This article is not quite what I would call professional, in fact it is quite the opposite. Apart from my biased opinion, it will contain also contain several swear words because the movie that I will be talking about is just that fucking good. Reader discretion is advised.
Boondock Saints is a 1999 gung-ho action movie that follows the life of two badass brothers (Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flanery) who kill mafiosos in Boston. They have this religious-zealot-vibe but with their own personal agenda: they punish people that are not persecuted by the law because of corruption.
The synchronicity with which they are portrayed is just fucking brilliant: they have symmetrical tattoos, they dress in the same way, fuck, they even light up their cigarettes in the exact same way and at the same time. They are not two halves of a hole, in fact they are the same fucking side of a shiny golden coin. They are intelligent and well-read, speak several different language yet act essentially like amateur killers who blessed by the fortune of a righteous cause. They just happen in the middle of an unjust situation and play the cards they are dealt.
As good as charismatic characters the two brothers are, there is however fucking Willem Dafoe who just simply outshines them. You know what, I should stop here; we all know what a brilliant actor Dafoe is and how he is capable of making a movie worthwhile. In Boondock Saints he interprets the FBI agent in charge. He arrives at the scene of the crime with his own fucking theme song and he is an introduction to badassery 101. The guy carries around a CD Walkman and plays Puccini’s La Boheme to ‘enter the zone’, envision the crime scene and understand what happened. Oh yeah, that goddamn fucking hair.
Last couple of things:
The music in this movie is on fucking point.
The way the scenes play out is fucking beautiful.
And here’s the fucking prayer the brothers quote before killing criminals:
Shepherds we shall be,
For Thee, my Lord, for thee.
Power hath descended forth from Thy hand
That our feet may swiftly carry out Thy command.
So we shall flow a river froth to Thee
And teeming with souls shall it ever be.
In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.
I would give this movie an 8 out of 10 with guns blazing moments.
PS: There is also a second movie, All Saints Day (2009) which is pretty good, but in my opinion not as much as the first one. In fact, the only reason it works is because it’s based on a preexisting formula: many of the characters return, the music is still on fucking point and there are many moments of comic relief. Given the constant echoes the movie makes to the first one, it would not be worth as much on its own.