The Boondock Saints (1999) on Netflix
R19991h 48mActionCrimeThriller
Irish-American twins Connor and Murphy MacManus kill two Russian mobsters in self-defense in Boston and take what they hear as God's call to purge the city. FBI agent Paul Smecker investigates.
- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb7.6/10264,137 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes26%
Trailer
Plot summary
Connor and Murphy MacManus are Irish-American fraternal twins living in Boston. They attend Mass and work at a meat packing plant, and on Saint Patrick's Day they celebrate at a pub with friends. Three Russian mobsters arrive to close the place so the land under it can be demolished, and the brawl that follows leaves the Russians beaten and humiliated. When two of them return the next morning for revenge, the brothers fight them off and kill them. FBI Special Agent Paul Smecker takes the case and finds the police and the press treating the twins as heroes. The two turn themselves in and are held overnight in a holding cell, where they believe God has told them to cleanse Boston of evil.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Boondock Saints (1999)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Troy Duffy was working as a bartender and bouncer and had never written a screenplay when he wrote this one, prompted by his disgust at seeing a drug dealer taking money from a corpse across the hall from his apartment.
- Miramax won a bidding war in March 1997 and offered Duffy 450,000 dollars to write and direct, with Harvey Weinstein setting a 15 million dollar budget, Duffy's band The Brood doing the soundtrack and the studio offering to buy him co-ownership of J. Sloan's, the bar where he worked.
- Troy Duffy wanted Stephen Dorff and Mark Wahlberg as the MacManus brothers, but Wahlberg turned it down to make Boogie Nights, and the director's choice for FBI agent Paul Smecker was Kenneth Branagh, alongside Billy Connolly.
- Miramax walked away weeks before pre-production was due to start in Boston in December 1997. Duffy kept his 300,000 dollar writer's fee, but the studio demanded back the 150,000 dollar director's fee and the 700,000 dollars spent developing the project.
- Its original run reached only five American theaters and took 30,471 dollars. Word of mouth and the video release then turned it into a cult film that has sold about 50 million dollars' worth on home video.
- The release was squeezed into five theaters because test screenings came two weeks after the Columbine High School massacre and there were fears the vigilante story would inspire copycat crimes.
- Duffy's band changed its name from The Brood to The Boondock Saints once the film came out. Two of its songs are in the film: Holy Fool during Rocco's tavern shootout and Pipes over the credits.
