Opening with a shot of a sunny Boston neighborhood and an American Flag, “Patriots Day” trailer seems much like a stereotypical Boston film from the first part of its trailer. It stars one of the city’s favorite actors, Mark Wahlberg, as everyman Sergeant Tommy Sanders, a member of the Boston Police Department who joins the FBI in the search for the Boston Marathon Bombing suspects. The film, which aims to tell the story of the bombing and the events that followed, “Patriot’s Day” has been marked as a must-see in 2017. However, the trailer alone reveals that the film is not interested in telling the events through a neutral narrative; instead, “Patriot’s Day” is just another Hollywood film that is profiting off of tragedy, and promoting anti-Muslim sentiment in a country where hate crimes against the minority group are already rising.
If you ask anyone from New England, or maybe even the United States, they can tell you exactly where they were when the Boston Marathon Bombing happened. I was on a bus with my high school chorus and band when our director broke the news. It worked everyone into a frenzy, and pretty soon everyone was texting their family members, trying to make sure everyone was okay, myself included. We were all too young to remember September 11th clearly, but this event would remain a terrible memory as the second terrorist attack on American soil during our short lives. The Boston Marathon Bombing was in our city, the one we had gone on field trips to, visited with our parents, and where some of us planned on going to college one day. It was an attack on our home.
Therefore, as I watched the trailer for “Patriots Day” I knew I could not support a film that was clearly created to just profit off of the deaths and fear of civilians. “Patriot’s Day” is predicted to make anywhere from $18-20 million from its opening weekend, and the people behind the film are saying that some of the proceeds from the film will be donated to a charity that the film started to help bombing survivors, medical professionals, and first responders (as explained in this article by the Boston Herald). This charity, however, will not receive half, or even a quarter of the film’s profits. The filmmakers will only donate up to $100,000 to their own campaign.
Fear sells tickets, but patriotism will sell even more in America. “American Sniper” grossed $400 million in 2014, but no numbers have been released on what they donated to the charity started in Chris Kelly’s name. “Patriots Day”, although public with its donation, is following the suit of Hollywood taken advantage of tragedy for money. Considering the amount of money the film is projected to make, you’d think the filmmakers would be more than willing to share their profit with those who suffered from the event, but this film was not made to help any of the survivors of the Marathon Bombing. Much like films about the Iraq War or 9/11, “Patriots Day” is just another for-profit film that is taking advantage of terrorism in America.
Another disturbing part of the film is the Anti-Muslim sentiment that is growing in America. At one point in the trailer Melissa Benoist, who plays Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s wife Katherine Russel, is taken in for interrogation while wearing a hijab. As the FBI interrogates her, Benoist’s character requests a lawyer to be present before the interrogation continue, which is a right she is entitled to. The FBI agent responds to the Benoist’s statement that she has rights with “You ain’t got shit, sweetheart.” Although this may be a bluff, it is still acting as if Benoist’s character is not a citizen, and her hijab seems like a marker that separates her from the “good guys” in the FBI. Although I condone the acts of the Tsarnaev brothers in 2013 as acts of terrorism, this film is not just attacking these two by including this scene.
Within this short instance, “Patriots Day” shows how it portrays anyone who may identify as Muslim in the film. They are not citizens, they are not innocent, and they are against the American people. Much like the films which preceded it, “Patriots Day” will continue the dangerous correlation of Muslims and terrorists. This correlation is dangerous to promote, as hate crimes against Muslims are on the rise in America. According to the most recent statistics in 2016, hate crimes against Muslims has grown by 67% when compared to the number in 2015. As our country continually punishes this minority group for the actions of some. There is no denying that the Tsarnaev brothers deserved to be put away, but that does not mean that even the trailer should contain anti-Muslim sentiments.
For those who wish to experience a hackneyed portrayal of the events of the Boston Marathon Bombing and the search that followed, “Patriots Day” may be the film for you. However, I’m going to take the $17 I would spend on that movie ticket and buy anything else.
“Patriots Day” will be released on January 13th, 2017.
