I’m so excited about my upcoming trip to Boston (my first time traveling to Boston and our first family trip as well) that I started watching a bunch of great movies and shows that are set in or near Boston, Massachusetts (including a 3 day Cheers marathon). Since I have Boston travel fever, I figured I’d share it, as well as my list of ten great Boston movies, and unlike every other list I find that feature nothing but crime-thrillers, there are actually movies here women will love, period pieces, and classic.
Ten Great Boston Movies
1. Good Will Hunting This is one of my favorite movies of all time, and the movie that made me interested in visiting Boston in the first place. Matt Damon plays a poor genius from Southie (South Boston) who develops a relationship with a psychiatrist (Robin Williams) that changes them both.
2. The Departed– A Boston movie that wow’ed audiences everywhere with its realism, grittiness, and great looking cast of male actors *wink*, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Mark Wahlberg. The Departed is a Martin Scorsese classic about organized crime and crooked cops, and the twists and surprises just keep coming until the very end…awesome movie!
3. The Bostonians A great movie based on a great book by Henry James, the Bostonians is about the women’s movement in Boston circa 1867, and one woman’s struggle between using her charm to help woman advance or giving it up all for old-fashioned man who wants her all to himself. It stars a young Christopher Reeves as the persistent suitor.
4. Blown Away Evidently I’m a softie for thinking this movie was suspenseful and scary, but I thought Blown Away was suspenseful and scary, and the scene where a Lloyd Bridges sacrifices his life for his friend had me in tears. Tommy Lee Jones, Forrest Whittaker and Jeff Bridges complete the cast of this beat-the-bomb thriller that I thought was pretty darned good.
5. The Crucible Another movie based on a book, this one by Arthur Miller (believe it or not, it was on his real life experience of “naming names” when he was accused of being a communist, and Marilyn Monroe, whom the destructive vixen in The Crucible is shaped after, and whom later became Miller’s wife). The Crucible takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, and stars Daniel Day Lewis and Winona Ryder. It’s haunting, and the scene where the story’s hero won’t betray his trodden honor further made me cry as well.
6. Gone Baby Gone I’m not a fan of Ben Affleck as an actor, but he sure can work the other side of the lens well. This crime thriller is based on a Dennis Lehane book about two investigators searching for a missing girl, and if Ben sticks to screen-writing, I’m looking forward to more great movies like this from him.
7. Mystic River Like the book, Mystic River is incredibly depressing and gritty and dark, but a good movie anyway. Not for kids. Stars Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, and Kevin Bacon as three childhood friends, until one day one is abducted and abused before escaping and returning home to a life that will never be the same, and people who never see him the same way. It’s realistic in that there is no happy ending for everyone, but it’s depressing beyond anything.
8. The Verdict Paul Newman is an alcoholic Beantown lawyer who gets a chance to redeem himself when he refuses to settle on a medical negligence case for easy money and instead decides to take it to a jury for justice.
9. The Town Ben Affleck stars and directs this great movie about a bank robber who falls in love with one of his hostage victims and tries to change his crime-based lifestyle. He finds his goal difficult, as he faces resistance to his attempts at self-improvment from everywhere, and constantly risks his unwitting love interest discovering the fact he was the man that kidnapped her.
10. Love Story I’m ending my list with another of my favorite movies ever. Love Story is a tear-jerker, incredibly romantic, incredibly sentimental, and one of the sweetest love stories I ever saw on film. Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neill are the ill-fated young lovers in what I honestly think is one of the tenderest romances ever.
If you are only going to watch a few of these movies, make it Good Will Hunting, The Departed, and Love Story- they are just too wonderful to pass up.
Ben Affleck definitely manages to represent Boston! Good Will Hunting is definitely my favorite of these flicks!
I’ve been to Boston twice. Once for pleasure and the other for work. Even though I detested the traffic and their “rotaries” or whatever they call them on the east coast I loved the history and sightseeing.
For those that don’t know, not everywhere in Mass. but in a lot of places you can’t make a turn. You can’t even go straight. You pull forward and start going in a circle to your left and take the exit for the direction you wanted to go. I always got confused on which one was for my left or right turn and couldn’t pull to the right to be able to get off so I’d go round and round hoping traffic would clear enough for me to pull over and get off.
I love some of those movies. The other ones, I have not seen, but now want to!
How fun. I loved to see movies that are made in my own hometown and I know there were many just one this past yr that was awesome too. Thanks for the post idea. love it
I haven’t seen any of these. I’ll take your recommendations though. Maybe I can find some of them on Netflix.
sadly, i haven’t seen any of these!
Hope you have a blast. Mystic River was filmed up the street from me as well as about another 10-20 filmed within the last few years. Boston is a great town, hope you have fun on your visit.
I didn’t realize all of these movies were made in Boston. There are some good ones!
Good Will Hunting is one of my favorite movies!
Out of all of those I’ve only seen The Departed. I actually didn’t care for that one too terribly much, but then it could be because I’m not a huge fan of Damon or DiCaprio
I am adding Love Story to my movie watching list. Thanks for the recommend.
(You might see it on my movie review posts.)
THE BOSTONIANS was written by Henry James and THE CRUCIBLE is set in Salem, Mass.
Thank you 🙂 corrected the author (and *blushing*!)
All of these movies are not set in Boston, which is why I said in the beginning in or near (all of Massachusetts is fabulous to me) but I make lots of booboos, so feel free to correct me anytime, I appreciate it 🙂
Truly Great movies in a Great City.
How neat! I had no idea so many movies were set in Boston.
These are all great movies that I didnt’ realize were filmed in Boston.
I had no idea all these were set in Boston.
So mny great movies set in Boston. I have never seen a few of these, going to have to check them out.