The Boondock Saints Dope Facts

After shooting, the film was shopped at the 1999 Cannes film festival in the hopes of finding a distributor - every major studio in the US turned it down, due to the Colombine Shooting one month prior. After failing to find a distributor at Cannes, the film was eventually picked up by a small company for a limited theatrical release of five theaters in the US for a period of seven days.

Was given a very limited release in the United States due to the Columbine Massacre. It was only shown in five theaters for only one week. However, it would later develop a large cult success from word of mouth following the success of DVD sales and would follow up with the sequel The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009).

The Movie was shot in 32 days.

Body count: 33

Troy Duffy dismissed several casting choices for the film - he refused to meet with Brad Pitt because he'd already played an Irishman in The Devil's Own (1997) and rejected Keanu Reeves and Ethan Hawke, calling the former "a fucking punk" and the latter "a talentless fool"

The tattoo that Connor has on his left hand/index finger says, "VERITAS," which is Latin for "Truth." Murphy also has a tattoo in the same place but on his right hand, that says, "AEQUITAS," which is Latin for "Justice/Equality."

Troy Duffy flew to New York to meet with Ewan McGregor and offer him one of the lead roles. At a night out, Duffy got drunk and they got into an argument over the death penalty and McGregor passed on the film. This led to Miramax putting the film in turnaround.

Delayed release and heavily restricted by MPAA after the Columbine shootings because of the violent content.

The line "Whosoever shed man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God, made He man" is in the Bible's Book of Genesis, Chapter 9, Verse 6.

The church where Connor and Murphy attend Mass, Church of the Covenant, is not a Catholic church, but a Lutheran one. No Catholic churches in the area would allow filming in their sanctuaries due to their objection to the plot of the film.

The word "fuck" and its derivatives are used a total of 246 times.

The character "David Della Rocco" is named after the actor who plays him, because the character was based on and written for him.

Patrick Swayze, Robert De Niro, Kenneth Branagh' and Kevin Spacey passed on the role of Paul Smecker.

Billy Connolly was so stoked to be playing against type in the role of Il Duce and having so much fun playing a psycho with guns strapped all over him that they had to add the huge cigar the character constantly smokes because unless they stuck something in his mouth he simply couldn't stop smiling.

Mark Wahlberg turned down one of the lead roles in order to star in Boogie Nights

When Ivan comes to the bar at the beginning of the movie trying to close it early, Doc tells him to "Make like a tree and get the fuck out of here!" The brothers had just been making fun of him for getting his proverbs mixed up, however, this line works as it is a more profane reference to a quote from Back to the Future (1985), in which Biff tells Marty the same thing, only without "fuck."