Aequitas and Veritas

The Boondock Saints is a movie that takes place in Boston, MA. In the movie two twins become vigilantes after killing two members of the Russian mob in self-defense. The brothers receive a message from above, and set out to rid their home city of Boston of evil. All the while an FBI agent is after them for their arrests. In the end, during the credits, the people of Boston are asked by the media, “Are the saint’s, as the two brothers are called, good or evil?”

A deeper commentary on society is revealed during the ending credits. Are the saints good or evil? People are arguing at the end, some say good some say evil. I feel this represents much more than just this movie. In the war in Iraq we are doing the same thing. We are killing to prevent others from being killed or harmed in any way. This is no different than the movie. The brothers McManus were killing high profile mob members. President Bush is killing high profile Terrorists and dictators. Each are harming people and running operations that provide illegal funding.

People seem to find war and murder to be two different things. In reality they are extremely similar if not the same. Killing is killing. We are not killing in self defense when it comes to Iraq and the brothers were not killing in the movie in self defense with the exception of the initial murder. Personally I feel the killings are justified. The tattoos on the twin’s hands speak words. One says veritas the other says aequitas which mean truth and justice respectively.