The Boondock Saints

Troy Duffy, Troy Duffy what have you done? I've just witnessed one of the worst examples of American trash cinema with a huge cult following. Troy Duffy's The Boondock Saints (1999) is a lousy film which insults the viewer's intelligence. I'll simply call it BS because - strictly speaking - that's the most honest description of it: it's BULLSHIT. FADE INTO BLACK.

Essentially, BS is about two Catholic brothers whose mission is to kill everyone who is 'evil' in the world. FADE INTO BLACK. The world is completely black and white and it never even attempts to question what is evil - instead all drug dealers and criminals must be rotten. All the characters are thinner than paper and mostly they are extreme stereotypes. FADE INTO BLACK. It's as if Troy Duffy believes that "the white people" should uphold justice and kill all "fuckers". FADE INTO BLACK. That reminds of one another god awful aspect in BS: the dialogue. It's completely riddled with the "F" words without any natural use of them. The dialogue is either 1) forced quips which even action movies wouldn't use or 2) utterly pretentious mumblings about religious stuff. FADE INTO BLACK. It even tries to be silly by going all metafictional to justify its use of awful tropes, but it only makes BS worse.

FADE INTO BLACK.

The BS's attempt to glorify the violence is simply stupid. Camera moves in ridiculously showy ways and slow motion is used in every possible place. Add to that the freaking stupid cutting which makes no sense. FADE INTO BLACK. To be serious and cool, it uses both opera music and "cool" music in every possible scene, which makes BS all the more terrible. FADE INTO BLACK.

If you think BS is ridiculous, just wait for the ending which makes the whole film even SILLIER. The pseudo-documentarian clip at the very end is horrible. FADE INTO BLACK. You can think of it as a way to make the film a satire, but what's the use when you have done everything possible to make the audience think otherwise? The director has already had fun with the action scenes and the pretentious religious and racistic bullshit, then he supposedly becomes serious and show that the Americans' sense of justice is terrible. That's only one assumption. FADE INTO BLACK. You can also take it as a continuation for the whole tirade about getting rid of "evil" people. It seems as if the writer wanted to justify the film's message with pseudo-real statements.

Troy Duffy seemed to be eager to replicate Tarantino to portray his idea of justice and people in an "entertaining" way. Yet both his form and content are simply terrible even when compared to Tarantino. In the end, BS is a poor man's Tarantino film. The only good thing about it is Willem Dafoe's magnificent performance as the wild detective.

Score: 2 out of 10

PS: FADE INTO BLACK.