I distinctly remember much of the Boston Marathon bombings and subsequent pursuit of the Tsarnaev brothers. It culminated in that great David Ortiz speech at Fenway Park, and the bombing victims running the marathon a year later. It was the origin of “Boston Strong” and shows the power of a group when collectively solving a problem. With so many perversions of the word Patriot, Patriot’s Day takes the word back and gives it to those true set of heroes during those trying days in Boston in 2013.
Patriot’s Day starts out introducing us to the key players of the day. Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg) is a Sergeant unafraid to share his opinion who agreed to work the marathon to get back in the good graces of his boss, Commissioner Ed Davis (John Goodman). Meanwhile Dzhokhar (Alex Wolff) and Tamerlan (Themo Melikidze) Tsarnaev are prepping for their attack with the aid of Tamerlan’s wife Katherine Russell (Melissa Benoist). As we know, the two brothers drop their homemade bombs, killing 3 and injuring many. Tommy and the other police officers help the city go into lockdown, and the hunt begins. Once terrorism is determined to be the culprit, Agent Richard DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon) from the FBI helps run the investigation. The Tsarnaev’s lead everyone on a chase that has them kidnap Dun Meng (Jimmy O. Yang), and eventually stops in Watertown Massachusetts, where Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese (JK Simmons) and his officers combine forces to eventually search for, confront, and capture the brothers, if possible.
As a procedural, Patriot’s Day is mostly well detailed and executed, like the search. Peter Berg loves to show his heroes as loving family men. However, by showing the Tsarnaev household, we get a chilling reminder that these people aren’t demonic, they’re people like everyone else; the brothers went out to get milk to appease Katherine, like any husband would. We also meet some of the victims whose lives would be changed forever; an adorable couple, a man and his son, a campus police officer who likes a student, and Dun and his cool Mercedes. These innocuous acts take greater significance after the Tsarnaev’s drop 2 bombs near the finish line at the marathon. Berg gives us behind the scenes footage of the Boston Police and the FBI as they identify possible suspects and have to deal with the press potentially leaking information, as well as when they have suspects, how to go about finding them. The best parts of the search are in the immediate aftermath…when they have to try to figure out who planted the bombs. The details about discovering the brothers are cleverly filmed and tense since but show the day to day job of the FBI when they conduct a terrorist search. The interest decreases as the Tsarnaev’s get further away from Boston, because chance plays more of a role. In addition, Mark Wahlberg’s presence as the movie goes on (he’s playing a composite character) gets more questionable since he’s playing a Boston Police officer…so why would he end up in Watertown to find the boat Dzhokhar was in instead of the Watertown Police? Doesn’t make sense.
The FAR more interesting parts of Patriot’s day are when Berg shows us the Tsarnaev brothers and Katherine Russell in the aftermath of the bombings. We witness these guys watch themselves on TV and casually go on the run. The matter of factness Dzhokhar takes with his situation paints the brothers in a far more terrifying light since they show zero remorse for what they did. The kidnapping of Dun Meung I actually knew nothing about, and those scenes and Dun’s eventual escape were as tense as anything in the movie. The confrontation in Watertown was also way scarier than the news portrayed it. Those bombs the Tsarnaev’s made were very effective to keep police at bay for a very long time; I had no idea how many cars they took out with just their homemade explosions. Katherine’s interrogation by the government is also extremely chilling, showing how ironclad the woman was in the just nature of the bombings of her husband and brother in law. Giving us some insight into the brothers allows Berg to paint his heroes more piously, and make it much easier for us to root for them.
Patriot’s Day is Peter Berg’s homage to the good people who rise to the occasion during cases of extreme fear and hatred. I imagine Berg’s intent is to make us root for Goodman, Wahlberg, and Bacon because they’re doing the confrontational work of stopping the evil. However, Berg is effective moreso in showing us how the little guy can rise up and do something in their own way. I was more moved by the campus officer who refused to give up his gun, or the husband and wife that lost limbs but inspired each other to move forward. Or my personal favorite, Dun Meng, the amazing exchange student that not only survived his accosting from the Tsarnaevs, but tipped police off to their actual location which kept them from detonating more bombs. People like those guys make our lives better anyways, so to see them get time onscreen is well deserved for the dreamers who come to America. Who’d’ve thought the greatest Patriot on Patriot’s day would be a Chinese national? Just amazing!