On my first day of film school a teacher named Roberto Perez León, whom I later discovered to be a brilliant man, asked me what my favorite film was. – I know it’s not great, but…The Boondock Saints- I answered. The Boondock Saints was my favorite movie a mere 6 years ago. For those who haven’t seen it, The Boondock Saints is a 1999 film written and directed by the infamous Troy Duffy, starring Sean Patrick Flannery, Norman Reedus and Willem Dafoe. It tells the story of two brothers, twins, who, by the grace of the wholy spirit (literally), feel compelled to become vigilantes and eradicate all evil from the streets of Boston by shooting evil in the head in the most ceremonious of fashions. It’s been accused of being heavily influenced by Pulp Fiction. A gun is accidentally fired, it has a non-linear narrative, and it has plenty of gratuitous violence. It’s a cult movie, a cool movie, but not necessarily a good movie. And when I saw it, and this is important, I didn’t know better.
After I told my teacher that The Boondock Saints was my favorite movie, he replied in a thick cuban accent -Well, it’s ok to like garbage (he used a far less kind word) and it’s important to enjoy garbage, as long as you know it is garbage-. Woody Allen once said that Ingmar Bergman told him that he could never get any sleep unless he watched an empty, mindless movie like a James Bond film before going to bed. I take comfort in that. And I believe there is a similar principle in both statements.
Much has been said about the importance (and non-importance) of film school. Paul Thomas Anderson walked out after only two classes. Tarantino famously said that he didn’t go to film school but went to films instead. Kubrick did not go to film school, nor did Terry Gilliam. Neither did Nolan, or Kurosawa, or Cameron, or Jodorowsky or Scott. But Scorsese did, Coppola did, the Coens did, Stone, Lucas, Aronofsky and Spielberg all went to film school. Like most things in life, filmmaking has infinite routes to be achieved. Both the film school and no-film school roads are different taste-acquiring experiences. And yes, to be successful on either of them studying is a requirement. Absence of school does not mean absence of education, especially on this instant-access, uber connected world we live in. Education is the main defense against garbage, and garbage in a way, introduced me into my education.
But what is garbage? Essays have been written and discussed about aesthetic taste and its origin and modifiers and sociological conditioners and cultural significance and so on. I believe no one is born with a taste for Tarkovsky, but the leap from Michael Bay to Terrence Malick is not a big one. I’m living proof, and I find beauty in that. The most common advice by filmmakers to aspiring filmmakers is to go out there and do something, to pick up a camera and shoot something, anything. I believe in that advice and I believe in its extrapolation. Let`s go out there and see a movie by anyone, let’s read a poem, let’s try to understand a painting, lets write something, design something, eat something, lets admire, let’s do something, anything. Let’s sail the dirty sea of human creation and see where it takes us. I discovered the brutal, visceral dynamism of Scorsese’s camerawork, Kubrick`s hypnotic symmetry, Woody Allen’s rose tinted glasses and Tarkovsky’s time sculpting. But before all that, I discovered The Boondock Saints. I discovered blood and dirt and guts and Willem Dafoe dressed as a prostitute and a cat being accidentally shot dead and Ron Jeremy playing a gangster. The Boondock Saints put me inside a classroom, and in that classroom I was introduced to all these things and people that I was completely unaware of. We tend to bully bad art (if there even is such thing), we tend to demonize it, when simple acknowledgment that it is such is more than enough.The sweet is not as sweet without the sour. And if you excuse me, I’m going to watch The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day and go to bed.