| The Boondock Saints | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Troy Duffy |
| Produced by | Robert Fried Chris Brinker Mark McGarry |
| Written by | Troy Duffy |
| Starring | Willem Dafoe Sean Patrick Flanery Norman Reedus David Della Rocco Billy Connolly |
| Music by | Jeff Danna |
| Cinematography | Adam Kane |
| Editing by | Bill DeRonde |
| Studio | Fried Films Brood Syndicate Franchise Pictures |
| Distributed by | Indican Pictures |
| Release date(s) | January 21, 1999 |
| Running time | 110 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English Spanish Russian Italian French German Irish (Gaelic) |
| Budget | $6 million[1] |
| Box office | $30,471 (US theater)[1] $219,529 (International theater)[2] $50 million (US home video)[3] |
The Boondock Saints is a 1999 American action film written and directed by Troy Duffy. The film stars Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus as Irish fraternal twins, Connor and Murphy MacManus, who become vigilantes after killing two members of the Russian Mafia in self-defense. After both experience an epiphany, the brothers, together with their friend (David Della Rocco), set out to rid their home city of Boston, Massachusetts of crime and evil; all the while being pursued by FBI Special Agent Paul Smecker (Willem Dafoe).
Duffy indicates that the screenplay was inspired by personal experience, while living in Los Angeles.[4] Initially regarded as one of the hottest scripts in Hollywood, the movie had a troubled production and was finally given a limited theatrical release of only five theaters for one week,[5] and was met with poor critical reviews; but the film has grossed about $50 million in domestic video sales[3] and ultimately developed a large cult following.[6][7][8] The ending credit sequence, which features the media asking the people of Boston, "Are the 'saints' good or evil?", was shot by Mark Brian Smith, co-director of Overnight, a documentary film about the making of The Boondock Saints, and Troy Duffy himself.
Contents |
Irish brothers Connor (Sean Patrick Flanery) and Murphy MacManus (Norman Reedus) attend Mass at a Catholic Church, where the priest mentions the fate of Kitty Genovese. Later, while celebrating St. Patrick's Day with friends, the two get into a bar brawl with three Russian mobsters who want to close the pub and take over the land it is built on. The two brothers try to reason with the mobsters, but the latter responds with violence. The next morning, two of the Russians seek revenge on Connor and Murphy, who kill the mobsters in an act of self-defense.
FBI Special Agent Paul Smecker (Willem Dafoe) is assigned to the case, and finds that the police and local news reporters see them as heroes. During an interview with Smecker, they reveal that their mother insisted they be fluent in several languages (including Russian, Italian, Spanish, French, Irish (Gaelic) and German), something they demonstrate as an explanation of how they communicated with the mobsters. Connor and Murphy retell their incident to Smecker, and to avoid attention from the media the brothers decide to spend the night in a holding cell, where they receive what appears to be a "calling" from God telling them to hunt down wicked men so that the innocent will flourish.
Connor and Murphy resolve to rid Boston of evil men, with their friend and former mob errand boy Rocco (David Della Rocco) eventually joining them to help. Connor learns of a meeting of Russian syndicate bosses at a hotel from a pager taken from one of the dead Russian mobsters. Having equipped themselves with weaponry from a local underground gun dealer, the brothers quickly kill eight of the nine bosses and underbosses, and they save the leader, Yuri Petrov (Victor Pedtarchenko), who is later referred to by the police as "Fag/Fat Man", for last. The brothers recite their family prayer and kill Petrov with two gunshots to the back of the head—the bullets cross and go out his eye sockets. They place coins on the eyes of all nine bodies, as if to pay the toll to cross the River Styx. During the investigation, Smecker believes that the killings of the Russian mobsters are the result of the beginning of a mob war.
The next day, Rocco learns that he was set up and sold out by his boss, Giuseppe "Papa Joe" Yakavetta (Carlo Rota), as he confirms that Papa Joe attempted to send Rocco to the hotel to solely confront the Russian mobsters at the hotel with only a revolver (this concern was also brought up by the brothers prior to Rocco confirming it). Rocco kills two of the mob members who were in on the setup, and decides to officially join the McManus brothers in their mission. That night, the McManus brothers and Rocco hunt down underboss of the Yakavetta crime family, Vincenzo Lipazzi, (Ron Jeremy) in a porn shack and kill him. A few other criminals are killed as well. These incidents lead Smecker to dismiss the gang war theory he earlier brought up. In response to the growing threat from the three vigilantes, Papa Joe contracts the feared hitman, Il Duce (The Duke, Billy Connolly) to deal with them. After killing a criminal that Rocco had a personal hatred for at that man's house, the three men are ambushed by Il Duce as they are exiting the house. Although they manage to chase Il Duce away, the three men suffer from wounds, the most serious being the loss of Rocco's finger. Rather than risk going to a hospital and having to explain the bullet wounds, the three cauterize the wounds with an iron.
Hours later as the police conduct an investigation on the spot of where the firefight took place, the investigation seems futile since the brothers covered their tracks by spraying any blood left behind with ammonia. However, during his frustrated rant, Smecker happens upon the part of the finger lost by Rocco. Smecker decides to do an independent investigation to see who was behind the gun battle, and is able to track the evidence down to Rocco and his two allies. This leaves Smecker in a difficult scenario, and struggles with the choice of whether to prosecute the three men, or join them in their cause, as Smecker had become sympathetic towards the brothers' actions. After getting severely drunk at a gay bar and insulting several people, Smecker wanders into a Catholic church confessional. Smecker decides to help the three men, all of whom are listening in on his conversation with the reluctant priest. He later questions the retired mob boss who had helped Papa Joe recruit Il Duce, and finds out that the brothers are walking into a trap.
Later, the brothers and Rocco infiltrate the Yakavetta headquarters to finish off the family, followed by Smecker who dresses in drag to gain admittance. The brothers are captured, and Rocco is shot and killed by Papa Joe. Meanwhile, Smecker kills two men before being knocked unconscious by Il Duce, in accordance with one of his two rules: no women, no children. As Papa Joe leaves his house, the brothers manage to escape and subdue their captors. As the brothers say their family prayer over Rocco, Il Duce enters the room and is prepared to open fire. However, it is revealed that Il Duce is the brothers' father, Noah. He finishes the prayer and decides to join his two sons in their mission to destroy all evil.
Three months later, Papa Joe is sent to trial. However, the reporters on-scene anticipate his acquittal. The brothers and Noah, aided by Agent Smecker and three detectives, infiltrate the trial (by sliding their weapons over the metal detector), unmasked, and make a speech stating that they intend to eradicate evil wherever they find it before the three men recite their family prayer and kill Papa Joe in front of the audience. The media dubs the three as "the Saints", and the movie ends with various candid interviews with the public, reflecting on the question "Are the Saints ultimately good...or evil?"
Troy Duffy's screenplay for The Boondock Saints was inspired by his disgust at seeing a drug dealer taking money from a corpse across the hall from his apartment. Duffy, who was working as a bartender and bouncer, had never written a screenplay before.[4]
Duffy completed the screenplay in fall of 1996 and passed it to a producer's assistant at New Line Cinema to be read by a senior executive. The screenplay changed hands through multiple studios and Duffy was approached by multiple producers for the rights. In March 1997, he was contracted by Paramount Pictures for $500,000, and later in the month, Miramax Films won a bidding war to buy The Boondock Saints. The studio offered $450,000 to Duffy to write and direct the film.[9] The documentary Overnight, which chronicled Duffy's "rags-to-riches-to-rags" story,[7] showed that the script was worth $300,000, and the film itself was originally given a $15 million budget by Miramax's Harvey Weinstein.[10] Duffy's band The Brood would do the soundtrack, and as a bonus, Miramax offered to buy and throw in co-ownership of J. Sloan's, where Duffy worked.[11] Overnight showed that Duffy frequently exhibited abrasive behavior, causing tension for many people involved in the project. Filming of The Boondock Saints was scheduled for the coming autumn in Boston.[12]
Duffy sought to cast Stephen Dorff and Mark Wahlberg as the Irish brothers, though Wahlberg passed for Boogie Nights. The director also wanted to cast Billy Connolly and Kenneth Branagh in the film, with Branagh playing the homosexual FBI agent.[13] Duffy also expressed interest in casting Brendan Fraser, Nicky Katt, and Ewan McGregor, with 2 of them as the brothers, but no decisions were finalized. The director later sought Patrick Swayze to play the FBI agent, but Miramax preferred Sylvester Stallone (with whom the studio had an existing relationship), Bill Murray or Mike Myers.[14] Before pre-production work was supposed to begin in Boston in December 1997, Miramax pulled out of the project. Producer Lloyd Segan said that the project had stalled because of casting and location problems.[15] While Duffy was able to keep the writer's fee of $300,000, the studio required the reimbursement of the $150,000 director's fee and the $700,000 advance to develop the project.
The independent studio Franchise Pictures sought to finance the project once other elements were in place. Duffy approached actor Sean Patrick Flanery and actor Norman Reedus to play the Irish vigilante brothers and actor Willem Dafoe to play the FBI agent.[14] Having found someone to back the film, filming began in Toronto, with the final scenes being filmed in Boston.[4] The name of Duffy's band The Brood was changed to The Boondock Saints, following the movie's release. The film featured two songs from the band: "Holy Fool",[16] which played during Rocco's tavern shootout, and "Pipes", which played during the credits.
When The Boondock Saints was completed, it saw very limited theatrical release, with its distributor showing the film in 1999 on only five screens in the United States for a duration of a week. However, the original unrated version of the film was later re-released in theaters on May 22, 2006.[17] Troy Duffy later funded screenings of the film with help from Blockbuster Video. "Blockbuster saved us [...] They agreed to take it on exclusively, and from there the rest is history."[17] According to Troy Duffy on his audio commentary of the film on DVD, the film's distributor allowed the limited screening in the United States because of the then-recent Columbine High School shooting.[18] The film was shown on major foreign screens (most notably in Japan) with success.[17] Blockbuster released The Boondock Saints as a "Blockbuster Exclusive", a collection of independent direct-to-video films. The Boondock Saints gained a following mostly thanks to word of mouth publicity and was a bestseller when released on DVD. Despite its success, Troy Duffy never saw any of the profits from DVD distribution, having signed away the DVD rights in his contract with Indican.[7]
The Boondock Saints has been released numerous times on DVD, including an import on March 13, 2001 and an uncut Japanese release published by Toshiba Entertainment, whose special features include anamorphic widescreen, audio commentary, trailers, and interviews with the Japanese media.[19] On May 23, 2006 The Boondock Saints Collector's Edition was published and released by 20th Century Fox on DVD, as well as UMD for the PlayStation Portable.[20] The special features include English and Spanish subtitles, commentary by Billy Connolly and Troy Duffy, deleted scenes and outtakes. It also featured the film's trailer, cast and crew filmographies, and a printable script of the film.[21] 20th Century Fox and Duffy showed an interest in doing a new audio commentary for the special release, but he was unable to because of unresolved legal issues.[22]
A Blu-ray Disc edition containing both the theatrical and unrated directors cuts was released on February 10, 2009.
The film has received poor reviews from critics. The film critics polled on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 19% "Rotten", with the site's consensus called the film, "A juvenile, ugly movie that represents the worst tendencies of directors channeling Tarantino." However, users gave the film a score of 93.[23] Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club described the film, in his review of the DVD, as "less a proper action-thriller" than "a series of gratuitously violent setpieces strung together with only the sketchiest semblance of a plot". Rabin went on to describe the film as "all style and no substance, a film so gleeful in its endorsement of vigilante justice that it almost veers (or ascends) into self-parody."[24] Robert Koehler of Variety described the film in his review as "A belated entry in the hipster crime movie movement that began with Reservoir Dogs, Troy Duffy's "Boondock Saints" mixes blood and Catholic-tinged vigilante justice in excessive portions for sometimes wacky and always brutal effect. [The film is] more interested in finding fresh ways to stage execution scenes than in finding meaning behind the human urge for self-appointed righting of wrongs."
Koehler also described Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus as "curiously stolid and blank", while praising supporting actors Billy Connolly, Willem Dafoe and Carlo Rota for making the most of their screen time. Koehler also praised the tech personnel, "This uneven exercise in pacing and cutting is abetted by an eclectic score by Jeff Danna and whiz lensing by Adam Kane. Other tech credits fire bull's-eyes."[25]
Film critics have taken note of the film's extreme violence and "slow-motion bloodletting".[26]
In its original 5-theater run, the film only earned $30,471.[3] It later developed a cult following and has grossed about $50 million in domestic video sales.[3]
In the seventh season premiere of The Office, "Nepotism", features a talking head interview with office assistant Luke Cooper where he states "I love cinema, my favorite movies are Citizen Kane and The Boondock Saints."
The documentary film, Overnight, was released in 2003, following the story of Troy Duffy during his negotiations with Miramax over The Boondock Saints script. Duffy's abrasive behavior strained his relationships with friends and people in the film industry and ultimately led to Miramax pulling out of the project, leaving the film to be made by another studio at half the originally proposed budget.[27]
After numerous delays, original director Troy Duffy filmed the sequel, titled The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, in which the Irish vigilante brothers return to continue their run of vengeance. It was released October 30, 2009. In an October 27 article, director Troy Duffy and actor Billy Connolly mention details regarding a possible third film in the series. They maintained that "it is slowly in the works and is still just an idea". Duffy insists that he wants to get a few more of his films done before returning to the Boondock Saints. Duffy also added that the proposed working title for the third film would be called "Boondock Saints III: Saints Preserve Us."[28]
A two-part comic book story, serving as a companion to the movie sequel, was released in May 2010. The series is written by Boondock Saints creator, Troy Duffy, produced by Innfusion Inc. and released through 12 Gauge Comics.[29] The Book focuses on a more in depth version of Il Duce's back story as well as telling the story of the brothers during a hit they performed that is not featured in the film. It was paired with a mini book that was featured on the official Boondock Saints website that told a mini story that takes place before the strip club scene from the first film. These will eventually be released in one single graphic novel. Another story is currently being proposed that would show the brothers' time in Hoag Prison after the events of All Saints Day.