accurate view of Boston American-Irish underworld

Rating: 9/10 (9 October 2006)

of course the characters motivations will be messy in a Remake set in Boston! Irish Boston is a place split between tribal loyalties and their religion, Catholicism, which, while there are many personal exceptions, teaches people to do what's right. You have to grow up, live and die in a morally conflicted environment. You'll never escape your roots, so you can't just start living on Beacon Hill, but you can't escape your religious upbringing either. American Irish are perhaps the only people who might kill you knowing full well that they'll go straight to Hell for it, and knowing people among them who are going straight to Heaven for going to Mass everyday and not being a gang banger.....and living like a Stoic with this whole set of moral information. "I'm going to Hell, because I live with a woman whom I love but is not my wife", etc etc. It's the Full Compromise that makes for engrossing drama.