Jordan-Patriot Games/Devil's Own

 

 Harrison Ford starred in Patriot Games(1992) and The Devil’s Own(1997). Both of these films focus on the Irish Republic Army’s pursuit of freedom and independence. Both films show the violent nature and action that is percived when someone is involved with the IRA independence movement. Even with this information, the audience is able to find a small spot of sympathy for the antagnoist because they are fighting for something they feel very strongly about.

      

            In Patriot Games, Sean Miller (Sean Bean) is a member of the IRA and acts as the antagonist.  As the film starts, Sean and his younger brother Patrick are attempting to assassinate the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Lord William Holmes (James Fox). Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford), former CIA agent, disrupts the assassination attempt and kills Patrick in the midst of a shootout. Patrick’s older brother Sean is then apprehended by police and taken into custody. Although Sean had attempted to unlawfully murder Lord Holmes and his family, the audience sympathizes with Sean over the loss of his younger brother. In Patriot Games, the audience loses sympathy and respect for Sean's cause becasue he betrays his own countrymen and then eventually goes after Jack's family.  According to Pfeiffer, the movie “had boldly presented the IRA in an unflattering light, and Politically Correct forces began to attack the script’s allegedly right-wing tone…[although] the story emphasizes that the terrorism is being caused by a splinter faction which the IRA itself condemns” (Pfieffer 202).

       

       Frankie McGuire (Brad Pitt), the antagonist in The Devil’s Own, is also a member of the IRA. At the beginning of the film, Frankie witnesses his father being killed. Withought any further character development, the audience is imeadiatly sympathatic towards him. The film puts the audience in a moral dilema later in the film because early on we are expected to feel for this person, who will later commit crimal acts. Frankie fights in the war to gain independence and he soon after  travels to America under the name Rory DeVaney. While in the states, Frankie stays with Tom O’Meara, an Irish American police officer living in New York with his wife and three daughters. O’Meara is unaware that Frankie is one of the Irish Republic Army’s most deadliest members. O’Meara and Frankie build a strong friendship and Frankie takes on a brotherly role among O’Meara’s three daughters. The audience can see that Frankie is good-hearted and well intentioned. Unfortunately, he has chosen a life of violence as a result of seeing his father killed at such a young age. Frankie firmly believes in the cause of the IRA, and is willing to go to great lengths to see that the Irish gain their independence.