| St. Boondockans |
[Feb. 11th, 2008|02:48 pm] |
| [ | Mood |
| |  cranky | ] |
| [ | Music |
| | Hangman's Lullaby - Silentium | ] |
I don't know what the hooplah is over Boondock Saints. It's such a massive cult film, and everyone raves it as an original gem of "true" film. Man, this movie is so "true"! Wow, really? You think it's a jackpot of filmic meaning? You think it's a basilica of morality? The themes glorified therein were the justifications used for every religious war/genocide ever conducted on this planet. Same plot sequence: a guy suffers, then wakes up in a cold sweat one night with a "revelation from God" that they have to purge someone in order to make the world cleaner and better. Sounds like your typical hotheaded violent rages to me, made ten times more dangerous because the one with the gun is the one who thinks he's doing God's will. It frightens me how many ignorant ((that's not to say all Boondock St fans are ignorant---just the majority who fit the following description)) post-pubescent boys rave over the badassery and "rightness" of that film, how "no one's ever done something like this". These are typically the same kids that drive around listening to bad punk music with dog tags around their neck and stories about how they "totally beat the shit out of this kid one time...." because they want to be like the Boondock Saints. What the hell. Even the TITLE admits, tongue in cheek--or does the director actually believe his protagonists are protagonistic?--that it's just a bunch of recycled fanatic killers. The Boondock saints, as opposed to all the other so-called saints around the world that do God's bidding through blood. Saints: people rewarded with glorious titles who convert and/or kill because God tells them to. The Popes who reigned during the Crusades thought they would be saints someday, too. Joan of Arc, Muhammad, every religious figure of the Old Testament, Hitler, nearly every Islamic warlord.... COME ON! Please, do we need more kids growing up conducting blood justice because they "know" it's the right thing to do?
Ugh. I can't stand that movie. For crying out loud, people need to give it a rest.
Let me be specific in my disapproval, so as not to offend those I don't want offended: It's fine to appreciate this movie for all its qualities, or its over-the-top, almot parody-like violence, it's atypical antagonistic protagonists, .... But don't like it because you think it's "the moral voice of the decade, the kind of municipal action we need nowadays, tra la la la..." That is just ignorant, and that is what I disapprove of. |
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| Comments: |
I liked it because at the end they leave it to the audience. I don't think it's commentary for or against, which is why I liked it, but I can see how one would say that's a dangerous and amoral approach to a very disturbing argument. In that case, it's a dangerous movie because on the surface it can be persuasive to (particularly) young men -- glamorizing justice as if it was a badass and beautiful thing, when justice is a necessary but often ugly and cruel thing. I remember having extreme distaste for the protagonists but I remember thinking how very slanted the movie was toward them. I think if people were smarter they'd realize it is not an excuse to go out and seek blood justice, it's a commentary on the need for a civilization to treat crime with punishment. Speaking of which, if people want the most complete commentary, read Crime and Punishment -- by far a more rational, convincing, persuasive, moral argument.
I thought the protagonists in Boondock Saints simply were vigilantes. But when personal fanaticism dictates who will live and die, that just equates you with the criminals.
I remember I certianly didn't think Boondock Saints was as amazing as everyone else did. However, must say, I love Willem Dafoe in it. It's been a long time since I've seen it...I need to rewatch, I think.
Crime and Punishment is one of my FAVORITE books! I give kudos to the day when Cuthbert made me read it. | |
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