Patriot Day

Flix!

This film is based on the real life Boston Marathon bombings. The film stars John Goodman, Mark Wallberg, Kevin Bacon, and JK Simmons and a host of many great people who played a host of actual real life people. This is pretty much just a factual recount of exactly what happened and how it happened, and that was simply dramatic enough.

My son had seen it before and he said it would tear my heart out. It did. But on the upside were the depiction of all the wonderful people and technology and staff that were able to find and apprehend the perpetrators so quickly.

And even in all of the horror there were scenes of citizens stepping up, people assisting each other and generally being inspiring. We meet some people who were runners and each lost legs in the blast. and yet remain optimistic. One even eventually runs the marathon on an artificial limb.

In the end we get to meet the actual people portrayed. I am not a rah-rah flag waver by nature. Never have been, never will be. I don't want my patriotism to be judged by anyone, let alone anything obnoxious. But a flag flies in front of my house statement-less all summer, and all I can say about these folks are God bless them.

And all us will be remorseful about our fellow great citizens we lost. So sad.

This is a film everyone should strive to see. It doesn't just recall what happened that day, it recalls what being an American means. We are all one family. Christian, Jew, Fat, Short, Muslim, Ethnic, Buddhist, Gay, Democrat, Immigrant, Black, White, Republican, Brown, Trans, Yellow, and Native. We might have our problems, but we are all one family. And don't mess with our family.

Grade: A