Is The Outfit Based On A True Story?
Is The Outfit based on a true story? The plot of the crime drama film, which released in theaters in March 2022, is certainly reminiscent of other true-life gangster tales, such as The Irishman. However, one might wonder if The Outfit is similarly an adaptation of actual events that really happened.
Set in 1956 Chicago, The Outfit focuses on an English tailor named Leonard Burling (Mark Rylance). Burling's shop, located in a neighborhood controlled by Irish mob boss Roy Boyle (Simon Russell Beale), is used as a front for money laundering. When Boyle's son, Richie (Dylan O'Brien), and his enforcer, Francis (Johnny Flynn), come into the shop with a briefcase containing FBI recordings that will expose the mob's operations, Burling must make some urgent decisions in order to survive.
Related: Irishman: The True Story Behind The Bufalino Crime Family
Unlike Martin Scorsese's The Irishman, The Outfit is not based on a true story. However, according to director and co-writer Graham Moore (via MovieMaker), it was inspired by events that actually happened: “There was this real moment in the ’50s, where bugging technology was very new. The FBI was going very hard against the big mobs and criminal organizations. One of the best ways to get at these top gangsters was to get at them through the people who made their clothes — that seemed so unique and instantly fascinating to us." Moore also said (via Third Coast Review) that he got the idea to set The Outfit in Chicago after reading about the true story of an FBI operation in the 1950s where they used bugged technology for the first time in a tailor shop in order to keep tabs on mob activity.
The real-life story that inspired the plot of The Outfit is a fascinating one. The «outfit»
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