Why Set “A Most Violent Year” During One of New York City’s Most Violent Years?
J.C. Chandor, the writer and director of A Most Violent Year, explains that he set the film in 1981 New York because of the period’s significance to New York history. During this time, the murder rate in New York was very high. Violent crimes, rape and robbery all hit 15-year highs in 1981. Chandor noted in an interview with The Huffington Post, “The film is playing off a lot of traditional themes in a gangster film, but it also plays against that in a lot of ways.”
“There was something fascinating to me about the changes that have taken place in New York City in really a relatively short period of time,” Chandor said in an interview with the Huffington Post. “I was looking for crime statistics. I realized all the budget cuts and horrible things that happened to New York during the 1970s actually peaked in 1981. The cool thing about 1981 is that it’s also a real transition year: Ronald Reagan took office, Ed Koch was re-elected as New York City mayor, it was the first couple of years of rap exploding.”
However, the film’s two main characters, Abel and Anna Morales (Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain), a pair of upwardly mobile 30-somethings do not seem particularly interested in those pivotal cultural events. Chandor stated about Abel and Anna, “They’re doing everything they can to isolate themselves from the difficulty of the period…The city slowly fights back, and creeps into their life.”
