Product Details

• Actors: Tom Berenger, Joaquim de Almeida, Daniela Romo, Mark Moses, Stuart Graham
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: February 29, 2000
• Run Time: 122 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305718873
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #259,057 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This historical drama set during the Mexican War is ambitious and tries to grapple with some serious themes, but it also tends to meander before finally finding a dramatic conclusion. Tom Berenger, who puts in a credible performance as an Irishman serving as an officer in the U.S. Army of the late 1840s, impulsively rides off with band of deserters, fellow Irish immigrants who have been persecuted for practicing their Catholic religion in the ranks. Berenger's character and the rebellious Irish lads flee into the hills of Mexico, where they are quickly taken captive by banditos who happen to be encamped with beautiful señoritas wearing dresses that can just never stay up on both shoulders at once. A romantic plot begins, but is put aside while Berenger and his men form their own Irish brigade to fight with the Mexicans against the U.S. troops invading from the north. After a series of hard-fought battles, their endeavors end disastrously. The setting of the Mexican War is a welcome change from most military adventure films, but unfortunately the screenplay seldom breaks away from a languid pace and clichéd situations, and what drama can be mustered plays out predictably. --Robert J. McNamara

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars One man's hero..., May 8, 2000

By 

Paco Calderón (Mexico City, Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Man's Hero [VHS] (VHS Tape)

...is another man's traitor. That's the way it is: the San Patricios are heroes -rightly so- to us Mexicans and traitors -rightly so as well- to the Americans, for they fought for us and deserted them. To argue about whether they did the right thing or not is futile; it depends on which side you are on. History always has two stories to tell and that's what makes it fascinating.

However, I'm not so sure I liked this movie even if most of what it shows is true. I commend the fact that being this, to my knowledge, the only American movie ever made about the Mexican War, it does not repeat the same old clichés one finds in all those Alamo movies, where the Mexicans are but laughing hyenas and the Americans angels on the side of justice. Of course, it could hardly be portrayed that way in this case, given the unjust nature of this particular war. But I think the movie goes the other way a little too much: the Mexicans are idealized beyond recognition, and that doesn't help history either.

The truth is the United States invaded Mexico when that country was having a civil war of its own. That's why we were weaker, that's why we lost, and that should have been made explicit in the movie. Instead it goes for the 'suffering defenseless noble peasant' stereotype Hollywood always uses whenever it wants to show Mexicans in a better light. I've seen it in 'Viva Zapata!', I've seen it in 'The Magnificent Seven', in 'The Wild Bunch', in countless other pictures and, frankly, I'm as fed up with it as with the greaser one. Please portray us as normal people for once!

All that romantically patriotic menáge à trois between Tom Berenger, Daniela Romo and Joaquim De Almeida merely sinks the movie. Whoever thought those awful lines, let alone those characters? Mexicans don't talk that way! Don't do us no favors, it only makes us sound like tragic proud imbeciles! And as for historical accuracy, John O'Reilly did not "dissappeared into the mountains of Mexico" as the movie so cornly concludes, but ended his days a blind beggar in the streets of Mexico City, a fact that shames me as a Mexican. I think the San Patricios deserved better, both in real life and in the movie.

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I loved this movie, and I am an American, October 14, 2002

By 

Aislinn09 "Cathi" (Omaha, Ne United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Man's Hero (DVD)

but I'm also one-half Irish.

For me, if a movie is good, it'll make me cry. (I'm a girl! Gimme a break!) This movie had me crying within ten minutes--when John Riley is listening to his men who are in the brig, awaiting the whip, for committing the unpardonable offense of having gone to Mass.

More Anti-Catholic sentiment right after that, with the Kamp Kommandant, Gaine, trying to refuse a pass to Riley so that Riley himself could go to Mass.

Riley goes to Mass and finds more US Army there, worshiping with Catholic Mexicans. (I recognized the Benediction from having gone to Catholic school for six years. That is definitely authentic.) They're Irish, and they're really concerned over the men who're scheduled to be flogged that night.

Riley rides with them and helps free his fellow Catholics, and they ride away, into the night, headed for Mexico...

...where they are ambushed by a bunch of ragged banditos, headed by de Almeida and his girlie friend, portrayed by Daniela Romos. This is where the truth and fiction become a bit blurred.

However, the fact is that the San Patricios fought on the Mexican side for Mexican land and the promise of citizenship; they probably did desert because America really was more Protestant than any other religion and had a British view of the Irish. It's true, just look in some of the publications of the day and really look at how Irish were portrayed in newspapers of the time.

They are still heroes to the Mexicans, and the town (in Co. Clare) where John Riley was born honors him on his birthday every year.

I do love this movie, but it is NOT a typical piece of Hollywood syrup--Our Hero is branded on both cheeks and his men are hung before his eyes for desertion. He is then depicted, as Tom Berenger's voice over tells us at the end of the movie, as having "disappeared into the hills of Mexico, never to be seen again."

I'm sorry that there are those that do not like this movie. I respect your opinion; I even understand why you don't like the movie. But I love it because it spoke to my soul in a way that no movie has, ever.

Here's why: Soy Irlandes y Norteamericana y Catolica. (My Spanish may suck, but you get the drift.)

Thanks for reading my review.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History never taught, September 15, 2003

By 

Robin C. Rutan (Glenwood Springs, CO, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Man's Hero (DVD)

One Man's Hero depicts an important part of United States and Mexican history that is not taught in the schools in the U.S. It tells the story of persecuted Irish immigrants landed in the U.S., moving to and becoming Mexican citizens and their role in the subsequent Mexican-American War making them Mexican heros. In Mexico, St. Patrick's day celebrates the heroism of the San Patricios. The history does not compliment the U.S. government and therefore is most likely the reason those of us in the U.S. have not been told about it. While the movie seems to drag in the begining, subsequent viewings reveal more important details to the viewer. While I would not give the movie 5 stars, the importance of the story itself surpasses the average qualtiy of directorship and hollywoodizing and therefore deserves 5 stars in the knowledge it reveals.