Boondock Saints

[dragonlady7]

Just finally got around to watching The Boondock Saints.
One of those movies that everyone's like Oh man, you haven't seen that? That movie rules! It's awesome!

...

OK. Sure.

1) If you remove the word "fuck" there isn't any dialogue.
2) ... OK, have you never even been to a Catholic church? Opening scene, the priest is reciting the Our Father to a silent congregation like it's a talent show or something, and he says the Protestant version with the Glory Be tacked on the end. To Catholics, they're two separate prayers, and the congregation recites it all together. It was a really off-putting beginning, let's just say.
3) You don't wear a goddamn Rosary. You just freaking don't. Especially not when you're reciting it. How the hell are you supposed to keep count with the thing around your neck? What the heck? What kind of clowns are these two supposed to be, wearing a Rosary?
4) ... There wasn't really much else to say about the movie. Revenge fantasies, OK, fine; blood guts and gore, OK, fine. The scene where the brothers kill the first two mobsters was pretty cool because the one was defending his brother and was really worked up. When Rocco got shot and they were all so upset, I was like... whatever, he was a putz. It didn't work.

So, the movie didn't really do much for me. Parts of it were kinda cool. But most of it was, well, kind of dumb. Come ON, people. At least GO to a Catholic Mass, even ONCE. Jeez.

Yes, there were cool parts. But that plot could have been used to make a really powerful, affecting movie. They could have used the brotherly love, the familial ties, the moral and ethical quandaries, the religious overtones in such vivid ways, and they didn't. They just didn't. It was a movie with potential and it didn't live up to it.

And you don't wear a Rosary. It's not a necklace.

Comments

this is from kat

[(Anonymous)]

I have had to go to a Catholic mass at least once a month since I started working at the Gazette...this is completely irrelevant to your topic, but at least I've fulfilled your wish. :)
On the other hand, I have to say that I have to go to some church just about every Sunday for the Gazette, and I really hate going to mass, because it's the most religious of all of the services in the area. They send me to "write about the sermon" or some such mush, particularly after "important events" but of course, these are never discussed by the priest. I haven't yet managed to get this message across to my editors, though. Alas.
These are the same editors that sent me to an atheist meeting on Easter Sunday.
Have I mentioned how much I hate working Sundays?

Re: this is from kat

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Mass is the most religious of all the services? LOL. Guess that means it has the most power. Right? I don't go to church because I want to play bridge and exchange pleasantries. I wanna be sorry for my sins, yo. I want to get the most religion for the time spent. Right? Just kidding. I go because it's tradition, and there's comfort in tradition.
I like Mass. It's comforting and familiar. The overly-religious crap doesn't really bother me, because I'm there for the music, for the familiar stuff, and for those chewy little wafers.
I also like the holy water. It's tingly and kind of burns. ;-)

Not that I go often. I haven't been since we moved, because Dave's mom's church is an architectural monstrosity of modernism, in shades of pink, and it's just not as grim and echoing and familiar as the one back home. I want the Madonna in blue, I want the weird little statues, I want high ceilings, I want wooden pews, I want antique stained glass, and I want just a little bit of gloom. Then it's worth going. ;)

I wasn't saying that everyone should go to Mass, I was saying that scriptwriters who are trying to write a screenplay that incorporates a Catholic Mass should actually attend one or perhaps read a transcript of one or something, that's all. Dave and I remembered watching some movie with Dad and he commented that during one scene, many characters were reciting the Our Father together and one of them stopped talking while the others continued. If you weren't Catholic, you probably wouldn't notice, but if you knew about the difference, then you knew that character was Catholic. (The Protestant version says, "and deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever amen", and the Catholic version says, "and deliver us from evil, amen." (Priest says something) All respond "For the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours, forever and ever, amen." Different.) Can't remember which movie it was, though, so it kind of loses its impact as a meaningful demonstration of what I'm talking about. But... it was a vivid little moment, one of those details that wasn't essential but was meaningful for those who noticed. It made the movie more real. Unfortunately, not memorable. Oops.

Boondock Saints made it quite clear that they didn't give a crap by starting the movie off with the wildly inaccurate Mass. I mean, it's not like a Mass is classified, or you couldn't find one in Boston. It just says to me, "I'm too lazy to get up on a Sunday morning, or by Sunday noon for that matter, or even a late Saturday afternoon, and I figure my audience are idiots."

But, y'know, the Irish Catholic part of me feels pretty exploited by that movie. They gave their characters Rosaries and Irish accents, and used some tinny pseudo-Irish folk music for the background in a couple of scenes, and it was supposed to be empowering or something? Pthbt. They figured, I make 'em Irish, and Catholic, and let 'em shoot people, and people will think that's really cool. Yay! And it seems to have worked, for a lot of my friends, including some Irish-American Catholic ones.


I'm sorry you have to go to all these religious meetings where nobody says anything meaningful... But you know how dumb they'd feel if someone said something really poignant at the church, and then your paper didn't say anything about it. I guess. I don't really know. At least they're paying you...