EDWIN BOYD: CITIZEN GANGSTER written and directed by Nathan Morlando, with Scott Speedman, Kelly Reilly, Kevin Durand and Brian Cox. An eOne release. 105 minutes. Opens Friday (May 11). For venues and times, see Movies.
Nathan Morlando always knew his first film would be about the forgotten story of 50s Toronto bank robber Edwin Boyd. He just didn’t know how long it would take.
“I started work on the first draft in 1995 and I don’t even want to add up the years in between,” said the filmmaker last fall shortly after taking home the TIFF prize for best first Canadian feature.
Those 16 years (we did the math for him) are only a fraction of the time he spent dreaming about a project that dates back to his childhood fascination with his uncles’ stories about the Boyd gang.
As a film student, Morlando even managed to forge a relationship with the man himself.
“A professor of mine actually knew someone who knew someone who had Eddie’s number, and we had phone conversations for many years,” says the director, who sports the black-rimmed glasses and gangly features of a long-time movie geek.
“He could still turn on that charm pretty easily, and I was kind of in awe,” he says. “But when I finally visited him, I saw a deeper side as well. I met [Boyd’s daughter] Caroline and [wife] Doreen at that point, and their pain posed deeper questions.”
“There was certainly regret and sadness in his life. Even though he had turned it around and redeemed himself, you could sense the loss he felt. His bank robbing had become a kind of addiction he couldn’t escape. And balancing any addiction with family is impossible.”
Though Morlando’s movie is still an entertaining ride, the years of research and struggle gave him a more mature approach to the material that inevitably improved the final product.
“It definitely changed,” admits the director. “I decided to be as compassionate as possible toward each of the characters. They aren’t heroes or monsters they just made bad choices. I still wanted to show the thrill of the robberies to explain Eddie’s addiction and the excitement he caused in the public, but it was very important to see the tragic consequences of those choices. When a gun finally goes off, a police officer is killed, and there’s nothing romantic or heroic about that.”
After the critical acclaim for his debut film, setting up the next movie should be a little easier.
“I’m actually casting my next film about the birth of Somali piracy in a few weeks,” says Morlando. “The nice thing about your first film taking so long is that you have plenty of new scripts ready to go.”
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