Released in 1992, Patriot Games directed by Phillip Noyce, is the story of a man who saves his family from the terrorist organization that is the Irish Republican Army. In a very oversimplified interpretation of the Ireland and the IRA, the movie fails to provide sufficient background information on the organization. The Hollywood blockbuster film centers it’s plot around a revenge seeking villain who’s attempting to kill American hero Jack Ryan. After saving the Royal, and his own family from an explosion in London, Ryan’s security becomes compromised. In the process of his heroics, Ryan ends up killing the attacker’s baby brother, making Jack Ryan (by default) the next target of a revenge-seeking IRA member.
By simplifying the complex history of the Irish Republican Army, the film leaves out a considerable amount of significant details necessary in understanding IRA motives and ideologies. Without historical context, the villains become very much one dimensional. The IRA men are in the movie simply as a substitute for “bad guys,” avoiding pertinent details as to why the conflict has such a rich rivalry in history. Thus, “terrorism” and “terrorists” result from the lack of detail. By depicting the Irish as terrorists, Hollywood avoids any racial tension and ambiguity that would otherwise cause controversy. Contrarily, being an action film, the audience has certain expectations about the film. That being said, though Patriot Games is based on a book, it is the director’s job to create a movie that people want to watch. For example, on the American side, viewers love to see and relate to a character like Jack Ryan. Someone who is organized and clean cut, Ryan represents the ideal father figure in American media for decades. He’s able to skillfully wield a gun, effectively killing anyone that attempts to tamper with his family’s health. An ex-marine, Ryan has military experience and ends up working his way back into the force later on in the film. (transition) It is much easier to operate within the confines of not only society but also within film. To elaborate, explaining a large portion of the Irish Republican Army’s history between Britain could create too much complexity and ultimately change the direction of the film. Instead, the movie doesn’t try to do too much, each character has a specific role within Hollywood’s “action” genre and the characters, scenes, and story stick to it.
However, as his role in the movie, Sean Miller is meant to portray the role of a “Fenian Bastard.” An animalistic figure at many points in the film, he’s often shown quietly contemplating his next move. A tactical villain, even without speaking it’s clear his mind is always operating with a killer’s thought process. His drive to torture his baby brother’s killer is constantly creating an overwhelming blind rage. In a scene where Miller is being transported by British officials, his stone-cold yet ragingly angry persona can best be seen.
Following the Cold War, the United States was experiencing dissolving tension in their long standing conflict with the Soviet Union. In somewhat of a transition period from national enemy, it makes sense to incorporate a group unfamiliar to the United States’ audience. During a time when terrorism was on the verge of becoming a realism to US citizens, the movie uses the generic white Irishman as a stand-in. In doing so, the film provides a clear villain or terrorist, without the same issues of race and culture that would come from say, Middle Eastern terrorism. able to appeal to a wider audience, which ultimately creates more money-grossed for the film. That being said, the movie the movie tries to create a softer form of terrorism by using the white and American looking Irish to represent the threat. In this way, many critics claim that the film is responsible for furthering a stigma while creating a bad image for the Irish population as a whole. Misrepresented in many ways, The IRA: On Film and Television analyzes the ways in which the film is inaccurately portrayed. As a Hollywood film, it makes more sense to include a maximum amount of explosions, violence, and chaos to draw a larger audience. However, when alternative factors, mostly negative and unrealistic, begin to draw away from the actual plot, viewers begin to interpret the Irish in a Hollywood-manufactured way.
Books such as The IRA: On Film and Television draw attention to the fact that Patriot Games is not the only movie to misrepresent the Irish Republican Army by over simplifying the conflict and what it stands for. According to The IRA: On Film and Television, the movie particularly misguides viewers by centering the plot around a single bloodthirsty Irishman, without fair representation of the IRA as an entire body. Determined to kill the protagonist in order to seek revenge for the death of his brother. Revenge is the motive that IRA member Sean Miller thrives off of in the film. Nearly the entire premise is geared towards getting-even with little-to-no background information on the existing conflicts. Instead, all the viewer knows is that Sean Miller is determined to get even and will do whatever it takes. This system is what generally creates the misconceptions and stigma surrounding the IRA in films. For example, in Patriot Games alone, there is only a very slight mention that the terrorist belongs to a splintered faction of the larger IRA. I myself did not even realize this until I had read The IRA: On Film and Television’s segment. Instead, the single psychotic terrorist represents the IRA as a whole, promoting a simplified image for the entire body of an organization that has a much more complex history. Additionally, for the purpose of being a Hollywood film, Jack Ryan’s revenge-seeking killer is very easily broken out of jail in an unlikely break in during a transport. Overthrowing a heavily armed British police force, The IRA: On Film and Television brings up the issue of the IRA’s seemingly endless resources. As an organization that struggled with nearly every resource, having services expansive as the ones in the movie seem unlikely. After all, is it just a movie.
Main Source
Connelly, Mark. The IRA on Film and Television: A History. Jefferson: McFarland 2012. Print.