6 Minutes of Your Time: Patriot's Day
- McKayla Walker
- Feb 10, 2017
- 4 min read
Patriot's Day is a must-see film depicting the events of the Boston Marathon in 2013. It follows the life of police officer Sgt. Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg) and many others as the events of the marathon, and the search for the culprits, unfold.
Rating: R
This article may contain spoilers. Read ahead at your own risk.
For those of you who are new to 6 Minutes of Your Time, we take a major Hollywood Blockbuster and give a movie review you can read in 6 minutes or less.
Patriot’s Day was one of the first movies of the new year, and despite its wonderful cinematography, acting, compilation of true events, and star studded cast, it has received some controversy by glorifying “Trump’s America,” as one critic said in her review for BuzzFeed. While it currently holds an 80% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes, many of the initial reviews were incredibly negative. The film itself is about the Boston Marathon Bombing that happened in 2013, following the life of a specific policeman (Mark Wahlberg) as he tracks down the terrorists responsible.
1-2 Minute: A Quick Look
A dominant reading of this film (if you want to get super cinema vocaby. Dominant reading basically means what everyone is going to get out of the film) is pretty easy: policemen are good, terrorists are evil. A community will band together during times of crisis, showing the true nature of the masses is actually more good than it is bad.
The director achieves this dominant reading by not showing any group of people, with the exception of the terrorists, opposing the police force. Instead, everyone in Boston and the country is trying to help the Boston police force with their investigation. In 2017, especially after the events that happened in Dallas in 2016, many people oppose and fear the police force in America. Potentially, the director could be showing United States citizens to have more faith in the justice system.
3 Minute: Worth Your Time?
Most definitely. If you like a suspenseful film that isn't going to be predictable, this is the movie for you. The Boston Marathon struck many people right where they live, and this film sensitively, but accurately, shows the struggle many faced at that time.
I know watching this movie made me leave the theater with a newfound appreciation for law enforcement and the government in America, which is a considerable feat considering how many felt in January 2017.
So short answer- yes this is 189% worth your time if you want to feel appreciation for everything America does to keep its citizens safe in times of crisis.
4-5 Minute: A Deeper View
This film, besides depicting the importance and reliance of Americans on the justice system, was also trying to patch up relations with the Muslim community in America, as well as give more racial tolerance than we may currently be feeling in “Trump’s America”.
The director and screenwriters chose to show how hard every decision was for the government to make in handling this situation. They initially did not want to even label the bombing as a terrorist attack because of the anti-Muslim backlash that could potentially follow. Patriot’s Day depicted how the government did not want to release the photos they had to falsely incriminate individuals, especially because of the ethnicity of the men that, inevitably, were captured. More so, it successfully wanted to show that terrorists who happen to be Muslim are not the majority. Additionally, the savior to the entire film was an Asian college student who had memorized his car’s GPS tracking number and escaped the terrorists who had kidnapped him. Personally, after watching this film, I found myself wanting to reject even more any negative stereotype towards those of Asian heritage, as well as Muslim descent, so job well done Patriot's Day.
An oppositional reading that could also be found in this film is that of the need for feminism and female empowerment, though not necessarily for the typical woman in the United States. To further explain this claim, the wife of one of the terrorists is interrogated near the end of the film. She explains that a Muslim marriage is a “dance”, revolving around the submission of a woman to her husband. She believes that a woman in a Muslim marriage who disobeys/disagrees/betrays her husband means that she will go to hell. This scene demonstrates how, despite critics of the feminist movement, there is still a need for feminism, especially so in the Muslim culture. I felt that this oppositional subtext in the film is very important today as many women march for the “right” to birth control and to make decisions like abortion regarding their body when there are women who stay in abusive, dangerous marriages in the Muslim culture who actually have a right to life and safety. It put into perspective to me how blessed many women in America are that their biggest worry, many times, is where they are going to get their birth control, while there are women whose biggest worry is to not go to hell in a backwards perception on healthy marriage.
6 Minute: Worth Your Time?
Overall, this film was remarkably well done. The director did a phenomenal job at portraying his dominant ideal of the film, while also allowing room for oppositional readings of his work. This film was made to empower its audiences and create trust again in the government they live under.:
The idea that if something goes wrong, the government will help, people will help, and good will triumph over evil. It allows typical women of the United States to more appreciate the rights and freedoms they have, as well as successfully attempting to patch up race relations in the United States.
Culture Cult Grade: A
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