The Boondock Saints (4 August 1999)
directed by Troy Duffy
starring Willem Dafoe, Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus, David Della Rocco, Billy Connolly, David Ferry, Brian Mahoney, Bob Marley, Richard Fitzpatrick, Dot Jones, Ron Jeremy
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MPAA rating: Studio: Franchise Pictures, Fried Films Script: Troy Duffy Music: Jeff Danna Running time: 110 minutes Tags: brothers; Drama; handguns; hit men; mafia; murder; pistols; prisons; rifles; rope Tactical strength: [7/10]
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for strong violence, language and sexual content
The Boondock Saints presents an interesting conundrum. When you look back at the plot, the movie really doesn't have too much substance. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed watching The Boondock Saints. So if the plot doesn't provide the pleasing effect, then you have to look deeper. Of course, two points come to mind right away: bullets and Willem Dafoe. Lots of bullets fly, and we see lots of blood. I have always liked violent, gun-blasting movies.
And Willem Dafoe. Somehow, Dafoe's presence in a movie automatically elevates the movie by several steps. Dafoe has a unique look that you can't really call handsome but still draws your eye. His voice has a unique timbre which gives him a recognizable presence, even without his image on the screen. Dafoe plays his characters with such fervent energy that you really believe him capable of exploding into violence at just about any moment -- an appropriate choice for The Boondock Saints.
Dafoe's character, Paul Smecker, works for some unnamed federal agency investigating organized crime. He comes to Boston to investigate the killing of two Russian mobsters. He easily outwits the local police detectives, who make outlandish guesses at the events that played out at the crime scene. Here Smecker has a unique talent. He looks at a crime scene and can reconstruct the events with precise details. Of course, any Dafoe character must have unique affectations, and Smecker reviews crime scenes while listening to opera on his portable CD player and occasionally allowing his body to move and flow with the music.
Surprisingly, the killers -- twin Irish immigrants -- turn themselves in. Connor and Murphy MacManus (Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus) claim they got into a bar fight with the Russians and killed them in self defense. The police -- including Smecker -- agree with the self defense claim and release the brothers. Connor and Murphy work in a meat-packing plant, attend mass regularly, and live in a barren flat. The night after they kill the Russians, the brothers receive a simultaneous dream which they interpret as a calling from god to execute vigilante justice on more mobsters. The brothers arm themselves and start knocking off large groups of mobsters -- as many as nine at once. Smecker continues to investigate the mob killings, and he doesn't immediately connect the MacManus brothers to the killings. The mob also gets nervous and hires Il Duce (Billy Connolly) to kill the brothers.
We don't know what brought Connor and Murphy from Ireland to the United States, and this lack of back story leaves a lot of room for the imagination to fill in possibilities as the film progresses. Their vision leads me to consider the possibility that the brothers were something other than human beings sent to deliver god's justice. Their regular church attendance, religious tattoos, and no obvious romantic inclination toward women made me wonder if they were special agents of the Catholic church sent to clean up Boston. Their easy access to weapons, fluency in multiple languages (Spanish, Italian, Latin, Gaelic, and Russian), and deadly aim made me wonder if they were military or paramilitary agents sent to change the balance of power in the Boston underworld. With all these possibilities running through my head, the reality comes as somewhat of a letdown.
I do have to wonder why director and writer Troy Duffy decided to make Dafoe's character gay. He only uses Smecker's homosexuality to limited effect as the basis for a couple jokes, so I have to assume that he wants to imply more. The MacManus brothers say that they want to execute justice on mobsters, murders, and rapists. This list clearly excludes homosexuality as a sin, and despite their Catholic upbringing don't target homosexuals on that basis alone. Perhaps Duffy wants to say that Catholic doctrine and homosexuality can somehow coexist. Homosexuality, and other points like Smecker's appreciation of opera, remain unexplored areas that could have used some more development in the story line.
Interestingly, The Boondock Saints ends with an editorial. The film ends with a series of news interviews. A reporter takes to the streets asking the public what they think of the "Saints." The public responds with a balanced mix of "no one should take the law into their own hands" and "we need more of this swift justice." With the interviews, Duffy points out that the United States justice system does have some serious problems, especially with the speed with which it can execute the law and to convict persons -- like mafia dons -- that clearly deserve incarceration. I don't think that Duffy would necessarily endorse vigilante justice, but he certainly seems to believe that a problem exists that needs attention.
