The Boondock Saints is a 1999 movie that has elements in it that everyone has pretty much seen before with a couple of glowing exceptions. Some of the grit in this movie is actual new and probably something many people have not seen much of in the movies. By grit I mean the way the main characters are living is a very squalid life style that just screams that they only live to do what they do and they have no other interests at all. Aside from the plot twists the other curve ball The Boondock Saints throws you is an outwardly gay police detective which is sort of unusual. Most male police detectives in gritty shoot ‘em up movies are hard men worn down by the years with iron in their fists and cold water in their veins. Or something like that. In The Boondock Saints the police detective is very gay and has no problem showing it and is played perfectly by Willem Defoe. For all that it accomplishes The Boondock Saints fell woefully short on impressing the movie going public or the critics. It just never got the press it needed to take off and the people that saw it were so disturbed by what they saw that word of mouth just never caught on. The plot and plot devices, aside from a couple of twists, are not very original so that could be why the critics never grabbed on to it. But The Boondock Saints has picked up a cult following that keeps the movie alive to this day.

The Boondock Saints is about Connor MacManus, played by Sean Patrick Flanery, and his brother Murphy who is played by Norman Reedus. The brothers killed a couple members of the mafia and realize that they must turn themselves in so they do. But instead of punishment they are released as heroes and suddenly they believe that it is their divine duty, given to them by God himself, to rid the world of the mafia and other gangsters like the mafia. They live in a very simple, and crude, apartment in Boston and set out on their quest to rid the world of evil once and for all. As the gangster bodies start to pile up the FBI gets involved and sends in agent Paul Smecker, played by Willem Defoe, to try and solve the murders. Smecker is a flamboyantly gay man and the movie spends probably more time than it should establishing this character trait. But the closer Smecker gets to solving the murders and moving in on the MacManus boys the more he begins to realize what they are doing. Smecker decides that he agrees with the brothers on what they are doing and thinks they are doing the right thing. The movie moves quickly to a surprising end from there.

Director Troy Duffy named the script for this movie after his band and the first draft of the script was called The Brood. But when The Boondock Saints was adapted as the movie title Duffy changed the name of his band to The Boondock Saints. All of the underground band hype in the world could not save The Boondock Saints from box office failure but it still lives on video rental and if you ever get a chance you should set aside some time to watch The Boondock Saints. It is something you will probably never forget for quite a while.