Early on in his career, Ben Affleck was ceaselessly mocked as being a bad actor based on his performances in disastrous films like Gigli, Daredevil, and Reindeer Games, even if he wasn’t really to blame for their failure. Eventually, Affleck began to get more respect after proving with projects like Hollywooland and The Company Men that he could take himself seriously, but some audiences still had negative receptions to his performances. However, his skills as a director have never been in doubt. His 2007 directorial debut Gone Baby Gone was an incredible, meticulous crime thriller that explored powerful themes of police corruption and addiction.

Affleck’s success as a filmmaker continued with the Michael Mann-inspired heist thriller The Town and the true story Argo, which took home the Academy Award for Best Picture. While it seemed like Affleck was on track to become one of the most popular directors of his generation, his directorial career unfortunately hit a standstill in 2016. Live by Night was a passion project that told a classic gangster story within a period setting, but, unfortunately, neither audiences nor critics came out in favor of Affleck’s film. The film bombed theatrically, and reportedly lost Warner Brothers $75 million.

It capped off a particularly disappointing year for Affleck. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad were not well-received, and there was growing concern about the actor's future as Batman in the DCEU. While he delivered a solid action thriller with The Accountant, the film’s sequel has still not taken shape. What’s more unfortunate is that the failure of Live by Night was completely unjustified; Affleck’s epic gangster saga shouldn’t be seen as a career-killer, but a worthy entry within his filmography.

It’s a Tribute to Classic Gangster Movies

Men in suits walking down the street
Warner Bros. Pictures

One of the aspects of Affleck’s first three films as a director that was celebrated was how tight and suspenseful the storytelling was; each film begins with electrifying action sequences that set up a contained mission that has to be completed in a limited amount of time. While some viewers may have felt that this was something that was missing in Live by Night, that wasn’t Affleck’s intention. The film is grandiose in nature, spanning several years as it chronicles the rise and fall of the bootlegger Joe Coughlin, whom Affleck plays himself. The film was based on a 2012 novel of the same name by author Dennis Lehane that explored the prohibition era in rich detail; while it wasn’t based on true events, it was clearly inspired by the actual gangsters that existed during the 1920s.

Affleck does a great job at showing the slow progression of Joe’s journey and condensing multiple decades of story into a tight narrative. While a show like HBO’s Boardwalk Empire was able to explore the prohibition era and all its nuances over the course of multiple seasons, Affleck was working under the shorter window of a theatrical feature. He dedicates a generous amount of time to Joe’s activities in Boston, California, and Florida in order to explore them each in depth. It doesn’t feel like he’s skimping over any details.

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Incredible Production Design and Action Sequences

Ben Affleck's Live by Night Trailer Arrives, Takes on Prohibition

Affleck’s first two films took place within his hometown of Boston, so it didn’t give him much chance to flesh out the production design in ways that stood out. However, Live by Night recaptures the 1920s in stunning detail. The film was shot across the country at many historical locations, including the Fort Pulaski National Monument in Georgia (via WTOC). It’s no wonder that the film was so expensive: every police station, club, villa, and city looks like it was lifted straight out of a 1920s gangster movie like Underworld or The Racket.

Although Affleck’s style is deliberately old-fashioned, that didn’t mean his action sequences were out of date. There’s an exhilarating chase sequence at the beginning of the film when Joe is hired by the Italian Mafia boss Maso Pescatore (Remo Girone) to commit robbery, which ends up attracting the attention of the police. Similarly, there’s an epic climactic shootout where Joe faces off against his rivals Albert White (Robert Glenister), Digger (Max Casella), and Pescatore in a hotel. These battles are rich and bloody, as Affleck does not shy away from the brutality of the era.

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A Rich and Emotional Story

Zoe Saldana in Ben Affleck's Live By Night (2016)

While Live by Night is certainly an incredible technical achievement and a tremendous work of adaptation, it’s also a powerful love story that contains one of Affleck’s most heartbreaking performances. The film begins with heartbreak; Joe falls in love with beautiful woman Emma Gould (Sienna Miller), and pursues her despite knowing that she’s involved with the mob. Her apparent death shatters Joe’s soul and casts doubts on his future. He’s placed in a position of danger because he risked it all for love, but now he has no one to fight for.

Affleck’s melancholy aesthetic throughout reflects how Joe is mourning the loss that plagued his young life. The spark of hope that emerges when he meets the Cuban woman Graciela Corrales (played by Zoe Saldana) comes at just the right moment; the film had risked becoming too morose, but the electrifying romantic chemistry between Affleck and Saldana gives the audience an emotional hook that is retained until the end. This continues up until the birth of their son Tommy, whom Joe swears to protect and raise to become a police officer. It’s a fascinating decision; Joe has been lawless for most of his life, but he decides to raise his son up in a safe environment so that he can ensure that he will have a good life. Considering that Affleck is a parent himself, this feels particularly touching.

The film is also openly political, as Affleck is not afraid to show the extreme levels of corruption within the government’s prohibition forces and police institutions. He also shows the brutality of racist hate groups and features a diverse cast as some of Joe’s allies. These themes aren’t a distraction from the story, as they enrich it by giving a healthy perspective on historical events.