Edwin
Alonzo Boyd had a hard time making ends meet after his WWII discharge. Does he blame the Liberal governments of King
and St. Laurent? No, it was the banks’
fault for not underwriting his dream of becoming an actor. He would make them pay as a mascara-smeared
bank robber, who became a mid Twentieth Century Canadian media sensation in the
Clyde Barrow mold. Boyd’s criminal
exploits are dramatized in Nathan Morlando’s strangely dour Citizen Gangster (trailer here), which opens
today in New York at the IFC Center.
Boyd
is good family man, but a bit impetuous.
He quits his job as a bus driver, convinced Lorne Greene offered him an
invitation to study acting with him, based on a casual conversation. However, when Greene’s acting academy turns
out to be a dodgy business more interested in tuition than art, Boyd takes out
his frustration on a bank. Yes, it is
all Ben Cartwright’s fault and Citizen never
lets him off the hook.
Needless
to say, Boyd develops a taste for knocking over banks and the public eats up
his polite showman shtick. Pressing his
luck, he gets nicked by Detective Rhys, a protégé of his ex-cop father’s. This is just a momentary setback though. Hooking up with the Jackson Brothers, Boyd
breaks out a jail, launching a major crime spree.
Citizen is a vexing
gangster picture that desperately wants viewers to sympathize with Boyd on one
hand, but insists on denying them any pleasure from his outrageous antics. Instead, we are supposed to tut-tut at the
economic system (which happened to be socializing at a rapid rate) that could
reduce a man to such desperate measures.
Scott
Speedman has the perfect devil-may-care presence for the fame-blinded Boyd and
he can also croon a passable sentimental ballad. However, the real brooding intensity comes
from Kevin Durand, who largely keeps the film afloat as Lenny Jackson, the former
leader of the Jackson gang, forced to come to terms with his less prominent
role in what the media insists on calling the Boyd gang. Brian Cox also delivers a nice scene here and
there as Boyd’s somewhat disappointed father.
However, the balance of the Boyd gang and family leave little lasting
impression.
