Wait for the Back-Up ...

It’s National Detective Day.  I was informed this by one of my favorite detectives and it made me realize that though I have taken Boondock Saints apart piece by piece, I never took a step back and addressed one of the best aspects of the whole movie: the back-up singers.  What is a band if you don’t have the harmony in the background to keep things on que?

There is never a time in a story when the anti-hero will take on the real bad guys, bring them down without a little smidgen of help from the three men in the back row who are in fact, primary to all the action going on on stage.

Detectives Duffy, Dolly and Greenly.

Who else would you ever want to have your back?

I love these guys. I always have. Even as the franchise first took off.

 … first time I “saw” Boondock Saints was 2006. We were in Germany and I was face down on the couch with severe jet lag when my kids were playing it in the other room.  First line I ever heard was “This here is McCoy. We get a Spock and we have ourselves an away team …” and my head actually came up and I remember thinking in my exhaustion: “That. Was. F******. Funny."  (Face back to couch)

Greenly with his humor even when he hung his head and had to get an espresso, twist of lemon...and I think I will be wanting a bagel with that …”

Dolly, with his awared cluelessness, where “Five sevenish isn’t uncommonly short …”

Duffy … okay I can play a favorite and he always was mine.  The raise of the hands in defeat when Greenly muttered “I’m not getting him a f***** bagel …”; the smile when Dolly proclaimed the height thing.

              

The three of them playing off each other in perfect harmony: 
(Greenly singing at a crime scene)

Dolly and Duffy watching in bewilderment.  “What the …” Dolly mutters.  “I have no idea,” Duffy says, shaking his head.

These three detectives put their careers and their morals aside to help in an unusual situation they never saw coming.  They would lay down their lives, not only for The Boys, but for each other and even as the story progresses into the sequel, they are not merely trying to cover their own asses when Bloom arrives, but still protect their charges, too.

Loyalty. Guts.  And loss, as one does go down for the cause to great mourning of the community.   

            

Boondock Saints is not a favorite because of the over abundance of hot guys --which I confess it has--but it is a masterpiece of storytelling from Troy Duffy. From plot to sequence of events, to the characterizations that steals every scene.  The dialogue is amazing, conveying emotion and impact … no character stands alone and each one is there for the other.

The poor cat, but who didn’t laugh?

Have you ever really listened to Greenly explain the “crusher man” theory?

I have heard rumor that one of the three has asked to be killed off in the next installment because he feels his character would eventually feel too much guilt over the events. I won’t say where I heard it. I just don't like it.

David: If the glass had been broken from the inside ...

Dolly: Blood splatter indicates ...

Duffy: There is no #3. He only f***** up twice.

I love it.  I love these guys.

If you happen to be in Boston and need a detective?  Don’t look too far. There are a couple hanging out who will help you, even if they have to take walk on the wrong side of the law. And they will never say a word to give you up.  Not even to save themselves.  Bravo detectives.