Of course, changing Nucky’s last name and fictionalizing him also means that there are no guarantees that Buscemi’s character will live as long as his real-life inspiration. Boardwalk Empire is vaguely reminiscent of the quasi-historical conceit behind novels such as E. L. Doctorow’s Ragtime. Or heck, the Desilu production of The Untouchables, starring Robert Stack. Similarly, Buscemi’s character meets plenty of real-life figures, including, during the pilot, Arnold Rothstein, Lucky Luciano, and Al Capone in the early stages of their own extralegal empires.
Industrial Light and Whiskey
The 1920s was an era that was fascinated by new technologies – mainly because they were emerging so quickly, even though much of America in the 1920s was still rural and underdeveloped. But the 1920s saw Lindbergh reach Paris in a one-man airplane, the birth of the first commercial radio networks (the direct predecessors to the Big Three TV networks), and Hollywood reach international prominence, albeit through silent movies. At least in the episodes of Boardwalk that I’ve watched, there haven’t been any nudges to the viewer’s ribs along the lines of Mad Men’s Joan warning Peggy “Now try not to be overwhelmed by all this technology. It looks complicated, but the men who designed it made it simple enough for a woman to use” – while pulling the dustcover off of an IBM Selectric typewriter.
In contrast to the simple technology of the era it portrays, the technology to produce Boardwalk Empire is monumental in comparison. The actual boardwalk set is a 300-foot long set built on an empty lot in Brooklyn. But the buildings constructed for the show are only a couple of stories high, just enough to photograph the actors walking past them. Everything above the storefronts is greenscreened in, including the billboards of the era. The Atlantic Ocean, which Nucky looks wistfully into from time to time in the pilot, is a digital effect as well.
Around ’83 I was at a Limousine trade show in Atlantic City trying to hawk a software package. While I was there I took a walk looking for the streets from Monopoly.
Most depressing thing I’ve ever seen. Once you got one block away from the Boardwalk, the Convention Center, the hotels and casinos the entire place seemed like one big post-war London housing project. Even the street lights seemed depressed.
I always thought the movie Atlantic City totally depressing until I saw the real thing.
What is HBO going to try next? A series about how zippy Detroit was in the days of the tail fin?
But when it comes to being crooked? When Paul Powell, Illinois’ Secretary of State, died they found about a million bucks inside shoe boxes in the hotel room where he lived. And that was after several of his associates had been in and out of the room for half a day. Compared to Illinois both New Jersey and Louisiana are rounding errors.
Ed, it sounds like we’re about at the same spot on Boardwalk. I’d like to rewatch the first season — would probably help with motivating us to watch the second season. Episodes of it piled up on the DVR while we were distracted with our other shows. We should get back to it.
And one reason why — http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0931324/ Michael Kenneth Williams as Chalky White. He steals every scene that he’s in on the show and is it right that he has more screen time in season 2? We’ve been quite impressed with him as Omar Little in The Wire.
I was hoping you’d mention the Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald, who plays Nucky’s Irish mistress with a masterful blend of vulnerability and bravery. Macdonald is a wonderful, Emmy award-winning actress who gave subtle and heartbreaking performances in the Coen brothers’ movie “No Country for Old Men” and the BBC television movie “The Girl in the Cafe”.
I am not a fan. I wrote about Boardwalk Empire here: http://clarespark.com/2010/12/12/hbo%e2%80%99s-in-treatment-and-boardwalk-empire/. And Mad Men here: http://clarespark.com/2010/10/24/mad-men-and-the-jewish-problem/.