Whitman: Devil's Own and Patriot Games

Both Patriot Games and The Devil's Own feature Irishmen with similar backgrounds, but each film frames the characters in different ways to give audiences different attitudes towards somewhat similar characters. Both Sean and Frankie have led a life of violence and are members of the IRA. Both character's fathers were killed at a young age. And both snuck into America to complete a quest. Though similar, the films portray them very differently. Patriot Games portrays Sean as a violent villain. The audience sees him as pure evil and fears him. Frankie also is violent but the film frames our attitude to be more sympathetic of him.

Within the first few scenes these different portrayals are already apparent and the different attitudes begin to develop. Young Frankie watches the murder of his own father. As they are saying prayer, a terrorist breaks into the house and murders his father right in front of his own eyes. The camera proxemics of this scene is first personal but then slowly move to intimate. All the while young Frankie’s eyes are the dominant of the scene. His eyes are near the center of the frame and are the anchor point of the camera’s forward track. The next scene shows Frankie defending himself and his comrades from an attacking army. Through out the film Frankie is often well or at least clothed in natural earthy color like brown or green. this scene is no different. Though the scene is violent it has high key lighting especially on Frankie. These elements of mise-en-scene convey feelings of heroism like a patriot fighting for a just cause. This emphasizes how traumatic watching his father’s murder was and only reinforces how Frankie is violent only because he is a product of the violence he was exposed to at a young age. For this the audience sympathizes with Frankie and later must face a dilemma as his actions become more violent.

Sean on the other hand is portrayed as relentlessly violent. When meet his character he is not defending himself but viciously attacking a royal family car. Sean as well as the scene are very dark and dismal. In the scene there is very low key lighting. The day is very overcast and Sean is dressed in all black. This portrays him as ominous and villainous. Once he and his fellow comrades begin shooting up a car with a seemingly innocent family inside the audience instantly sees Sean as the antagonist lost to violence. The audience does not sympathize for Sean because his background is not set up by the film. All we see, and continue to see as the film progresses, is Sean driven by violence doing whatever it takes for vengeance. Unlike Frankie whom only uses violence because he is a product of the violent environment he was raised in.