At approximately 2:49 PM local time on Patriots’ Day, 2013, two assholes solidified a future residence in Hell by detonating a pair of crude homemade bombs near to the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring hundreds more. Easily the biggest annual spectator/participant event in the New England calendar, the marathon itself was just over four hours in at the time and still fairly crowded. Patriots Day is the dramatic recreation of the key events with respect to the bombings.
The pregame takes a bit longer than one might guess as writer/director Peter Berg decided to introduce backstory on half of greater New England. We’re a tad restless as Chinese entrepreneur Dun Meng (Jimmy O. Yang) tries to sell an app in Cambridge and when Watertown Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese (J.K. Simmons) collects a blueberry muffin several miles north of the marathon route, but you can almost feel Berg urging, “be patient; this will all make sense.” Berg had an idea to name just about everybody involved, from the cops: Police Commissioner Ed Davis (John Goodman), the martial law declaring Governor Deval Patrick (Michael Beach), the Special Agent in Charge Richard DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon), to the creeps: dominant bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev (Themo Melikidze), his combative American wife (Melissa Benoist), his foolish younger brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (Alex Wolff), to the crips: recently married couple, Jessica Kensky (Rachel Brosnahan) and Patrick Downes (Christopher O’Shea), and the father, Steve Woolfenden (Dustin Tucker), who permanently lost a leg and temporarily lost a three-year-old child. And Big Papi. Can’t forget Big Papi.
The person we follow most, however, was not among the notables of the day, but instead clearly an amalgam of several Boston police officers. Veteran currently-in-the-doghouse Sergeant Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg) is not only Johnny-on-the-spot for several plot points –check that, in Boston, it’s “Jawnny-on-the-spoht” — he’s also the embodiment of the Boston spirit, from pissed to stunned to protective to brave to broken to philosophical to undaunted. The balancing act works, as does the near seamless mingling of actual footage of the day with dramatic recreation. We get a great idea of exactly what happened, where it happened, how it happened and perhaps a little of why it happened.
It would have been easy to make Patriots Day into a film of hate. The bombers were indeed Muslim. Their motivations and religious rhetoric could have been tailored to meet whatever the vengeful or bloodthirsty needed to hear. Of the evil pod, however, the only one in the film to spout dogma is Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s wife Katherine … and she only does it to tell the feds, “screw you; I’m not selling out my husband,” which, if you think about it, makes her no different than any Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindi, atheist or miscellaneous believer. Not a whole lot of faith comes down to ratting on family.
I’m almost happier with what Patriots Day wasn’t than what it was. It wasn’t an American flag-waving orgy; it wasn’t an anti-Muslim film; it wasn’t a tirade; it wasn’t a celebration of martial law and extra-constitutionality in the name of justice; it had action, but it wasn’t an action film; it had thrills, but it wasn’t a thriller; it 
wasn’t a hit piece; it wasn’t a downer. You have to understand, I feared each of these things – release dates don’t happen by accident. Patriots’ Day is in April, but instead of coinciding the release date with the local holiday, the powers that be chose to release it a week ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration. That’s the Donald Trump who ran a presidential campaign on (among other things) anti-terrorism bluster and racism. Heck, as “Patriot” itself has become a term commandeered by right wing Americans to divide those exactly into camps of political allies and traitors, the title itself implies vengeance and vitriol. I fully expected there to be at least two speeches about the importance of hating Muslims or maybe the more subtle version in which Islam and terrorism are equated in film form. The actual product wasn’t biased at all, which in my estimation makes the unfolding all the more poignant.
It would be easy to give into the hate of the moment; Americans have seen and administered too many needless deaths this century. The violence supporting our massive national ego comes with huge cost in paranoia; the consequences are obvious – our thinly disguised fear has led to the election of the Grand Poobah of Idiots as the leader of the free world, his campaign riddled with hate and fear. And yet, Patriots Day is not a hateful film. If I had to narrow down Patriots Day to an actual genre, I’d call it a character development film in which the character was not a person, but the city of Boston itself. That character is as advertised, “Boston Strong.” Perhaps this isn’t unique and perhaps this is only fleeting for the small metropolitan area of eastern Massachusetts, but I (not unlike the theme of Patriots Day) like to believe it’s an idea representing the best of what humans have to offer, not the worst.
You will not believe this, but Patriots Day is an uplifting film, and a very good one at that. I wish more terrorist movies were like it.
♪I’d like to nab the guy
Who lit the fuse
That made New England
Become all jumpy
Who put the bomb in the ‘thon-a-Marathon?
Who put the bang in the whole-shebang-shebang?
Who put the stun in the Boyl-Boyl-Boylston?
Who brought the cops to Cop-a-Plaza-Copley?
Who was that man? I’d like to cuff his hands.
He filled all Boston with anxiety♫
Rated R, 133 Minutes
D: Peter Berg
W: Peter Berg & Matt Cook and Joshua Zetumer
Genre: Recent history, as told by somebody who isn’t an asshole
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Bostonians
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Tunnel visionaries
♪ Parody inspired by “Who Put the Bomp?”
