Lam: Patriot Games & The Devil's Own

The Irish Cause

                Patriot Games and Devil's Own both portray the Irish independence struggle, almost in a somewhat negative light. Harrison Ford plays the protagonist in both films, and basically both protagonists play towards Harrison Ford's typical character archetypes. Meanwhile, the antagonist of each film is different. In Patriot Games, the protagonist is shown to be a rage filled person seeking only revenge, while in Devil's Own, the antagonist played by Brad Pitt is shown to be a good-hearted person only doing what he deemed necessary in order to further a cause that was much bigger than he was. However, both antagonists displayed character traits in which the audience could feel sympathetic for, such as the death of their brothers.

                Firstly, I felt that these two films were very unfair towards portraying both sides, American and Irish, in a fair manner, often focusing on the American perspective. By making the protagonist of each film be an American, it already slants our view as an audience towards supporting the American point of view. In both films, many scenes of the Irish Republican army killing innocent civilians or police officers were shown. This influences our thinking in that it portrays them as evil, such as the plot to kill the royal family (Pfeiffer 200). One of the most impactful ways in which the films frame our attitudes toward the antagonists is by making the protagonists be law enforcement officers.

                In Patriot Games, one scene that illustrates the film's pushing of the audience against the Irish occurred when the three officers who were disarmed after the drawbridge explosions were shot in cold blood. This was a very unnecessary move in my opinion, but by shooting the three officers even after they were helpless forced the audience to believe that the Irish are truly the bad guys. Throughout the entire scene, it was dark and took place at night. Additionally, the dialogue was very short and quiet, indicating they were evil. The Irish could have left those three officers alive and not shot them, but at that time, it really showed the audience the rage and evil inside the antagonists' hearts in killing for a reason outside their cause. This scene proved their renegade status, thus pushing the audience to believe that these people only acted on their own and seemingly tried to save face for the Irish in general.

                In Devil's Own, the very ending scene where Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt have a shootout in the boat captain framed the audience's attitude towards the antagonists implicitly. In this film, the very beginning portrays the Irish to be evil by killing police officers, but what the film artfully does is develop Brad Pitt's character very well. It forces us to sympathize with his cause in contrast to the first film. The final scene of this film sums up that sympathizing feeling and turns all disposition against the Irish into one for the character. In the last scene, the character proxemics plays an important role in that the beginning of the gun fight the two are distant but eventually at the conclusion, the two come into an almost intimate character proxemic, symbolizing that the antagonist realized the error of his ways and ultimately redeemed himself at the end.