10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Boondock Saints

Some movies just find you at the right time in your life. I believe I was a freshman in college when I saw The Boondock Saints for the first time and I was absolutely hooked. It was just full of quotable lines, ridiculous action sequences, and cool Irish music. The only thing more spectacular than the film is how disappointing the career of director Troy Duffy has been since. His massive ego sunk his ship before it ever left the dock and now we’re left to wonder what he could have done if he hadn’t been blacklisted from Hollywood. It doesn’t change the fact that there are still some things you probably don’t know about The Boondock Saints. Check it out….

1- Know your role: Not only did Troy Duffy (who had never done any of this before) write and direct the film, but he also composed the music alongside his band. That is quite the vote of confidence for a man who had literally no experience.

2- Limited release: The film had an extremely limited theatrical release due, in part, to the Columbine school shootings. It spent only a week on a handful of screens but later found a large audience on the rental market.

3- Rental market: A big reason for the surge in DVD rentals was that The Boondock Saints was released as a Blockbuster Exclusive. For those young enough not to remember, that was something the rental chain would do with films that were much smaller and/or didn’t get a release in theaters.

4- On the fly: The line where Rocco says “Is it dead?” after the cat gets blown to bits by the gun wasn’t in the script. Director Troy Duffy came up with it that day.

5- Sin Bin: A couple of the victims during the shooting in the Sin Bin were characters that were introduced in cut scenes. One was a drug dealer and the other was a pimp that the brothers had come into contact with in a deleted scene. You can find those scenes on the DVD/Bluray.

6- Punishment: Scott Griffith plays the Russian mobster Ivan Checkov. He was an old friend of Troy Duffy who made it into the movie partly because of his large stature and his ability to take punishment! They had to drop the toilet on his head three times during filming.

7- Il Duce: Billy Connolly was always the type to have lots of fun on set. He was said to be entertaining the cast and crew (and anyone in the area) when not filming and they even had to go so far as to have him chomp on his cigar during a few scenes to keep him from smiling.

8- Rocco: The character of “David Della Rocco” was named and based on actor David Della Rocco. He was friends with Troy Duffy from years past and had went out to Hollywood years earlier but not made it. Duffy loved his personality so much that he wrote him into the screenplay and convinced him to come back for the film.

9- Brothers: Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus ended up playing the roles of the MacManus brothers but the studio initially wanted guys like Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, Ewan McGregor, and Ethan Hawke. Duffy claims that the wanted Flanery and Reedus from the moment he saw them and fought hard to get the “no-named” actors instead of the big named ones.

10- Lovers and haters: In the end, The Boondock Saints was crapped on by critics and hated on by many but instantly became a cult phenomenon to the point that it spawned a sequel 10 years later. And it still hasn’t died. There is still talk of a third Boondock Saints movie as well as a television series. We’ll see if anything ever gets made but I think we can all agree that the original is still an unforgettable film.