The Saints of South Boston

So this is my first blog, and I've decided that I should do "episodes" for lack of a better word. I won't really do a super long blog on a deep subject, unless I feel especially rant-ish. I think I will start by talking about The Boondock Saints and vigilantism.


I've been really entertained with the rising support that "Antiheros" have been getting lately, Kick-Ass, Hit-Girl, and Big-Daddy have really opened my eyes to a new side of heroism. The Saints are killing for good. It's easy to say that if you kill bad guys then you are making the world a better place, but MLK said something along to lines of dark cannot drive out dark, only light can do that. Which means that we should trust our justice system to do the right thing in the long run. I honestly am torn between wanting to believe that killing bad guys is better than incarcerating them, and the older I get, the more I see the less faith I have in the government and judicial system, so maybe the age of vigilantism is upon us and this films become popular again. I must not be the only one who feels this way about this topic, so if you are reading this, please comment I'd like to have healthy discussion on these topics.

But back to The Boondock Saints, Norman Reedus is one of my favorite men in Hollywood, I mean he's the crossbow toting zombie killing bad ass, it'd be hard to not love him when he was younger with an Irish accent and a gun.

Sean Patrick Flanery is also becoming a new favorite, he has moments in the movie where he sounds more like a Lucky Charms leprechaun but that is still really cute to me.

The story told is a really cool twist on justice, but if you know anything about pre civil war America and the Blues Brothers, the two Catholic brothers are sent on a divine mission from God to purge the earth of evil doers, the result ends up more like John Brown's massacre in Kansas than the Blue's Brothers rollicking adventure through Chicago. Some might say that the graphic language, violence, and gore makes it seem like a Quentin Tarentino wannabe but I think that it's just similar to Tarintino's work.

The editing is really interesting, like when they will cut off right before a massive bloodbath and then when Agent Smecker gets there, they replay it with classical music overtones or in a flashback sequence that involves Smecker reenacting the firefights.

The Boondock Saints had a crazy limited release in theaters when it came out. I think the number was around five theaters for one week maybe? It was super small and boomed, critics panned it. But when it was released on DVD it had a crazy cult following. There is even a documentary called "Overnight" about the making of the movie.

I haven't seen the sequel yet, but I want to, next time I go to Wal-Mart I will have to delve into the $5 movie bins and pull it out from the depths of consumerism. I'm just kidding, I love Wal-Mart, I will probably end up Blogging about that too. I really enjoyed this, it's almost therapeutic for me to share my views and random tidbits of stuff I find interesting and informative.