The Boondock Saints

From what I have gathered about The Boondock Saints is that people either love or hate this movie... that or they've never seen it before.

The Boondock Saints takes place in Boston when a pair of brothers receive a calling from God to root out the evil and corrupt in the world. They go on a spree of vigilantism all while their crime scenes are analyzed and recreated by a flamboyant, brilliant FBI agent. (Played by Willem Defoe)

Though the main characters of the movie are the two McManus brothers, Special Agent Paul Smecker or Mr. Defoe definitely stole the show. The quirkiness and psychological roller coaster this FBI agent goes through, the recreations of how the crimes went down in his head are the highlights of the movie. Credit of course has to be given to the cinematography of the movie, but it wouldn't be that great if Willem Defoe was not the person executing the scene. Also, his character is gay. Now this was the late 90's. Homosexuality was still very strange to the American public so to see the crack detective be so obviously gay (so much to a point where he dresses up in drag to get into a mobsters house) its still kind of strange to see. But it was a stellar performance, no doubt about it.

The two brothers are played by Sean Patrick Flannery, and Norman Reedus. It took me a few seconds to realize that Daryl from the Walking Dead was one of the McManus brothers. As a Daryl fan... that's pretty cool.

The brothers are decent enough. They play well with each other and they're very matter of fact. They get a calling from God, they don't question it, they just go and do their vigilante thing. Which is something that was strange for me in this movie. And perhaps that's the point. These two are never really affected by the killing that they're doing. They're so driven by their calling and know what they're doing is "righteous" that shooting and straight out executing people is no big deal to them.

Then there's their buddy Rocco who is apart of the Italian mafia in Boston. He is set up when he's given orders to kill a group of individuals the brothers end up killing. The Italian mafia wanted to kill him so he wants revenge. This is another part of the movie that kind of bothered me.

These men are so convinced that their quest of vigilantism is the right thing to do, and yet they obviously bring on a guy who just wants to see the group of people that screwed him over pay. While the brothers are on a quest, Rocco is a goof thug who just wants to kill people and feel apart of the group.

I thought for sure that Rocco was going to start killing people on his own and the brothers would have to make a choice, do they kill their friend, a man who has turned into the very thing they set out to destroy? Or do they compromise their quest and let him live?

I don't know, I'm probably missing the point of the movie.

And then there's this guy.

Il Duce (played by Billy Connolly) is a Hitman contracted by the mafia to take out members they don't like anymore. His whole story is shrouded in a lot of mystery especially since he is not give a "christian name" when he's in prison.

But they never really explain how they get him out of prison. And [SPOILERS] he ends up being the McManus brothers father... out of freaking no where.

There's an iconic scene where the brothers and Rocco are walking out of house where they have just killed someone. Suddenly Il Duce is waiting for them and there's an epic gunfight.

But then later, he comes in and kills a bunch of mafia members... why? I don't know... Didn't they hire him?

Anyway, once he's done killing mafia members... but not Willem Defoe...??? He shows up behind the brothers and then what do you know, he not only recognizes them... but he's their father too... Yeah... doesn't make any sense at all.