The Boondock Saints

The “Boondock Saints” is a movie classified as a crime thriller. It is set in Boston Massachusetts around the year 1999. This film includes just the right amount of humor that should be in an action film. The main characters, two brothers, are introduced training a new employee at work in a butcher shop on Saint Patrick’s Day. This first scene establishes the characters as guys who like to joke around and party.

The two Irish brothers from Boston, Connor and Murphy MacMannus, are on a mission from God. The brothers claim that God told them to rid Boston of evil men. The two are regulars at a local bar and the bar is threatened to be shut down by a group of Russian mobsters that just moved in to town. Defending themselves and the others in the bar, Connor and Murphy get into a fight with the Russians. The next morning, the Russians find where the brothers are living and bust down the door. The Russians handcuff Connor to a toilet and take Murphy outside to kill him. Connor breaks the toilet off the floor and drops it off the 5th story onto the Russian who was aiming to kill his brother. Unlike the mobsters, the brothers leave the scene alive. After the fight, the brothers turn themselves in for the murder of the two Russians. The investigation of this crime is headed by an annoyingly homosexual FBI agent, which I will explain later, by the name of Paul Smecker. Agent Smecker seems to take the MacMannus brothers’ side, does not charge them with murder, and lets them out of custody. After being released from prison, the brothers begin their mission eliminating the city of evil men. They get their next targets from a friend David Rocco who has information on the Russian Mafia. The brothers never kill innocent people; as they say “Evil men, Dead men.”

The killing of only evil men in town creates the seemingly justifiable irony that civilians think of these killers as saints; this idea is what makes the plot of the movie so interesting. During one attempt to take out Papa Joe, a leader of the Russian Mafia, they are caught. Unfortunately, their friend Rocco went with them on this mission and gets killed by Joe. The brothers break free from their restraints and honor Rocco’s death by placing coins over his eyes and reciting a prayer over his dead body. In the middle of the prayer, a man sent to kill the duo enters the room from behind. Surprisingly, the man finishes reciting the prayer that only the brothers and their father knew. They then realize that this man must be their father. The brothers now team up with their father to continue the mission from God. This trio gets dubbed the “Saints” by the media. The last scene of the movie shows the police working with the “Saints” to kill Papa Joe. The police drive the saints to the courthouse where Papa Joe stands trial. The three men burst into the courtroom and make everyone watch as they murder the mafia leader. Support for the “Saints” by the media is shown at the end of the movie during the credits.

This movie’s main idea is to raise the question whether or not murder can be justified by the intent to rid the world of evil. The brothers go throughout the city killing people who they think are evil. Many people seem to agree with the saints because there is no public outcry to stop the crimes they are committing. However, at the end of the movie some people disagree because the “Saints” kill whoever they think are evil, not necessarily people that others consider evil.

The “Boondock Saints” is a very well thought out script. It leaves you wondering throughout the movie. Also, it creates an interesting situation that leads to the moral support of murder. However, the movie is not perfect. There are annoyances such as the homosexual agent dancing in the middle of great action scenes. This completely ruined a few scenes for me. There is nothing worse in the middle of an awesome action sequence than to see a gay man prancing around destruction. Also, this movie is not for young audiences as it contains harsh language, mild violence, and questions the rules of government and religion. To sum everything up, The Boondock Saints is overall a well made “Crime/Action Thriller” that I would recommend to anyone that does not mind blood, and harsh language.