Home Entertainment This featurette for PATRIOTS DAY aims to do right

This featurette for PATRIOTS DAY aims to do right

3 min read
1

patriotsday

Hollywood likes to make movies of historic events. It also likes to make grave exaggerations and alterations in said historical epics as well that can also leave you with a bad taste in your mouth. However, with upcoming film Patriots Day, about the Boston marathon bombing of 2013, it seems director Peter Berg and star Mark Wahlberg are all too aware of that distaste and apparently went through painstaking efforts to ensure that the story is as accurate as it could be.

And fittingly with it being the US elections today, we get to speak a little bit more about a film that is supposed to fuel the American Patriotism (whether these elections will actually fuel that is a story not for this site). They have released a new featurette for Patriots Day, which features the likes of the director and star alongside the producer Michael Radutzky, production designer Tom Duffield and some of its cast members all taking about the importance of getting this story right.

To paraphrase some of the star comments from the featurette, we get Wahlberg saying:

The truth matters in a situation like this

Radutsky adding:

If we wanted to make a movie that involved all these folks, they needed to know that we were paying extraordinary attention to the facts

Berg:

We came to Boston to honour a story of those who were affected and we were humbled and very thankful for the way they opened up to us and became partners in ensuring the story was told in a very authentic way.

There is also real police officers and real people playing the roles of the extras and not simply actors, so hopefully all that will only help the film to drive home its attempt at feeling authentic. It’s all big talk for a film that is still a sensitive topic in the US. While I’m sure international audiences will simply be looking for a good movie, the US audiences who would still very much have all the events in their mind will be less forgiving if the film elaborated on certain aspect a little too much.

That being said, they are going for accuracy, but have changed characters in the film to not reflect all the real people involved, so I would take everything with a pinch of salt. I have no doubt there are many creative liberties layered in the film, as truth doesn’t always translate to screen very well.

patriots-day

Patriots Day also includes Melissa Benoist, Michelle Monaghan, Kevin Bacon, J.K. Simmons, John Goodman, and Lana Condor. The film will hit New York and Los Angeles theaters on December 21st before going releasing in the US on January 13th. No South African release date has been announced yet.

Here’s the official plot synopsis for the film:

In the aftermath of an unspeakable attack, Police Sergeant Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg) joins courageous survivors, first responders and investigators in a race against the clock to hunt down the bombers before they strike again. Weaving together the stories of Special Agent Richard Deslauriers (Kevin Bacon), Police Commissioner Ed Davis (John Goodman), Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese (J.K. Simmons) and nurse Carol Saunders (Michelle Monaghan) this visceral and unflinching chronicle captures the suspense of one of the most sophisticated manhunts in law enforcement history and celebrates the strength of the people of Boston.

Still no sign of the film’s breakout star though – me. I’m keeping my fingers crossed I play a bigger part when the film is finally released.

Last Updated: November 8, 2016

One Comment

  1. Alien Emperor Trevor

    November 8, 2016 at 11:40

    I can’t stand movies like these because they’re generally mounds of pure…
    https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3497/3234917710_8d13ac1c9b_b.jpg

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

Chris Pratt fights hungry aliens in The Tomorrow War’s latest trailer

This new trailer for Amazon's The Tomorrow War finally gives us a better look at the alien…