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Film 983: Road to Perdition

Trivia: The photographs shown in Harlen Maguire's (Jude Law) apartment also appear in a book by Luc Sante titled "Evidence." According to Sante, the photos are part of a collection held by the Municipal Archives of the City of New York and were taken by members of the NYPD during the years 1914-1918.

To create a villain that could challenge the physically imposing Tom Hanks, director Sam Mendes wanted Jude Law to seem rodent-like.

Jude Law hated his appearance for the film and insisted on wearing a cap every time he wasn't on camera. Director Sam Mendes insisted that Law also remain paler than all of his co-stars.

Make-up artist Daniel C. Striepeke's first instruction to the cast was to stay out of the sun as much as possible, as the film is set in the mid-winter.

The piano piece that Paul Newman and Tom Hanks play at the opening funeral was actually performed by the two actors (after much practice).

Director Sam Mendes and cinematographer Conrad L. Hall sought to give the film the look of the works of artist Edward Hopper.

Maguire's crime scene photography work is based on Arthur 'Weegee' Fellig, a famous crime-scene photographer in the 1920s and 1930s who was licensed to possess a "scanner" radio that allowed him to listen to frequencies used by the police and fire departments. This enabled him to arrive (by car) at crime and fire scenes, sometimes before the authorities did, as if informed by telepathic powers, to which his nickname, a corruption of "Ouija", alludes. He sold his photos to the tabloid newspapers. The photos in Maguire's apartment are real 1930s crime scene photos, some of which were taken by Weegee himself.

Notice that Michael Jr. isn't eating his pie and ice cream in the diner when he and his father are talking about the money. According to Sam Mendes, in earlier takes Tyler Hoechlin gobbled up his pie, not considering that he would have to perform the scene again and again. By the time they got to the take that's in the film Hoechlin was stuffed and couldn't take another bite. Tom Hanks by contrast knew to put small amounts of food into his mouth and eat slowly.