Boondock Saints (1999)
“When I raise my flashing sword and my hand takes hold on judgment, I will take vengeance upon mine enemies And I will repay those who haze me. O Lord, raise me to Thy right hand and count me among Thy saints.� With that prayer, the movie, Boondock Saints, winds to life. Two Irish Catholic brothers, Conner (Sean Patrick Flanery) and Murphy (Norman Reedus) MacManus--who happen to be fluent in Russian, French, and Italian--are inspired by a homily about Kitty Genovese, the lady who was attacked and killed while her neighbors heard and did nothing. Nobody wanted to get involved.
The boys take this message to heart as they see their South Boston neighborhood having the Russian mob muscle in on them while the Italian mob takes umbrage at the intrusion. The brothers go after everyone while being pursued by an FBI agent, Paul Smecker (Willem Dafoe, in a performance just this side of a ham).
Wearing Celtic crosses, these inadvertent hitmen for Jesus take out anyone they think is evil. Hailed as heroes, The Saints of South Boston, they are “ordinary people in an extraordinary circumstance who happen to come out on top.� The movie plays like an update of Charles Bronson’s Death Wish, influenced by Quentin Tarantino’s sensibilities (you can count the Tarantino allusions during the course of the movie).
This is Pulp Fiction for Christians.
It is pointless to comment on the characterization or acting in the movie. The characters are little more than stereotypes--caricatures at best--from the cops to the mafia types; all played with way over-the-top performances. But this movie isn’t about probing character study or brilliant acting: it’s about the thrill ride.
“Destroy that which is evil, so that which is good may flourish.� Such was the brothers’ epiphany after surviving a run in with some Russian mob soldiers. While this strikes quite the populist chord, the whole idea of killing for good is problematic at best, so I’ll side-step the issue of using evil as a tool for good. Instead, I will discuss their “gospel� message. “Do not kill, do not rape, do not steal. These are principles which every man of every faith can embrace!�
You see, Boondock Saints is about a call to action. To do something with your faith, take a stand against evil. Not just the mobsters, pimps, and drug dealers, but simply the indifference of good men. Faith, the movie points out, should be more than words, more than a mental assent to a few facts. It has to be worked out as action. Put another way, faith should lead to action; to fight injustice when one sees it, not just talk about how bad the world has gotten.
As they have taken up this course of faith in action, they invite others to join them. They don’t really invite as much as simply live their lives of faith, and others, seeing them, decide to join in. The FBI agent’s “conversion experience� was particularly telling. In a scene where he finds himself drunk and in a confessional booth, he tells the priest that he doesn’t believe in God, but is a man of ethics. After all, he is an FBI agent, charged with upholding the law. However, he has come to realize that the law is not enough. There seems to be a higher law at play. The priest notes that it’s “easy to be sarcastic about religion. But it’s much more difficult to take a stand.�
It’s also interesting to note that it is not until they find their father, Il Duce (Billy Connolly), do they become complete. A trinity of Veritas (Truth, tattooed on their left hand) and Aequitas (Justice, tattooed on their right); they see themselves as “the vengeful striking hammer of God.�
Boondock Saints is a smart, funny, non-stop action, though a little over-the-top. Nonetheless, it is a fun romp of a movie, thick with testosterone fantasy. And with the sequel, Boondock II: All Saints Day, due out this year and picking up where this one left off, you need to be prepared to answer the question Il Duce poses: “Do you possess the constitution, depth of faith, to go as far as it is needed?�
The boys take this message to heart as they see their South Boston neighborhood having the Russian mob muscle in on them while the Italian mob takes umbrage at the intrusion. The brothers go after everyone while being pursued by an FBI agent, Paul Smecker (Willem Dafoe, in a performance just this side of a ham).
Wearing Celtic crosses, these inadvertent hitmen for Jesus take out anyone they think is evil. Hailed as heroes, The Saints of South Boston, they are “ordinary people in an extraordinary circumstance who happen to come out on top.� The movie plays like an update of Charles Bronson’s Death Wish, influenced by Quentin Tarantino’s sensibilities (you can count the Tarantino allusions during the course of the movie).
This is Pulp Fiction for Christians.
It is pointless to comment on the characterization or acting in the movie. The characters are little more than stereotypes--caricatures at best--from the cops to the mafia types; all played with way over-the-top performances. But this movie isn’t about probing character study or brilliant acting: it’s about the thrill ride.
“Destroy that which is evil, so that which is good may flourish.� Such was the brothers’ epiphany after surviving a run in with some Russian mob soldiers. While this strikes quite the populist chord, the whole idea of killing for good is problematic at best, so I’ll side-step the issue of using evil as a tool for good. Instead, I will discuss their “gospel� message. “Do not kill, do not rape, do not steal. These are principles which every man of every faith can embrace!�
You see, Boondock Saints is about a call to action. To do something with your faith, take a stand against evil. Not just the mobsters, pimps, and drug dealers, but simply the indifference of good men. Faith, the movie points out, should be more than words, more than a mental assent to a few facts. It has to be worked out as action. Put another way, faith should lead to action; to fight injustice when one sees it, not just talk about how bad the world has gotten.
As they have taken up this course of faith in action, they invite others to join them. They don’t really invite as much as simply live their lives of faith, and others, seeing them, decide to join in. The FBI agent’s “conversion experience� was particularly telling. In a scene where he finds himself drunk and in a confessional booth, he tells the priest that he doesn’t believe in God, but is a man of ethics. After all, he is an FBI agent, charged with upholding the law. However, he has come to realize that the law is not enough. There seems to be a higher law at play. The priest notes that it’s “easy to be sarcastic about religion. But it’s much more difficult to take a stand.�
It’s also interesting to note that it is not until they find their father, Il Duce (Billy Connolly), do they become complete. A trinity of Veritas (Truth, tattooed on their left hand) and Aequitas (Justice, tattooed on their right); they see themselves as “the vengeful striking hammer of God.�
Boondock Saints is a smart, funny, non-stop action, though a little over-the-top. Nonetheless, it is a fun romp of a movie, thick with testosterone fantasy. And with the sequel, Boondock II: All Saints Day, due out this year and picking up where this one left off, you need to be prepared to answer the question Il Duce poses: “Do you possess the constitution, depth of faith, to go as far as it is needed?�
14 Comments:
MacManus Family Prayer
Shepherds we shall be for Thee, my Lord, for Thee.
Power hath descended forth from Thy hand.
Our feet may swiftly carry out Thy command.
So we shall flow a river forth to Thee,
and teeming with souls shall it ever be.
Ending in Latin
"In nomine patri, y fili, e spiritu sancti."
Sounds daft. Billy Connolly should have known better. "Il Duce" - that was what Mussolini named himself!
oh, liz, how you would hate this movie. tarantino sensibilities wrapped in religiosity.
it would be the worst of right-wing, grab a gun to solve society's problems, christianity to you.
yeah, i know, none stop fun for me.
Yeah, it would be the worst kind of right-wing "Christianity" for me!!
(I don't even remember it being advertised over here... However I haven't had THAT much time for movies over the past 12 months, or even 2 years... I like to buy DVDs these days - and I select carefully - and I like to buy lots of CGI because I just sit transfixed at the artistry of it all - and the MESSAGES in that are usually so much better, and so much more pro-social, and just, well, a little bit "edgy" - ie, many of these computerised cartoon movies have that eyebrow RAISED in sardonic good humour, eg. Shrek I and II! But anything in this genre, "Toy Story", "Bug's Life", "Finding Nemo", "Ice Age", "Shark Tale" even, which a couple of people visiting here didn't like, as I found, they ALL have better messages and better scripts than most of their "adult"-rated counterparts.
Give me contemporary cartoons and children's (crossover) books, any day! Because none of their authors seem to have fascist sensibilities, which fact I can only praise... A right-wing J K Rowling equivalent would be just about THE END OF THE WORLD for me! But there aren't any - I think because parents and publishers have too much GOOD SENSE, at least in this one respect!! Anyway, librarians tend to be the gatekeeper for children's fiction, and most of THEM, as Michael Moore found to his good luck, are left-wing!)
Anyway, you should know better yourself, as you have already admitted that "there are problems with killing for good"!
So what's the point of movies that preach it, then?!
Don't say WHAT YOU DON'T MEAN!!!!!!
simple, it boils down to this for me: i can watch a movie, get on a soap box and rail against the immorality of the movie (and i'm sure that i can find something "immoral" about any movie), but this would reduce me to being defined by what i'm against.
OR
i could look for something positive, some redeeming thread in the movie and be defined by who i am for.
Yeah, yeah. But have you tried it with really OBJECTIONABLE movies, Maurice?
How about "Birth of a Nation", now, then? Or "Jew Suss"?!
Fancy a bit of that then?
And can you tell me WHY it may be the case, as I have observed, that ADULT movies (childishly) promote rubbish, violence and pointless fights over nothing important - whereas CHILDREN'S/CROSSOVER movies, ESPECIALLY, these days, CGI (because that's where it's at, of course) preach TOLERANCE, preach getting along with each other, being yourself, having the courage to do so and to follow your own needs, accepting and being accepted?
How their characters seem to "learn and grow" (as one movie scriptwriter put it, on the commentary to something unrelated), and those in the "Kill Bills" and "Sin Citys" of the contemporary movie market just seem to well, do nothing whatsoever worthwhile or informative?
i own "birth of a nation" on dvd. just haven't felt the need to write a review on it. i have no problem critically thinking through anything i watch.
and it may depend on what "adult" movies you are seeing. take "crash" for instance (or "hotel rwanda" before it). two profoundly powerful adult films.
I didn't mean ALL adult movies, of course not, Maur! Otherwise I'd be STUCK with just watching "kiddie" films, wouldn't I? Luckily Hollywood hasn't got QUITE that bad yet - though it's not too far off!
I wish I'd seen "Hotel Rwanda" at the cinema.
MY top recommendation for best adult movie of the past couple of years that is REALLY for grownups and people who can follow a sophisticated plot and a sophisticated, though unpretentious, style of filmmaking, is "Gosford Park", dir. Robert Altman. I'm sure I've mentioned it before somewhere on here.
Now THAT one - it has subplots SO myriad and complex, you could NEVER take them all in at the cinema! It takes possession of the DVD and about ten viewings before you can really appreciate it to its full extent!
The "kid" films have the most positive messages though, ALWAYS. Including your fave, SBSP!!
I suppose they SHOULD have, shouldn't they... Or else we condemn our kids to a life of misery!
Which is why parents should BEWARE of the insidious influence of such as Frank Miller, far more than that of a generally sunny lass like Joanne Rowling and her "offspring", Harry Potter!
I mean, Christian parents on here, GATHER round! I mean you and your offspring all the best... I have no other agenda in this particular instance, my comments about the moral superiority of most children's movies to many adult ones, for instance... Except to point out some true yet disturbing facts!
I mean, people, would YOU trust your offspring to the tender mercies of comics, for example, produced by this man, Frank Miller.. Even ones vetted by a "Comics Code"... When it is OBVIOUS by the sort of "grownup" movies he makes, the sort of person he is, at the utter extreme of lack of civilization!
Whether your name is David Walsh or Michael Medved, whether your allegiance is socialist or conservative - the MAJORITY of thinking people have no reason to approve of movies such as "Sin City" - and similar. Or even to support Hollywood in the making of more of such as these!
if you like robert altman movies then you may like the movie "crash"(with don cheadle and sandra bullock). it reminded me of robert altman's "short cuts."
and should kids films always have to have a moral? they can be a convenient way to convey a moral tale, but can't some movies simply amuse?
stories have to be "about" something, but they don't always have to be "intentional" about it (because that can trip them into preachy or propaganda territory).
Shepard we shall be , for thee, my lord , for thee... Just an amazing movie the way it was made, wouldnt changed a thing about it, and i wish we had them here in our society.
No, kids' films shouldn't ALWAYS have to have a moral... though most do, in practice... It's just the way kids' movies come out... Movies most of all. Kids' books do, too, but like with Roald Dahl, THEIR message is more often funny/disruptive/subversive/quite violent.
But - if you're going to devote millions of dollars to making it, I think most studios would instinctively plump for "the story with a moral". Seems to work that way in CGI, anyway.
Which, to my mind, makes kids' movies more civilized than adults' ones!!
Anyway, of course it makes sense. Of course our culture still uses fiction to impart basic values to our kids.
I'm just sad it can't impart better basic values to adults. (Who are obviously JUST as much in need of them... if they think something like "Boondock Saints" is at all helpful to society..)
Or stuff about "rapture" - these are just the CRAZIEST fantasies, guys! Concentrate on improving society by means of improving social conditions - and fight "programs" like the war against the homeless that is currently being carried out in so many American cities. Eg:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/jul2005/atla-j04.shtml
In Atlanta, Little Rock, New York. It's just selfish businessmen "cleaning up" outside their businesses again... which in practice is what most "vigilantes" turn out to BE.
then why shouldn't all films have a moral?
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