plan? That shit was wild)
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Ray Liotta, Mahershala Ali, Rose Byrne, Ben Mendelsohn
Other Cianfrance Films: Blue Valentine (fuck, yes), A Light Between Oceans (beautiful, but snore), Roofman (uneven, but I enjoyed myself)
The actors involved in this film have accrued 11 Academy Award nominations and 2 Academy Award wins, both for Mahershala Ali (Moonlight - fuck, yes and Green Book - he was great in it, but boo). This cast was stacked.
This was only Ali’s fourth feature film credit and it was definitely the first time I really became aware of him. He had been in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Predators but they were very small roles. This was the first film where I perked up and really noticed him, specifically the scene with Dane DeHaan where he’s tender and authoritative in equal measure.
After winning Best Supporting Actor for 2016’s Moonlight and 2018’s Green Book, I figured he was poised to become one of the next great actors, talked about like DeNiro in the 70s and 80s or Hanks and Washington in the 90s and 2000s, but, unfortunately, it just hasn’t happened for him like that.
Musings
“They’re a character actor trapped in a leading man’s body.” It’s a cliche that gets tossed around and ascribed to a bevy of actors. What does it actually mean though?
Basically, handsome and talented actors get lumped into one of two categories. On the one hand, there are the traditional movie stars: folks like Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks or Denzel Washington. While they’re all talented actors in their own rite, capable of taking on a variety of roles, each has a charisma and singularity that grounds the entire movie. No matter how well they embody the character they’re playing, the audience never has any questions about who it is that they are there to see.
On the other side, you have actors that make “interesting” choices in the roles they take on and the way they choose to play the characters. Sometimes it’s an interesting vocal choice that they bring to the character (Tom Hardy with Bane or Benicio Del Toro in The Usual Suspects). Other times, it’s taking on a character who is, how do I put this delicately… eccentric? Sure, let’s go with eccentric (Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading or Robert Pattinson in Mickey 17). To summarize bluntly (and perhaps cynically), it’s a description given to good looking men who are actually interested in, you know, acting.
So how does an actor earn this label and what does this have to do with The Place Beyond the Pines? Valid questions, both of which I’ll answer right now.
First, an actor earns this label early in their career by establishing themselves as a heartthrob in movies and then actively playing against that idea by taking on “interesting” roles with prestigious directors.
Second, this has to do with The Place Beyond the Pines, because I believe Ryan Gosling is a character actor trapped in a leading man’s body, but he never gets lumped into that category with the likes of Pitt or Pattinson or Hardy or Del Toro. So, let’s make the case!
For Gosling, the heartthrob thing really comes down to The Notebook. This came out when I was a junior in high school and ‘hey, do you want to come over and watch The Notebook?’ was the easiest pick up line in the world and led to a great number of basement couch makeout sessions. He also did Crazy, Stupid, Love in 2010 so everyone knew he still had it.
Here are Gosling’s five most interesting roles between 2006 and 2013 (excluding The Place Beyond the Pines, because, well, we’ll get there):
Dan Dunne in Half Nelson, directed by Ryan Fleck. He plays a middle-school teacher that freebases cocaine in his spare time. This is the most film-festival bait movie ever, but I really enjoy it. Gosling gives a tremendous performance.
Lars Lindstrom in Lars and the Real Girl, directed by Craig Gillespie. He’s in a non-sexual, romantic relationship with a sex doll. He’s Ryan freaking Gosling and he’s in a relationship with a non-human woman. Let that sink in.
Dean Pereira in Blue Valentine, directed by Derek Cianfrance. He is largely bald for the second half of this movie and he still looks like a million bucks.
The Driver in Drive and Julian Thompson in Only God Forgives, both directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. Gosling did Drive and didn’t really speak for most of the movie. After doing that one, he said ‘Bet’ and then only spoke 17 lines in Only God Forgives. That shit was fucking wild.
After writing that out, I can understand why Gosling doesn’t get tossed into the “character actor in a leading man’s body conversation”.
In two of the movies, he’s largely silent and the list of directors doesn’t stand up to that of Pitt (Fincher, Gilliam, Ritchie) or Pattinson (The Safdie Brothers, Cronenberg, Eggers).
But, if we just look at the roles: cocaine addicted middle school teacher, incel before reddit, bald divorcee, and silent movie actor. He was swinging for the fences right along with his character actor brethren.
The Capital Region on The Big Screen
We’re going to create the podium for the best use of the capital region in The Place Beyond the Pines, but first a disclaimer, in three parts.
First, spoilers abound. If you haven’t seen this movie, stop reading, watch it, and then come back and finish reading.
Second, the podium is going to be largely focused on the first half of the movie because, well, it fucking rules and the second half is just okay. So quickly, a shout out to the Schenectady Police Station, Schenectady High School and Norman Ridge Road up in the Dacks, all of which feature prominently in the second half of the movie.
Third, there’s some really great Schenectady homes featured in this movie, but so we don’t end up with a pizza on somebody’s roof situation, we’re going to leave those locations out. Without further ado, let’s do the podium.
Honorable mention: Gosling’s character, Luke Glanton, robs his first bank (26:26). Filmed at 1st National Bank of Scotia, 201 Mohawk Avenue in Scotia.
First, a quick note about the tracking shot as Glanton approaches the bank on his motorcycle: How many takes do you think it took for them to get it so the rotating 1st National Bank sign is facing perfectly towards the camera at the end? My guess is 12. It’s a beautiful piece of filmmaking.
You can really feel Glanton’s confidence and adrenaline. He grabs the bank teller by his tie and walks him around the bank like a dog on a leash to go “fetch” his money. He was really feeling himself here. This feeling doesn’t last long, but more on that later.
Glanton then books it down Route 5, doing at least 110 mph and takes a left onto Gower Road. Robin (Mendelsohn), his partner in this robbing banks foray, is waiting with a box truck. Glanton rides the bike directly into the box truck and they make their escape. Glanton pukes as relief washes over them. Tremendous scene.
They did cheat the geography a little bit here. Coming from Scotia, there’s no way Glanton would be making a left onto Gower Road there. Granted, he could have taken a roundabout route and ended up coming from that direction, but he just robbed a bank so speed and efficiency is kind of paramount. I’m glad they did though, because him cutting across three lanes of traffic to make that left is a really exciting shot.
Bronze Medal: Glanton and Romina Gutierrez (Mendes) reconnect (30:57). Various Locations.
After the success of the first robbery, Glanton surprises his estranged lover and the mother of his child, Romina, outside of her job. She works at Route 7 Diner located at 1090 Troy-Schenectady Road in Latham. A couple notes here.
Great song choice. A diner has never looked as good as it does here with “Dancing in the Dark” by Springsteen playing in the background. Speaking of looking good, I don’t think there’s ever been two better looking people than Gosling and Mendes at this diner before or since this very moment.
Finally, when we were in high school, my friends and I had this thing that we called GNO (Guys Night Out). We were all doing the whole dating thing and were spending a lot of time with girlfriends, but didn’t want to lose sight of our friendship. We’d get together, watch movies, play video games and then around midnight, we’d always hit a Capital Region diner that we’d never been to before. It was a really nice sentiment for a bunch of teenage boys. I bring this up here because Route 7 Diner was one of the places we visited, and I’m always reminded of GNO whenever I watch this scene.
Glanton and Romina spend the evening together (she’s naked and he’s fondling her left breast in the morning so we know what happened there) and then take their son to try ice cream for the first time. This is one of the iconic images from the movie and it was filmed at Dairy Circus (178 Sacandaga Road) in Scotia. Two notes here.
This scene always gets me directly in the feels because I’m reminded of taking my little dude for ice cream for the first time. We took him to The Snowman in North Troy. The look he had on his face was exactly like baby Jason in this movie.
Second, this is Gosling’s movie but Mendes steals this scene. When she’s crying while they’re taking the picture, she’s communicating so much without saying a word. She’s overwhelmed by happiness that their broken family is finally together. She’s terrified about what that means for the life she’s built without Glanton, and there’s also some guilt about stepping out on her current man, Kofi (Ali). Mendes doesn’t get the credit she deserves. I hope she makes a comeback soon.
Cianfrance smash cuts away from this sweet family moment to Glanton throwing a computer on the ground during his next bank robbery. If the symbolism isn’t clear, everything’s about to fall apart.
Silver Medal: The Globe of Death motorcycle stunt (01:37). Filmed at Altamont Fairgrounds on the corner of Route 146 and Arlington St. in Altamont.
Cianfrance really came out swinging in this movie. It starts with a three-and-a-half minute oner, tracking Glanton through a busy fair with hundreds of extras, into a tent with another hundred or so extras, where they perform one of the most dangerous possible stunts. The first cut of the movie doesn’t come until 5:08. How can you not be romantic about filmmaking?
Two things about this scene. One of which is fun, the second of which is terrifying.
The fun thing: At 3:55, Glanton drives off camera towards the Globe of Death but the camera stays on the other two motorcycle riders. When the two riders drive towards Glanton, the camera pans with them and Glanton is already inside the Globe. This is where they replaced Gosling with the stuntman. This is one of the only motorcycle stunts that Gosling didn’t do himself because, well, there’s only like 10 guys on the planet who can do this stunt, and Gosling is not one of them.
The terrifying thing: Sean Bobbitt, the cinematographer, who has a history as a war photographer, insisted on filming the Globe of Death stunt from inside of The Globe.
“I’m watching the monitor, it’s beautiful, but then I hear a crash and the monitor went fuzzy,” Cianfrance said in an interview with Focus Features, the production company behind the film.
When he looked over, Bobbitt was at the bottom of a pile of three motorcycles. The bikers had crashed into him as he was shooting the scene. Bobbitt was pissed he didn’t get the shot and demanded that Cianfrance let him do it again. Same result the second time. Bobbitt suffered a concussion and the shoot was cancelled for the rest of the night. Cianfrance wouldn’t allow him to try it a third time, so they ended up shooting the stunt from the outside, which is what we see in the final movie.
To be honest, Cianfrance letting him try it the second time was pretty irresponsible.
Gold Medal: Glanton robs his third and final bank (45:03). Filmed at Trustco Bank located on the corner of State St. and Brandywine Ave. in Schenectady.
Remember when I said everything’s about to fall apart? Here’s what Glanton’s been up to since he took his son for ice cream:
He assaulted Romina’s man Kofi with a wrench and went to prison.
Out on bail, Glanton informs his partner Robin that he wants to rob two banks in one day. Scared that Glanton’s gonna get himself caught and implicate him in the process, Robin decides to destroy Glanton’s motorcycle.
Glanton shoves a pistol in Robin’s mouth, takes his share of the money and buys a new motorcycle.
Now that we’re all caught up, Glanton is setting out to rob two banks in one day in a desperate attempt to get back in Romina’s good graces. Trouble is, he forgets his glasses, everyone can see his face and as he arrives in the lobby he’s surprised to learn there is a large glass enclosure surrounding the bank tellers. Having never robbed a place, I’m not coming from a place of authority here, but I’ve watched enough movies to know that you have to case the joint before committing a robbery. Come on, man! Glanton is fucking up fast and picking up speed.
In contrasting this robbery scene to the previous one, Gosling does an outstanding job of conveying the difference in Glanton’s state of mind. Gone is the bravado and in its place is pure, unbridled desperation. His voice cracks as he barks instructions at the bank workers. He enlists the help of a frail old lady who can’t manage to toss the bag of money over the enclosure, wasting precious time that he could be using to escape. By the time he’s ready to make his escape, the cops have already responded and are arriving on the scene. We’ve got a motorcycle chase on our hands.
The chase is a breathless six-minute sequence all through downtown Schenectady. Here are the beats:
Glanton narrowly escapes the first officer on the scene and drives through the busy intersection at State St. and Brandywine Ave. This is actually Gosling on the motorcycle during this scene. According to Cianfrance, it took 22 takes to get the shot and on every single one of them he became increasingly fearful that he would be responsible for killing Ryan Gosling.
Glanton heads north on Brandywine Avenue and then takes a left into Vale Cemetery taking the officer on an off-road chase through the graveyard (more symbolism). Cianfrance was really on one during this movie. This is another oner and he films the whole thing sitting in the passenger seat of the cop car. It’s like we the audience are also chasing after Glanton as we view him through the front windshield and across the driver’s seat through the side window.
The cop in pursuit is shouting instructions into his CV radio, providing the other officers with updates on the suspect’s movements. Up to this point, he’s geographically accurate, the suspect is heading North on Brandywine and then Glanton takes a left into Vale Cemetery which is exactly what would happen in this scenario.
As Glanton escapes the cemetery though, things get messed up. The officer in pursuit says “he’s heading down State. He got around the barrier at Moyerson.” Moyerson is not a street that exists. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they meant ‘Moyston Street’ which is located on the South side of the cemetery and would indeed lead to State Street. Okay, we’re back.
Except we’re not, because now we’re in Officer Avery’s (Cooper) cruiser and he’s got a visual of the suspect “heading South on Elmer,” “West on Stanford” and then “North on Plymouth”, which is all 100% correct and is all on the North side of the cemetery. How in the name of teleportation did we end up on the North side all of a sudden? This one cop and his ‘Moyerson’ business is making my head hurt.
Okay, nitpicking about the geography over. Avery corners Glanton in a house on Plymouth Ave. and we get the showdown that sets up the final two-thirds of the film.
Glanton is on the phone with Romina imploring her not to tell their son about him. Avery busts in the door and opens fire on Glanton. As he’s falling out the window, Glanton gets a shot off and gets Avery in the leg. Avery rises to look out the window and sees Glanton lying prone on the driveway, bleeding out. The shot from above down on Glanton and then the reverse looking back up at Avery is absolutely brilliant.
At 52:45, Glanton’s dead and at this point I just have to say, killing off the top named actor on the poster less than an hour into the movie, is a bold choice. I can’t say I like it because the movie goes a bit downhill from here, but god damn it if I don’t fucking respect it. Great scene.
The Place Beyond the Pines may not be the best movie ever filmed in The Capital Region (we’ll get there in a later essay), but it’s definitely the best use of The Capital Region in a movie.
