The Boondock Saints (1999) is a cult film about two Irish brothers in Boston who, in response to rampant organized crime, turn to vigilantism and are named Saints by the Boston press.

Although the film is criticized for portraying vigilantism positively, the film's ethical question "is murder for good good?" is left for the viewers to answer. The credits sequence shows a series of staged interviews with Bostonians regarding the actions of the Saints. There is no consensus.

Most fans of the film speculate the film was never released in theaters due to the Columbine High School Massacre; however, industry insiders believe the film's director, Troy Duffy, mishandled relationships with Miramax, the film's original distributor. As a result, the film was blacklisted and its new distributor showed the film on only five screens. Troy Duffy later funded screenings of the film with help from Blockbuster Video. Despite interested receptions at screenings worldwide, the film remained without a major theatrical release, again due to Duffy's interactions with Hollywood suits. Blockbuster released The Boondock Saints as a "Blockbuster Exclusive", a collection of independent direct-to-video films. Fan rumors claim that video clerks would intentionally place The Boondock Saints in the case of a more popular film in order to promote awareness of the film. Regardless of truth in those rumors, The Boondock Saints gained a large following mostly due to word-of-mouth publicity, and was a bestseller when released on DVD despite its nearly exclusive direct-to-video status.

Its cast includes Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus as Connor and Murphy McManus; Willem Dafoe as the gay homophobic FBI agent Paul Smecker, David Della Rocco as David Della Rocco, Billy Connolly as Il Duce (The Duke), and Ron Jeremy as an Italian mafia underboss.

According to The Boondock Saints' Official Website (http://www.theboondocksaints.com/), the release date of the sequel The Boondock Saints: All Saints Day is in September 2005. The sequel continues from the courtroom scene at the end of the first film. Industry insiders speculate the actual production of this sequel is extremely unlikely considering that Troy Duffy has had no film directing or producing experience since 1999, and believe sequel rumors are used as an attempt to promote the first film. Many fans of the film are not skeptical.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

The Boondock Saints

• The Boondock Saints (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144117/) at the Internet Movie Database
• www.theboondocksaints.com (official website)

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