'PATRIOTS DAY' HOPES TO SHOW STRENGTH THAT FOLLOWED THE BOSTON MARATHON BOMBINGS

RUNNER'S WORLD

The first Hollywood account of the 2013 attacks touches close to home for Bostonians.

With hands in his pockets on a chilly December night, the longtime race director of the Boston Marathon positioned himself outside of the fray and watched as others joined the red carpet festivities for the premiere of Patriots Day, the new major motion picture chronicling the marathon bombings and the manhunt that took over a city in 2013.

A native of Medford, Massachusetts, located just a few miles outside of Boston, Dave McGillivray has loved planning the historic 26.2-mile course so much that he runs it himself once the top finishers have long started their recovery. It took him a moment to find the correct words and emotions to sum up what it was like to rehash the events of 2013 as he watched the hustle and bustle of Hollywood do its thing.

“It’s very emotional,” McGillivray told Runner’s World before Wednesday night’s premiere at the Boch Center’s Wang Theater, “to have that all come back a bit was tough.”

McGillivray’s emotions are not unlike the ones many Bostonians have. There is a general curiosity to see how the moviemakers told the story, yet uneasiness about how sensitive Hollywood was going to be with the acts of terror that changed one of the most cherished events in the city. 

“I think they did it in a respectful and credible way,” said McGillivray, who saw the film at a private screening for Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) staff and officials before seeing it a second time at the official screening. “It was a story that was going to be told some time by someone. I think it’s important (it was done by) someone who grew up here in Boston and was sensitive to everything that had gone on.”

The challenge of telling the story fell on Mark Wahlberg, a Dorchester native, and Peter Berg, who directed other biopic films such as Lone Survivor and Deepwater Horizon.

Wahlberg has taken this project on as a personal mission of sorts. Originally there were going to be three movies made about the Boston Marathon bombings. Berg’s original script was supposed to be accompanied by a film based on Boston Strong—a book authored by Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge as an account of the bombings and the manhunt that ensued through the eyes of first responders and survivors—and Stronger—a movie about survivor Jeff Bauman showing his perseverance to fight on after he sustained life changing injuries at the 2013 Boston Marathon.

CBS purchased the script to Boston Strong in 2015, and Berg worked in some of that storyline to his original screenplay to create the version of Patriots Day. The movie will premiere in select cities later in December and nationwide January 13.