One Man's Hero (1999)
One Man's Hero tells the little-known story of the "St. Patrick's Battalion" or "San Patricios," a group of mostly Irish and other immigrants of the Catholic faith who deserted to Mexico after encountering religious and ethnic prejudice in the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War. The plot centers around the personal story of John Riley, an Irishman who had been a sergeant in the American Army who is commissioned as a captain in the Mexican army and commands the battalion, as he leads his men in battle and struggles with authorities on both sides of the border
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Highly Overrated But Still Good
Boring
When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama
After "Far and Away", this must be the most embarrassing film about Irishmen to come out of America. Apart from the sentimental and meandering storyline, the awful accents (which seemed to change from scene to scene) and stereotyped portrayal of the Irish soldiers made for a excruciating TWO hours. The political situation in Mexico, which is central to a clear understanding of the story, was never made clear and the soldiers seemed to be as much at sea about why they were fighting as are the audience watching them! The actors seemed to be totally lacking in conviction and the final scene where Marta is draped with the unit flag and made look like an old Irish Mammy is unintentionally hilarious in its bad taste. A film to avoid. Life is too short!
Anyone who has studied the history of the Mexican-U.S. conflict will have no doubts come across the story of the St. Patrick's Battalion. It could have been made into an excellent movie, maybe even an Oscar contender, but instead it ends up like a bad B-Movie. Terrible acting, awful accents and worse of all are the action scenes, they made me cringe with embarrassment. My favorite part was when the credits came up at the end so I could check the director's name so I could avoid his future movies at all cost. It's a real shame though, if Scorcese or Spielberg had got their hands on the history of the St. Paddy's battalion they could have put together a fine cast and an excellent script. Let's hope like many movies, they decide to make a remake and let's hope someone can tell this fantastic historical event the way it should be told.
John Riley did indeed lead Irish deserters for Mexico in the war. The Irish were ill-used by Nativist officers who didn't like 'croppies.' Protestant America was feeling threatened by the huge influx of Catholic Irish flooding into the US from famine-struck Ireland. Few troops have been given more reason to desert. However, the movie tells it all wrong. Riley wasn't a sergeant and didn't plan to return after getting his men to safety. He was a private who swam the Rio Grande a month before the war was declared. He responded to 'desertion leaflets' that the Mexicans had sneaked into American Camps. No US army ever had higher desertion rates.The treatment of Winfield Scott is rather harsh. Riley was actually sentenced to hang with virtually all of his men but it was Scott who commuted his sentence (the still harsh 50 lashes and branding), along with that of more than a score of his men. This infuriated Scott's Nativist officers.Riley remained in the Mexican Army after the war for a year or so and almost certainly returned to Ireland thereafter. Also, he was a young fellow, about thirty, which made it hard to accept Tom in the role. Another thing that was irritating is that there is a list of the men who served under Riley and it is amazing that the screenwriter decided to create fictional replacements instead. Why? Also, one must not forget that most Irish, despite poor treatment by prejudiced officers, did not desert. Who was more heroic, those who deserted or those who didn't?All in all, a disappointment. However, it is one of the very few films that deals with the Mexican American War, and for that I commend it.
This is one of the most powerfully moving films I've ever seen. Maybe it does lack some technical expertise, but I got so totally lost in the storyline, I didn't notice that. This film is precisely what I appreciate so much about Tom Berenger: it seems that Tom Berenger can take a small episode of history and make it memorable--so memorable, in fact, that I've seen this movie only twice, but scenes from it keep playing in my mind.