When I was in college, my roommate Dave said to me something to the effect of “you’re probably not going to like this movie.” Nonetheless, we sat and watched The Boondock Saints, and I was blown away by it. This low-budget independent film revolves around Connor and Murphy MacManus, two deeply religious Irish brothers living in South Boston, who after a violent run-in with the Russian mob, grow tired of the incessant crime they see around them, and take it upon themselves to start taking out the trash in the city they call home.

The movie was set to be released in theaters the week of the attack on Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999, but due to the nation’s sensitivity about gun violence after that horrible incident, the very violent film was precluded from a wide theatrical release. It was only after The Boondock Saints was released on DVD that it developed a large cult following.

In the film, Connor (Sean Patrick Flanery…I wonder if he’s Irish) and Murphy (The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus) stock up on weapons and start picking off pimps, drug dealers, and gangsters who slip through the greasy fingers of the judicial system, all while staying one step ahead of the flamboyantly gay and whip-smart FBI Agent Paul Smecker who is hot on their trail (played to PERFECTION by Willem Dafoe…seriously, its my favorite thing he’s ever done). The brothers’ adventure culminates in the climactic courtroom scene at the end of the film, in which they publicly assassinate a mob boss and officially reveal their existence to the world after the following speech:

“Now you will receive us!

We do not ask for your poor or your hungry!

We do not want your tired and sick!

It is your corrupt we claim!

It is your evil that will be sought by us!

With every breath, we shall hunt them down!

Each day, we will spill their blood till it rains down from the skies!

Do not kill, do not rape, do not steal. These are principles which every man of every faith can embrace!

These are not polite suggestions! These are codes of behavior, and those of you that ignore them will pay the dearest cost!

There are varying degrees of evil. We urge you lesser forms of filth not to push the bounds and cross over into true corruption, into our domain.

For if you do, you will look behind you and you will see we three! And on that day, you will reap it!

And we will send you to whatever god you wish.”

The movie made famous a prayer that everyone who has seen the movie, even those without a religious bone in their bodies (read: me),loves. The brothers, appropriately enough, recite this prayer aloud and in unison just before they blow someone’s head off

“And Shepherds we shall be, for Thee, my Lord, for Thee

Power hath descended forth from Thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out Thy command

So we shall flow a river forth to Thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be

In nomine Patri, et Filii, Spiritus Sancti.”

Funko finally produced Pop! dolls in the likenesses of the vigilante brothers from this cult classic, complete with their P-coats, Celtic crosses, blue jeans, and silenced pistols. The toy company even took it a step further and included the tattoos inked on the brothers’ hands, with “veritas” (Latin for “truth”) on Connor’s, and “aequitas” (Latin for “justice” on Murphy’s.

The paint job on these figures is a bit sloppy in certain sections, but the likenesses are great, right down to the hairstyles for both as they were in the movie. The Boondock Saints remains my favorite movie of all-time, and I loved bringing Funko’s versions of the MacManus brothers into my toy collection. Stay tuned for another edition of Funko Friday next week!