Fight Clip Club: Boondock Saints

…there was a FIREFIGHT!

I was going to write about this movie last week, as it’s a tradition in my household to watch it every St. Paddy’s Day. It’s like watching Lethal Weapon on Xmas Eve—it’s just something you do. But as I was looking for Irish fights, I thought well actually, Boondock Saints doesn’t really have *fight scenes* per se. Right? Like there’s violence, sure, there’s firefights (as Agent Smecker so very famously moaned), but as far as fights that are visible, that we can really look at… well I didn’t think there were, but then I watched the movie again last week and I feel like I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out the lovely stylish way the violence in this movie was shot.

Mainly, what’s most interesting from a theatrical violence standpoint in this film is the way we see each bit of violence play out. We don’t start with what happens and then watch the investigators figure it out after, like an episode of Columbo. Nor do we follow the investigators as they gather evidence, then see that solved murder after it’s been figured out (or hear about it in a confession), like a more old-school whodunit. This film kind of does both, at the same time.

The way the bits of violence play out in Boondock Saints takes the following rhythm: 1) our grungy heroes plan what they’re going to do (or in the case of the unplanned first fight, we see what happens just before physical violence breaks out). 2) We fast forward in time to Agent Smecker and his hapless police minions going through the crime scene, gathering evidence, and we hear Smecker’s version of what happened based on that aftermath, then 3) we cut back in time to see what actually happened. And in some of the violent sequences, steps 2 & 3 overlap, till we get gorgeously operatic scenes like at the climactic gun fight with Smecker echoing the moves and postures through the fight scene as though he’s there. 

This unusual way of showing how events unfold makes the violence a little more palatable, as well as carries a viewer forward with its style, in alignment with the opera that Smecker puts in his earbuds to help him think. But enough of my gums flapping! Let’s look at one of these sequences, and you can see more clearly what I mean. I’ll meet you at the other side of the paywall.