Rent Patriots Day (2016)

A good character study as well as shining a light on the many ordinary people forgotten by the media - Patriots Day review by TB

After the incredible Lone Survivor and Deepwater Horizon, Peter Berg & his co-star Mark Wahlberg continued their collaboration together, again looking to examine in a docu-drama style way a catastrophic event, as well as the actions of the many ordinary people caught up within it. And as a proud Bostonian, after the bombings which hit the marathon in 2013, there was really only one story to tell. Patriots Day looks at the lead-up to the bombing, then follows the aftermath, as well as the enormous collective effort to not only catch the bombers but also to rebuild the community in the wake of the tragedy.

When I first watched this film, I actually didn’t like it that much. I was in many ways expecting a continuation at the same massively high level of quality as the duo’s previous collaborations. And Patriots Day is not in that same league. One of the biggest issues, which in one way there wasn’t too much they could do about, was the fact that in this film Wahlberg is playing a composite character, as opposed to real individuals in the previous movies. And the fact that it is multiple people’s experiences shoe-horned into one character simply didn’t work. To quote one of the other reviews, the film is quite bitty & uneven.

Wahlberg’s Tommy Saunders is a rough & ready cop who is also a physical wreck. We meet him as he is taking part in a raid on a property. He is forced to police the Boston marathon event the next day, where the Tsarnaev brothers detonate two bombs, killing & maiming countless people. From there, Saunders becomes an integral part of the investigation at all stages, through to the capture of one of the brothers.

But despite my earlier criticism, this film benefits from being rewatched. And the second time I watched it, I actually really enjoyed it. Yes, the same issues are still there, but for me what shined through most was the massive effort to include & show how ordinary Bostonians were impacted & also came together. There is a sharp, sometimes caustic but also friendly humour that they have, which even extended to the police who were not shown as being universally popular in the film. 

Also, one of the other strings to particularly Berg’s bow is how good he is with action scenes. The tension & build-up, as you follow the brothers inching closer to carrying out the atrocity is unbearable at times. Berg also includes elements of footage from the day to devastating effect, the most prominent one for me being the genuine CCTV footage of one person’s escape. As the pursuit gains traction, you really find yourself buying into the world that the film has carefully been laying the foundations of. And whilst not all of it works, a decent amount of it does, which means there is a lot of enjoyment to be had.

For me, having seen the previous work & results that Berg, Wahlberg and their team can achieve, looking back on this film now, it would have actually made a stunning TV series, which meant that a lot of the events which had to be cut out in order to have a sensible running time could have been properly fleshed out. It is clear to me that the creative team care deeply about the events & people affected, which also importantly included extremely close collaboration with the Boston population, especially who live in the streets where the final scenes happen. 

So whilst there are some significant problems with this film, it is also a genuine attempt to honour the victims of this disgusting tragedy, showing the decency that the overwhelming majority of people in the world have, especially those who are part of a tight-knit community.

Hit and miss - Patriots Day review by Alphaville

This is a film overawed by its subject matter – the 2013 Boston marathon bombing – and its need to pay homage to the heroes and victims. It’s more of a commemoration to Boston and its inhabitants than it is a feature film. The first half is awful, totally unfocussed and filled with banal backstory snippets and newsreel-type depiction of the marathon and the bombing chaos itself. It plays like Act 1 of a 70s disaster movie.

The characters’ real-life counterparts appear on camera themselves at the end of the film and provide moving testimony, but their on-screen portrayal is sketchy and mawkish. They say ‘I love you’ over and over again to plinky-plonk piano muzak you just want to stop. The score, by the normally brilliant Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, is terrible.

But just when you think the film will never be anything but a drawn-out news bulletin, it changes tack and gathers momentum. The second hour develops into the search for the bombers and, as a piece of thrilling cinema, it starts to grab the attention. Director Peter Berg is at his best when he’s able to focus on these more contained confrontations and milk them for tension and thrills, as he did in Lone Survivor.

There are some exciting incidents that almost save the film, but then it returns to the mawkishness with which it began. American critics like this film, as they did Berg’s similar Deepwater Horizon, but they’re judging the concept rather than what’s on-screen. Perhaps it’s best viewed in this light, as a well-intentioned commemoration of a tragic event, its heroes and victims and even the city of Boston itself.

Gritty Real Life Drama! - Patriots Day review by CS

Whilst I found this quite an interesting film to watch, entertaining given the subject matter, it is not! This is in essence a slightly fictionalised account, based upon true events, of the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing, blending real life shots into the film at various points. the problem with American Films of this type is that they tend to glorify and revel in Americanisation and how wonderful it is to be a patriotic American, rather than concentrating on the facts, the reason why this happened and what actually happened! It can be hard sometimes for non-Americans to have the same empathy towards such tragic events when they happen in America, give the funding and support the USA notoriously have given terrorist groups such as the IRA over the years! As a result the American viewpoint on terrorism becomes slightly skewed, as it does so in this film. Giving credit where to is due though, this is quite a tough and gritty drama which is well played generally, although I would say the real heroes in this case were the general public rather than the Police themselves!

patriots day - Patriots Day review by CN

second half much better than the first but we could only catch one word in 10 with all the mumbling the actors were trying to be natural but when the real police and survivors spoke at the end and in the extras you could understand every word

Great reconstruction of a real event - Patriots Day review by AKL

A brilliant reconstruction of a terrorist event which was then horrifying but by now seems almost tame compared to subsequent attacks in Europe. At times it seemed we were actually on the spot.

Drawn out - Patriots Day review by DJ

Simply too much drawn out boring dialogue , muttered as is now common practice - are they using the mighty Iphone to do the sound recording ? Totally uninteresting characters and their average lives. Tried to make a drama out of a terror attack and failed. Also , what possessed them to film the final shootout in the dark ? all that you could see was gunshot flashes , seemingly small explosions and ghost like figures running across the screen !!! Since most of the " drama " was made up why couldn't they pretend the shoot out was at dawn.

Lets be honest , you sit through 90 + minutes of tosh hoping to see the terrorist die in a hail of bullets and what do you get - bonfire night.

After Deep Water Horizon I was hoping for some realistic action with the manhunt but all I got was Emmerdale. Avoid.

A very enjoyable film - Patriots Day review by SB

I wasn't sure I'd like this, after knowing what had happened at the time the event actually too place. The films sets you up nicely from the start and it's quite alarming as the film progresses and, from a UK point of view, how violent the gun battle becomes at a certain point in the film. It's of course sad that this event actually happened, but it's well worth watching.