Live By Night - Liked It

The Movie

The movie starts us in Boston during a time at which there is a lot of crime. It is the 1920's and the prohibition is at full swing. Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck) is in love with a gangster's girl, Emma (Sienna Miller), and is making his money by robbing establishments and other crime filled adventures. When they decide to take off to California together, they are going to sleep by day and live by night. Joe had one more job to do before they could take off together and leave their crime filled lives behind them. It's not at all a happy situation though, first the bank heist does not go as planned and when he finally is able to evade the police, it turns out that Emma has backstabbed him to her gangster boyfriend, Albert White (Robert Glenister). Honestly, he was lucky the police caught up to him, otherwise I'm sure he would have been killed, just like Emma. 

After spending time in the slammer, he decides that he really will join ranks with the gangsters. So he turns to White's enemy who sends him to Tampa in hopes to corner the rum market during the prohibtion. It's in Florida that he excels at his position, is able to thrive with the rum, night clubs, etc. He finds love and enemies along the way. Albert White's mob isn't the only people that he has trouble

with though. Because he is working with non-caucasians, he has brought attention to himself and his colleagues from the KKK, who has made it their mission to destroy and happiness that is possible. Night clubs begin to be bomb, people murdered, and other crimes due to racism. 

A  big   project   that  Joe  has  been  tasked

with is to legalize gambling and to finish building a casino. With this, there is another problem, Loretta (Elle Fanning). She started using her past heroine addiction as an outlet to advocate against legalize gambling, preaching all over Tampa and other part of Florida. 

In the end his conscience gets to him and he can't do what must be done to ensure the the gambling is legal, thus allowing for his mob boss to take action against him in a spectacular gun fight that almost leaves you wanting more. 

Liked Its & Hated Its

I liked the car chase and gun fight scene in the beginning of the film, after they rob the bank. There was something about watching those old cars chase each other that was strangely intoxicating. I liked the fact that it took place in the 1920s, oh what it must have been like to live back then with all those fabulous outfits and vehicles. I liked Ben Affleck in this movie, I thought he did a wonderful job playing his role: it was evident that he didn't want to be a part of the gangster life, but ultimately didn't have anything else to do to get his revenge against Albert White. 

<SPOILERS> I didn't like the end scenes. I felt that adding the shooting and murder of his wife were unneccessary. Doesn't Joe deserve some happiness? I also thought the scenes showing his son growing up were a little unncessary as well. I felt like this movie was just never ending, though it still was only about two hours long, definitely not too long of a watch. I did however like the ending gun fight scene, where he and his friends killed everyone that would stop them from living out there dreams (for Joe it was not to be in the mob) for the others, it was to live. I loved when Joe handed over the leadership to his right hand man: he literally looked both confused and bewildered, it was perfect <END SPOILERS>

​Rating

If I had to chose a decade to live in other than the current one, I would definitely choose the 1920's. Mainly because of the fantastic wardrobe the women wore back then, but because (and I'm thinking of non-gangster lifestyle here) it seemed like life was simpler back then. Perhaps it wasn't, but there were no cell phones, computers, TVs, to tie us down and be lazy at home on a Saturday evening. There was no excuse as to why you weren't going outside and playing with your dog or having a picnic with your lover. 

I'm teetering on the edge of an "okay" rating and an "liked it" rating. Live By Night I thought was great, Ben Affleck excelled in his role and the action scenes were just enough to keep you interested throughout the entire movie. Usually, I'm not a fan of gangster movies, but this one wasn't so bad. I'm going to officially give it a "Liked It" rating and recommend everyone to watch it when it comes out this weekend!