A_Dissection_of_the_“Boondock_Saints_

A Dissection of the Boondock Saints Theme The theme of this film is ideas. The true subject is moral statements. The film is about doing something where the means are wrong but the end is justified. If I had to use a single word to describe this film it would be justice. The comment or statement made is actually done in the film by detective Becker when he goes drunk into a confessional. He states that he is a man of the law who is tired of criminals getting away because of all the red tape in his profession and he feels the need for these two brothers who deal with this problem with an iron fist but is torn as to whether to help or not. Are these brothers really doing the right thing' One sentence to summarize the idea of the film would be, if you could kill one person to save the lives of countless others would you, and how far would you take it' In this film the director’s primary aim would be creating a moral or philosophical riddle for the viewer to ponder. The very beginning of the film starts out with a priest telling a story of a girl who was stabbed to death while bystanders did nothing, how the worst crime is the indifference of good men. They are later asked by their friend, Rocco; how they know what they are doing is right. They ask their father in the end how far they are going to take it. He in turn says the question is not how far the question is, do you possess the constitution the depth of faith to go as far as needed. The films basic appeal is to the moral sense. It is aimed primarily at the viscera (blood and guts). Some scenes to support this are the scene in the hotel room where they fall through the ceiling causing a blood bath when they take out a whole crime syndicate, and the scene after they get wounded trying to escape one of the places they have just hit. They are tending to each other’s wounds by burning them with an iron. The theme of this film is a universal one. Many people around the world are tired of the loopholes in our laws that allow criminals to escape, and think something should be done to stop them. I think that the statement in this film is significant because everyone can give their own opinion on how they feel about what is going on. They show this at the end of the film in the credits when they have reporters asking people for their opinions. Story Elements The films story line is unified well. The brothers start out acting in self defense then as the film progresses so does the fierceness of their actions. One scene that makes the story credible through objective truth is the scene close to the end when they go after Don Pappa Joe Yakavetta and they get captured, you can’t expect to go around killing a mafia man’s men and not get captured at some point. Then their friend, Rocco, gets shot and killed while captured. With all they have been through one of them would have been killed eventually. An example of subjective, irrational, and emotional inner truth of human nature is at the end of the film at Don Yakavetta’s trial the whole police team that was trying to find and stop the saints join them and help them get into the court room and smuggle in their weapons. An example of truth created by the filmmaker is throughout the entire film with the filmmaker’s artistry and skills of showing the aftermath of the actions first then showing the viewer through explanations by the detectives of what happens makes them believe these things could have happened. The way the film is shot keeps the viewer interested. The film goes back and forth so viewers have to pay attention for fear of missing something. The characters keep watchers involved as well. The high points of the film would be each scene where the filmmaker goes back and shows what actually happens to the villains of the film. The only dead spot in the movie is after the hotel room with the Russian mafia they go back to Rocco’s apartment to goof around, drink bear and smoke marijuana. Aside from the poor cat being shot there is no action or really any purpose for the scene. Other than that, there always seemed to be something happening. The film is more complex than it is simple. The film is just under two hours long and only covers a few days time span which is easily compressed into the time allotted for the movie. The film keeps the viewer thinking of what is going to happen at the end. The film’s ending is shocking because the saints find a way to kill their target when they are greatly outnumbered and in a very public place. The film does not have a lot of implication or suggestion; it is a very direct, to the point, and in your face. One place the film is direct is when the brothers wake up in the jail and talk to each other about their feeling that they had been spoken to by God, which sets them on their path for the rest of the movie. The view of life reflected by the story is complex. The brothers are trying to save lives and people from suffering from drug dealers, pimps, rapist, and murderers, but by killing them. They will kill men but not women and children. Significance of the Title “Boondock Saints” is an appropriate title for this film because the boondocks is where they come from. The boondocks is used to refer to nowhere or unknown areas. Saints was used because they and others feel they have been sent by God to help save the people form evildoers around them. By seeing the film you see the title as ironic because the brothers are being hailed as saints. Saints were sent by God to do good things to help people but they are killing criminals to save people from them. Dramatic Structure This movie is filmed in nonlinear structure. The movie starts by showing a little about the two brothers in the film, like where they are from and where they work, but it then catches interest right off the bat by throwing in some humor, like the jokes they play on each other at work. The film could not really begin in medias res (or in the middle) of an exciting action scene then go to where the complication already started because that is done in the next set of scenes. The two brothers are introduced then the next scene is of a detective at the scene of a crime. The police go over the scene of the killings and go back to the station where the brothers turn themselves in. They give their explanation of self defense in a flashback showing you what happened to the Russian mobsters that were killed. More flashbacks where use throughout the film. They are used to explain what happened at every crime scene in the movie. Conflict The major conflict of this film is the saints vs. evildoers. It is a combination of external and internal conflict. It is mostly external with the brothers fighting against the lowlifes of Boston. There some internal conflict shown by the detective trying to decide if what the boys are doing is right. The external conflict is very physical. There are a lot of fist fights and gun battles. In general terms, the major conflict is good vs. evil. Characterization The main characters of this film are Connor and Murphy (the brothers), and Detective Becker. All of the main characters are developing. The brothers start out as young innocent men just living their lives. As the go through the film they go from a forced killing to an unplanned sloppy killing, which shows their maturity and attitude to what they are doing, to at the end with a very well planned out killing, which shows they have grown up and taken what they are doing more seriously. Detective Becker starts out as a law abiding policeman; then is influenced by his own moral judgment by the end of the film to join the saints in getting vigilante justice. The brothers are round characters. They are portrayed in the beginning as your average Irish Americans working in a low paying job at a factory. The viewer finds out though that the brothers are very smart. They are fluent in many different languages and they use their intellect to get out of some tight spaces, such as spraying their blood with ammonia to destroy any DNA evidence that could have been used against them. Detective Becker looks like an ordinary detective but you find out that he is gay and is not afraid to flaunt it at opportune times. He has many quirks, such as listening to classical music while he analyzes crime scenes. The brothers are shown to be religious by doing what they think God has told them to do. They also say a family prayer over their victims. They do have integrity as they will not harm anyone who is innocent or women and children. Detective Becker is a law abiding man who also comes to believe that he has been spoken to by God. He feels the brothers are necessary due to the courts system’s willingness to let criminals go if there is some small mistake in their case, and joins forces with the saints. Symbolism Some symbols in this film are the crosses that the brothers wear and the tattoos they have. The cross and tattoo of the Virgin Mary represent their strength in their faith. The tattoos of the words VERITAS and AEQUITAS on their gun hands represent truth and justice. The coins that they place on the eyes of their victims represents that they want to make sure the dead atone for what deeds they did in life. These are all universal symbols. They are very affective as they are seen throughout the film and most people know what they mean. Elements of Cinematic Composition The director uses extreme close-ups of people and objects to show that they are important in that scene, such as a gun firing into the back of someone’s head, (just the gun) taking a life. He also uses color to show significance. The director changed the film to black and white to show the brothers after an important killing. In the same scene he used a low camera angle and had the brothers frozen still but their cross necklaces where falling out of their shirts as the only moving objects in the frame. Another popular angle was the high angle, above what was going on. A lot of mobile cameras were used to follow the action going on in the fight scenes. In one particular scene where the brothers fell through a ceiling and where tangled in a rope the camera used a panning motion to follow the path of their bullets around the room as they twirled in a circle. Acting I felt that all the parts were cast well. Willem Dafoe as the detective was brilliant. He has an ability to be extremely versatile. He can play just about any role given to him. Sean Patrick Flannery and Norman Reedus did a great job as the brothers; when you see them interact with each other you would almost think they were. They learned to use Irish accents well too. It was hard to tell they were not actually Irish. They rendered their emotions perfectly as well. The pain on Sean’s face in the movie when he lost his friend was so realistic. Willem has never had a problem with showing emotion. He has one of the most expressive faces in the movies. The supporting characters where top notch as well. They found the perfect people to play Italian mobsters, Russian mafia, and the group of almost completely inept cops. It was hilarious to see a cute little old man running around screaming profanities due to his turrets syndrome. For the brothers there is some dramatic acting but more action acting. The boys were young and strong and I had no problems with believing them in their parts. The scene were Connor, Sean, has to escape from his bathroom and jump off a building to save his brother may not have been as action packed as some of the other scenes in the film, it was very intense. Murphy, Norman, has a scene where he is in a bar fight with many other people, but stands out as one of the better fighters by taking on one of the huge Russian mobsters by himself. For Detective Becker there was more dramatic acting. He came in after the action happened explaining it to the others. Willem, Becker, did an outstanding job. All the mannerisms he used for his character were believable, and all his breakdowns as he started losing his cool, from his inability to figure out who the saints are, were also convincing. He is a very convincing drunk as well. The scene in the confessional was a good example of dramatic acting. Willem Defoe is not a gay man but seems to be able to pull off the charm of one. This movie was able to pull together the many aspects of film in an entertaining and meaningful way. Any film can cast good actors, but without a good theme or plot, the movie will fail. To make a truly successful movie, one that is remembered by movie-goers and critics alike, the movies has to make a statement in a compelling manner. This movie does that by paying attention to the many different aspects of film.