Let's talk about art.

Remember the first time you saw the film The Boondock Saints? You had just caught up on Quintin Tarantino's filmography and were still riding high on The Matrix wave when this movie came out of nowhere and stumbled into your possession. Naturally, you thought this was the coolest movie ever because, well, you were eighteen and violence was cool. But then as you got older the movie lost some of it's shine and you started seeing it for what it really was, a collection of action sequences designed to exhibit extreme shootouts and executions. The story development was contrived and nearly nonexistent, and the characters are mere props set in place to hold the guns. This movie is pure fourteen year old child fantasy. Not to say that it doesn't have entertaining moments, there's a spark of clever film making in there, and there is some genuinely funny dialog, but as a whole, the film lacks substance other than a petulant statement that killing bad guys is cool.

At least, that was my experience with the movie. But what I find more interesting is Troy Duffy's experience with the movie. Troy Duffy, for those of you who don't know, is the writer and director of The Boondock Saints, and his story is a sad and amazing tale of self destruction.

Duffy was a musician who moved to LA in order to pursue a record contract for his band, The Brood, while bar tending. Eventually, he wrote a movie script and astounded media agents when it was bought by Harvey Weinstein for quite a large sum of money. Weinstein was building Duffy up to be the new golden boy, and was gearing up to make his movie with Hollywood stars, land a record contract, and be the new bad boy of the entertainment industry. After a few months he lost it all, got blacklisted from Hollywood, and by some miracle barely got his movie made. How did he manage that? For the whole story, I would recommend the documentary Overnight. If you're on Netflix, it's a free instant view right now. In a nutshell, Duffy was an uncharismatic, foul languaged, loudmouth who was so convinced by his own genius that he put off everyone he met. He successfully alienated all his friends and arguably ruined their lives. Every challenge he faced was met with cries of "they'll all be sorry!" and "you'll come crawling back!" It's quite a scene, man.

Obviously, The Boondock Saints was eventually made and went on to be a large success on the DVD market, which is a testament to the films likability, although Duffy didn't make a cent on the DVD sales due to signing away all the rights. Likewise, for the last five years, Duffy has been trying to get the sequel made, which apparently is set to be released this November.

The Boondock Saints is a frighteningly accurate portrayal of Duffy's personality. The movie's adolescent glorification of murder, under the guise of Catholic symbolism and morality, is the same attitude that every narcissistic teenager shares. This is all representative of Duffy's perpetual state of arrested development. Every decision he makes is driven by his paranoia that everybody thinks he's a bum instead of a genius, so he's going to prove them all wrong and shove it in their faces.

Troy Duffy is a perfect example of why I can't separate the art from the artist. Art is about communication, and when you make a piece of art you are communicating your thoughts, feelings, and ideas. Even if your thought is no deeper than, "Baby, baby, I love you, baby!" -- it's still a thought which other people share and connect with. So when examining a piece of art, I don't think it's unreasonable to get a feel for the creators personality. Likewise, when a creator does something that I disagree with or find appalling, or is just plain old despicable, it does affect how I feel about his art, because any piece of art should be representative of his beliefs.

And if it's not then he's a hack and a liar, in which case I have no interest in his art.