The third Monday in April has long been marked as Patriots Day in Boston, one of the oldest cities in the United States. Commemorating the battles of Lexington and Concord and other early battles of the Revolutionary War, Patriots Day honors the tradition and pride of Boston’s importance in the Revolution, and celebrates the strength and hope of the city today by marking the day with the Boston Marathon and, of course, a Red Sox game at Fenway Park.
On April 15, 2013, however, that celebration turned dark as the world watched in horror when bombs exploded during the marathon leaving carnage, blood and rubble in its wake. For the next four days, all eyes were turned toward Boston as a 1000+ member task force comprised of federal, state and local law enforcement reconstructed the scene, collected thousands of pieces of evidence, and explored thousands of leads from a diligent and caring public, as a manhunt of epic proportion shut down the city before concluding in a fiery battle in Watertown with the death of one suspect and the capture of another. Although media was trained on Boston and the unfolding events, the true depth of what transpired and the heroism the shone so brightly in the face of adversity of not only law enforcement but everyday citizens, has remained shrouded in mystery. We know the crux of the story. We know two brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar, plotted and planned the pressure-cooking bombings. We know that Tamerlan was shot and killed in a massive Watertown gunfight while Dzhokhar was arrested, found cowering under a tarped boat in a resident’s backyard. But do we know the behind-the-scenes collaboration and cooperation, the events taking place out of the lens of the media? Under the direction of Peter Berg and with script by Berg, Matt Cook and Joshua Zetumer, PATRIOTS DAY tells the full story with respect, dignity, and truth.
Instrumental in bringing PATRIOTS DAY to life is one of the film’s producers Michael Radutsky, also a producer of “60 Minutes”, and who was responsible for the first investigative feature on the bombing, airing less than a week after it occurred. While Radutsky’s piece focused on the perspective of then Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, PATRIOTS DAY provides multiple vantage points, all coming together through the eyes of Boston Police Department Sergeant Tommy Saunders, a fictional amalgam of many of the brave men and women in blue who gave their all.
Saunders, played by hometown boy Mark Wahlberg, is the way into the heart of PATRIOTS DAY, but where director Berg and the script takes flight is with the interweaving of multiple story lines of the real life characters’ stories and with the immense amount of research that creates this respectful and meticulously executed masterful tapestry honoring all of Boston and its patriots. As we meet each of the “real life” players to the incident, Wahlberg’s Saunders takes a back seat, thereafter only serving to distract us from the riveting intensity of this tension fraught film and then provide an overly dramatic monologue in the film’s third act, the delivery of which feels stilted.
The day opens with Saunders, trying to get back in the good graces of Commissioner Davis, on the marathon route near the finish line. A crisp and sunny day, Saunders hasn’t a care in the world and even though he’s nursing an injured knee, and working off a suspension doing uniformed duty at the marathon, is all in for the celebration of PATRIOTS DAY. Thanks to his bad knee, his wife arrives on scene bringing him a much needed larger knee brace so he can make it through the day. During this time, we meet some of our key players, all looking for the day to run like a well oiled machine. Police Commissioner Ed Davis is laid back but alert. Across town, Sergeant Jeff Pugliese is getting his morning fill of Dunkin Donuts and coffee. Newlyweds Patrick Downes and Jessica Kensky got into the swing of things and were at the finish line to cheer on the runners. And we meet the Tsarnaev brothers – Dzhokhar and Tamerlan – and Tamerlan’s wife and daughter, all of whom are at home arguing over who forgot to buy milk for breakfast, something which must be resolved to the wife’s satisfaction before the brothers head out to the parade, toting backpacks and milling with the crowd.
But as spectators cheer, explosions go off in Saunders immediate proximity. First one. Then another. Going silent at the moments of explosion, director Berg intensifies the situation, immersing the audience in the experience, most particularly as the immediately deafening cone of silence dissipates and frenzy and panic take hold. Cameras are on the move, editing is rapier and “we are there.”
Once the explosions happen, the earlier leisurely pace of the film is gone as things kick into high gear and take on a tense edge. Get people to safety. Triage the wounded. Find the wounded. Move in the ambulances and emergency equipment. Cordon off the area. What the hell happened? The number of moving parts stuns. And then with the arrival of the FBI and a determination based on forensic evidence at the scene that this was indeed a terrorist attack, all hell breaks loose but for one thing; an 8-year old boy has been killed but his body can’t be moved from the scene. Covering the body with a sheet, a 24-hour police guard is assigned to watch over him so he “won’t be alone.” That single moment of respect and tenderness speaks loudest of all as to the character of the people of Boston. Director Berg intermittently takes us back to that image as he cuts between hospital chaos, shocked and injured patients, frightened families and the rapidity of the investigation ramping up.
Cutting between the various points of investigation across the city and the verbal sparring between law enforcement, the FBI, the Mayor and the Governor, the manhunt takes on a fresh face. As investigation provides clues and citizens provide tips, we are along for the ride, first meeting Sean Collier, a young MIT campus cop who encounters the terrorist brothers, losing his life as he refuses to allow them to take his weapon. As the terrorists move onward trying to leave the city and get to their next target, New York City, without being caught, they carjack a young Chinese immigrant, Dun Meng, and hold him at gunpoint during the next leg of their attempted escape; that is until Meng turns the tables on them and escapes, able to give law enforcement the lead that would break this manhunt wide open. That lead takes us to Watertown where Sgt. Pugliese and others head straight into one of the most violent battles to hit the region since the Revolutionary War. The terrorists are well armed with countless pipe bombs and pressure cooker bombs piled in the stolen vehicle and an all-out war rages on through the night. (To this day, residents’ homes still bear the scars of bullet holes from that night.)
In between the physical “escape” and manhunt, is the inherent in-fighting that comes with multi-agency collaboration. Governor Deval Patrick wants things handled one way. FBI Agent-in-Charge Richard DesLauriers wants things handled his way and wants to supersede the local police at every opportunity. The MEMA director has other ideas. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, who was in the hospital recovering from surgery when he heard about the bombing, insisted on being released from the hospital to be the face to calm his city. Superintendent Billy Evans, actually running the race at the time of the bombing, also weighed in with his thoughts. Feathers were ruffled and some egos crushed, but in the end, the needs of the many outweighed the wants of the few or the one. Hand-in-hand with the inner squabbles is also a tacit commentary on some of the media which are promulgating and possibly forcing the hand of the investigators before they are ready to release information. A tacit and timely tightrope.
Tackling the real-life individuals was a daunting task at the outset but casting is superb starting with John Goodman as Police Commissioner Ed Davis. Goodman delivers Davis as a commanding but dedicated civil servant who cares about the people. Countering Goodman’s Davis is Kevin Bacon as the frigid and cocky, by the book, FBI Special Agent Richard DesLauriers. (Sidenote: DesLauriers was also involved in the capture of Whitey Bulger.) J.K. Simmons is a pure dedicated delight as Sgt. Pugliese. Down-to-earth and salt of the earth, Pugliese is the cop everyone wants on their beat. Michael Beach embodies the gravitas of Governor Patrick’s role in the decision-making process, particularly on the issue of releasing photos of the suspects. Beach delivers emotional nuance that captures the weight of Patrick’s dilemmas. Beautifully done. As fictional character Carol Saunders, Michelle Monaghan adequately conveys the fear and concern not only of a concerned citizen but the worry of every spouse of a law enforcement officer. Perhaps the most memorable performance of PATRIOTS DAY comes from Jimmy O. Yang as young Chinese immigrant Dun Meng who called 911 after escaping the brothers. With early carefree scenes of Meng’s selfies with his new car and “living the life” in the United States, we have a sense of who this young man is, investing us as an audience in the character on screen, making his “captivity” even more riveting and frightening. Meng knocks it out of the park.
But it’s Themo Melikidze and Alex Wolff who will send chills down your spine as Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, respectively. Physically, they are dead ringers for the characters they portray. Notably, Berg, Cook and Zetumer crafted a script that gave texture and layers to each of the brothers which gave the actors something to work with on screen and by extension, intensified the fear factor. Both outstanding performances which will either lead to greater roles or forever typecast them as terrorists.
Cinematographer Tobias Schliessler who has worked with Berg previously on “Lone Survivor”, shoots in a docu-drama naturalistic style, mesmerizing in lensing of recreations of specific events, such as the marathon finish line and the actual bombing itself. For the recreation of the marathon itself, the filmmakers were permitted a small window of time to shoot segments of the Boston Marathon itself in 2016, embedding ten cameras throughout the parade route. The explosions themselves were recreated in another area of town. (Notable is that one of the bombing victims, Patrick Downes who lost a leg as a result of the bombing, actual ran the 2016 marathon and we do see footage in the film’s coda showing him cross the finish line.) Thanks to Schliessler’s camerawork and camera placement, PATRIOTS DAY provides a real sense of first-hand POV. Compound that with the mixed-media use of news and surveillance footage, the result is immersive and intense.
Tom Duffield’s production design is exemplary with the recreation of the marathon as it was in 2013, complete with the same vendors and signage, bleachers, flags, banners. Similarly with wardrobe by Virginia Johnson in attaining authenticity of the day in terms of pedestrian clothing and law enforcement uniforms. There is no detail that has been overlooked in the production of PATRIOTS DAY.
Editors Gabriel Fleming and Colby Parker, Jr. dazzle not only by ratcheting up and maintaining tension and a sense of urgency, but in making sense out of a logistic timeline with a multiplicity of concurrent events. Importantly, there is neither celebration nor vilification of the brothers, but rather a very pragmatic honesty to the unfolding events and the resilience of the Boston people, as well as a balanced portrayal of law enforcement as it meets its challenges. The visual and emotional balance achieved puts PATRIOTS DAY at the forefront of films depicting heinous real-life events.
Perhaps the most intense sequence of the film is the Watertown shoot-out as, thanks to the entire city being on lockdown but for law enforcement, no media were present at the time of the incident to capture it on film or report on it from the scene beyond subsequent police reports. Thanks to cooperation from Boston and Watertown police and reliance on extensive interviews with residents, Sgt. Pugliese and others, PATRIOTS DAY provides the first full first-hand account of that fateful night. The result is emotionally explosive.
Outstanding is the sound editing of Piero Mura, making PATRIOTS DAY a fully sensory experience.
Shot on location in 14 communities in the Greater Boston area, PATRIOTS DAY is “Boston strong”
A film end coda of interviews with the real-life subjects, including survivors Patrick Downes and Jessica Kensky both of whom lost their legs in the bombing, is touching and not to be missed.
Directed by Peter Berg
Written by Peter Berg, Matt Cook and Joshua Zetumer
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, John Goodman, Kevin Bacon, J.K. Simmons, Michelle Monaghan
