Monday, October 15, 2012

ONE MAN'S HERO



One Man’s Hero – U.S.A.
Heroes sin patria – Spanish title
El batallon de San Patricio – Mexican title
Rileys letzte Schlacht - German title
Un uomo, un eroe – Italian title
O ultimo, combatente – Portuguese title

A 1998 U.S.A., Spanish, Mexican co-production [Filmax/Hool/MacDonald Productions (Hollywood), Arco Films S.L. (Madrid), Produciones San Patricio (Mexico City)]
Producers: Conrad Hool, Lance Hool, William J. MacDonald
Director: Lance Hool
Story: Milton S. Gelman
Screenplay: Milton S. Gelman
Cinematography: Joao Fernandes [CFI color, Panavision]
Music: Ernest Troost
Running time: 123 minutes

Cast:
Sergeant/Lieutenant/Captain John Riley – Tom Berenger (Thomas Moore)
Cortina – Joaquin de Almeida
Marta – Daniela Romo (Teresa Corona)
Colonel Benton Lacy – Mark Moses
Corporal Keneally – Stuart Graham
Paddy Noona – Gregg Fitzgerald
Brian Athlone – Don Wycherley
Corporal Schultz – Wolf Muser
Seamus McDougherty – Luke Hayden
Daniel Grzbalski – Ilia Volok (Ilia Volokh)
General Winfield Scott – Patrick Bergen
General Zachary Taylor – James Gammon
Dominguez – Carlos Carrasco
Captain Gaine – Stephen Tobolowsky
Seamus Fitzgerald – Dermot Martin
Peter O’Neil – Jason Hool
Eammon Daly – Garrison Hershberger
John Daly – Steve Leone
Colonel Maximo Nexor – Jorge Bosso (Jorge Cuello)
Padre Varga – Luis Lorenzo (Lorenzo Crespo)
James Kelley – Prince Albert of Monaco (Albert Grimaldi)
McFadden – Mark Thomas
Flor – Vanessa Bauche (Alma Chavira)
Juno – Perla de la Rosa
General Ampudia – Rodolfo de Anda
Colonel Harney – Roger Cudney
Brander – James Polak
Lasher – Guy De Saint Cyr
Army recruiter – Brett Hool
Guerillas – Raúl Martínez (Raúl Yañez), Fernando Elizondo
U.S. battalion front man – Alek Carrera


The film tells the story of Jon Riley and the Saint Patrick's Battalion, a group of Irish Catholic immigrants who desert from the mostly Protestant U.S. Army to the mostly Catholic Mexican side during the Mexican-American War of 1846 to 1848. The story centers on Riley and a couple of men in his U.S. Battalion who are whipped for "desertion" when they travel to the Mexican side of the border to attend Mass. They escape to Mexico to hopefully find a ship back to Ireland only to find out that the U.S. and Mexico are now at war and if they are captured they could be hanged. Because of this, the Irish deserters end up fighting on the side of the Mexican Army, as the Saint Patrick's Battalion.


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