Patriot's Day

I just saw somewhere that you can take screenwriting classes from Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, Social Network), a man who is basically the godfather of writers in Hollywood. I’m sure they cost a million dollars an hour to take but when you get out, you should at the very least be able to write something as good as Crash (Paul Haggis) was. I have no idea how that film ever won Best Picture but it sure as hell got Haggis a big payday! And you know what, I’d consider that to be a huge win as you have to know that you’re probably going to still come out of that class a little bit scrubby but hopefully you’ll be a scrubby version of Sorkin.

Well it looks as though after he starred in The Great White Hype, Peter Berg went on to attend the Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay School of Directing. But the good thing for him is that he actually turned out to be a better version of them once he completed his apprenticeship. Berg is somehow able to perfectly blend cheesy Americana with intense action scenes as he produces fairly decent films, and he does so without the help of any late 80’s guitar solos or long blonde hair blowing in the wind (see any Bay film).

All of his films start off the same; he takes you through a day in the life of his American heroes, all of whom wind up being the nicest, most innocent people you’ll ever meet. And this even includes the guys you’d normally consider to be jerks in real life but in Berg films they come off as the wise cracking everyday Joe’s that you’d want to grab a beer with someday. Even cynics like me are almost shamed into feeling like an un-American asshole for calling out his over the top representations. How dare you make fun of the heartbeat of America?!?! But it’s like I said earlier, once the bullets start flying and buildings start exploding, you find yourself rooting for the very people who’d rather see you deported from this country than have you release yet another rap album for their teenage daughter to get pregnant to.

Well Patriot’s Day falls right in line with what you’d come to expect from this director. If you somehow live under a rock and don’t already know, this film gives a mostly factual account of the events that took place at the Boston Marathon a few years ago. That was when two Muslim radicals decided that they hated America and chose to bomb the finish line of a race rather than just leave the country. I mean, I hate lemon flavored Starburst but that doesn’t mean I’m going to go up to the president of Mars, Inc. and punch them in the face because they make it. I’ll probably just end up passing them off the scrubby kid in my class. But I digress.

Berg spends the first half hour of the film introducing you to a few of the characters who were directly affected by the bombing. And like I mentioned earlier, you almost find yourself rolling your eyes in disgust by how glowingly they’re portrayed but once you step outside of your movie critic mind for a second and realize what these people are eventually going to go through, you’re okay with the fact that Berg didn’t go the route of showing them stressing out over bills or arguing over who should’ve won season 86 of The Bachelor. Now some people had a problem with Marky Mark being given the lead role of some made up super detective but you have to realize that this is a movie, you have to have a primary protagonist in it. So Berg decided to blend the personalities of a few of the officers who were involved in that day, and essentially gave us one identifiable character that we could all get behind. He really only has one scene where he does something extraordinary and another where he gives off some speech that sums up the American Spirit, but outside of that, he basically just served as a guide through this unforgettable week of terror.

Berg really shines as he shows the brutality that took place that day and in the days that followed without ever resorting to melodramatic or distasteful tactics to do so. The shootout at the end between the terrorists and the local police may have been a bit embellished but it sure as hell was entertaining. And the parts where Boston residents were being…well, Boston residents, added some much needed comic relief. He even gave you an in depth look into the meticulous tactics the FBI used to help identify who the terrorists were and what they looked like. And after seeing this film, I don’t know how anyone can ever get away with doing anything these days! And you wonder why I’ll never punch the president of Mars, Inc. they’ll have me on a boat to send me back to Cuba in no time! I’m not Cuban by the way.

So all in all, I’d say this was a well made and entertaining film, and I strongly suggest checking it out if you haven’t done so already. I give Patriots Day a rating of FRESH!