"Patriots Day"

[By BZ, from the BloviatingZeppelin.]

Normally you have to read a movie review in totality to determine if it is recommended by the author. Fear not. "Patriots Day" is one of the finest movies I've seen in about a year. You must go see it.

I learned things from this film that I'd never imagined. I gained insight not just into the minds of the first responders and the victims of the 2013 Boston bombing horror, but into the brains of the perpetrators whose abject disinterest in humanity can only be called shocking. The elder brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev (26), brought the corrupt Islamist philosophy to the two, yes; but the absolutely callous indifference -- absent the overwhelming philosophy -- of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (18 at the time) was appalling.

In all, five persons were killed; three at the scene, one MIT police officer (3 days later), as well as Boston PD Officer Dennis Simmonds who died in 2014, the result of a severe head injury suffered in the Watertown shoot-out when an explosive device detonated hear him. 264 persons were injured in the bombing, and 14 persons required amputations. It was a stroke of luck that more persons were not killed outright.


I realized I had no idea how violent the Watertown shoot-out truly was. I had no idea that so many rounds were exchanged and how many explosive devices the murderers had in their possession.

I was unaware of and massively moved by the Boston PD officers who literally stood watch over the dead body of 8-year-old Martin Richard at the bombing site; longer than 12 hours. They stood at attention and did not move.

"Patriots Day" is a seamless compilation of new film interspersed with actual video footage from the 2013 event, done in such a way as to allow the viewer an excellent understanding of events as they occurred. The film is at times restrained, insightful and disorienting (the bombing itself and the Watertown shoot-out). Director Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom, Hancock, Battleship, Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon) has done a wonderful if tastefully muted job (injuries are seen but not over-emphasized) which is interrupted by incidents of staggering violence.

"Patriots Day" is a refined and honorable interpretation of that day in Boston, 2013.

Go see it.

BZ

P.S.
Please read "A Message To Mark Wahlberg" (a Boston native), the article by Sackheads Shaun regarding Boston Police Department Officer Dennis Simmonds, who passed in 2014 due to injuries received in the 2013 Watertown shootout.