At some point late last century, the themes of Boston films started to change. Stuffy blue bloods and university types began to give way to gritty blue-collar Irishmen. Karl Malden stars as crusty old iron worker Jack Galvin, who just wants his son Billy (Lenny von Dohlen) to have a better life than he had. For his part, Billy is a layabout who wants nothing more than to prove to his hard ass of an old man that he’s a worthy son.
So, when Billy’s fly-by-night construction company fails, he joins the union (Boston Ironworkers Local 7) and finagles his way onto one of his father’s jobs. Try as he might, Billy can’t keep up with his dad, who has absolutely no use for this son he constantly insults as “Yard Bird!”, which apparently is the worst think a guy can call an iron worker. Or something.
Bill just about wrecks everything: he almost loses his girl (who is a bartender at a local dive, natch) because he’s too tough to say he loves her; he nearly falls to his death from the top of 200 State Street because he’s afraid of heights; he just about kills Pops on the same job site. Yet things work out with the girl, something softens up the old man, and father and son finally reconcile in a particularly absurd scene set in the North End.
The film is full of local product placements, which is a nice touch if not a bit too obvious — for instance, a New Balance sneaker is neatly set on the end of the bed in an otherwise disaster of a bedroom. Boston teams (except for the Patriots) are also conspicuous throughout, although one scene where a Bruins-Whalers game plays on the radio in the background carries audio of Hartford announcer Chuck Kaiton instead of legendary Bruins’ commentator Bob Wilson.
On to the clips:
Mass Flicks 
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