Danny Quinn is a former "street kid" from South Boston, colloquially known as "Southie," who returns home from New York City after three years away. He finds his mother overwhelmed with worry as her other three kids are caught up in the madness of the hardscrabble neighborhood in which drinking, sex, and fighting is the way of life. Danny tracks down his brothers only to find out they're deeply embedded in the Irish mob in Boston and in debt to local mobster Colie Powers. His younger sister Kathy, meanwhile, became a barfly in Danny's absence. Danny must get his hands on some quick cash in order to stop his brothers from getting their legs broken and his sister off the streets. In his pursuit to help his ailing mother and right his family's name on the streets of Southie, Danny tracks down his old girlfriend from the neighborhood, Marianne, finding that the love he left behind still remains. She tells how she heard about the gunfight he was in with Joey Ward and wants to know if that's why he left town. Danny confesses that real reason he left town was that he needed to stop drinking if he were to become the man that she would want him to be. Unable to find legitimate work and banned from union jobs due to a scuffle at a wedding, Danny becomes desperate for money. Two of his old pals know Danny needs money and offer him an opportunity to be a partner in an underground gambling club, though, they neglect to tell Danny that their silent partner is his old nemesis, Joey Ward. It doesn't take long before Danny finds out and he and Joey are face to face. In Danny's absence from the neighborhood, Joey's father Butchie has declared war on Colie Powers and without knowing this Danny finds himself caught up in the middle of their war as it looks like he's in business with the Wards. The mob war eventually comes to Danny's front door, and the stress of an attempted murder in front of his house kills Danny's mother.
Southie was originally written as "Brass Ring" by two young screenwriters from Boston, Jimmy Cummings and Dave McLaughlin. Cummings was born in Southie and left Boston with the hopes of becoming an actor. After several years of studying with actor George Loros, Cummings began to produce stage plays from the money he made as the doorman at the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Cummings returned to Boston in 1993 and after an attempted armed robbery, one of his friends told him "...that was like a scene out of a movie..." Cummings and McLaughlin later completed the play 'Brass Ring' based on separate plays from each other. John Shea met with Cummings and over the next year, Shea spent time in South Boston with Cummings getting to know the neighborhood. He committed to working with the writers on the screenplay and agreed to direct the film. During the next year, Shea worked with them on the script, scouted locations, and pieced the production together while raising the money needed to shoot the film. The lead role was originally offered to Mark Wahlberg but he was not available following the success of the 1997 film, Boogie Nights. Cummings' younger brother, Dan, suggested the leader of the 1990sboy bandNew Kids on the Block, Donnie Wahlberg to play the leading role. Shea spent a day with Ron Howard in New York as Howard completed the sound mixing on the 1996 film Ransom, in which Wahlberg had a supporting role. Shea liked what he saw and Wahlberg was offered the role. Cummings worked with Bill McCutchen and Hugh Wilson and the producers raised the financing and the independent film was a go. Shooting was scheduled for February 1997, in the middle of a very cold and brutal Boston winter. The film was shot with a full union crew in twenty-four days. Will Arnett was a friend of Cummings in New York and Anne Meara, a friend of Shea's, agreed to play the key role of the mother of the Quinn clan. Celebrated jazz drummer Johnny Blowers also makes an appearance in The Quencher tavern, "telling Sinatra stories." The film ends as the real St. Patrick's Day parade goes through South Boston. A first, the filmmakers were given permission by Thomas Menino, the Mayor of Boston, to shoot the parade. Directors of photography Allen Baker and Michael Bulter used five 35mm cameras, to capture the Southie neighborhood. After almost a year of post-production editing and scoring by composer Wayne Sharp, the filmmakers changed the film's name to Southie at the suggestion of Donnie Wahlberg. It was the first feature film ever shot entirely in the old South Boston neighborhood, a place once described as "the last white ghetto in America" and the home of the Irish mafia headed by the controversial James "Whitey" Bulger, called in the film "Colie Powers" and portrayed by Lawrence Tierney in his final screen performance. Southie was entered into the Seattle International Film Festival, the Nantucket Film Festival and the American Film Institute Festival in Los Angeles. The movie was acquired for distribution by Lions Gate Pictures after its screening at the Montreal World Film Festival where it was the only American film representing the United States in the main competition. In April 1999, it played at the 14th Dublin Film Festival.
Critical reception
Film critic Jay Carr of The Boston Globe wrote that the film had "heartfelt urgency" with "an intense individual and communal commitment that seems to boil up from the streets." James Verniere of the Boston Herald gave it three stars and wrote that there were "powerful performances" with an "electric charge especially by leading man Donnie Wahlberg." Critic Padraig Browne wrote in the Irish Times: "Shea directs with a nice lean style and Wahlberg shows that he's every bit as good as his brother, Boogie Nights' Mark." The Hollywood Reporter gave the filmmakers praise as it touted the raw talent on display, with Donnie Wahlberg matching brother Mark in terms of macho appeal and unforced naturalism and promising talents of Rose McGowan and James Cummings, who each provided equally vivid performances. the film's director, John Shea has a small role as Danny's cop cousin and underplays nicely.
