Review of One Man's Hero (1999) by Eva A — 06 Mar 2010

Yeah.

There's a reason, folks why the Mexican/ American war of 1846-1848 DOES'T get made into many movies. We Americans like it when our guys are the heroes. So we like the Revolutionary War, Civil War, and WW II. When watching films of those wars, you can gorge yourself untill your heart's content on lessons about duty, honor, courage, liberty, decency, freedom, independence, compassion, democracy, and The American Way.

The Spanish-American War and Mexican War, on the other hand, look like bold-faced land grabs by the US against weaker nations.

The Mexican War in particular gets shafted in its role in US history. In it, the US stripped Mexico of about 1/2 its lands, creating Arizona, New Mexico, California, Nevada and parts of Colorodo and Texas. To this day it remains the second-most unpopular US war (second only to VietNam). Henry David Thoreau created the idea of Civil Disobedience while prostesting the war, and then-lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant considered it "one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation".

One Man's Hero tells the story of (mostly)Irish Catholic immigrants in the 1840s who, desperate for money, enlisted in the US Army, only to be badly treated by the mostly Protestant officers and men of the Army. When (Catholic) Mexico enticed them to desert, they abandoned their new country, to which they had very weak and oft abused ties.

The deserters form Los Batalionos San Patricios (St. Patrick's Battalion) and fight with the Mexicans in the 1846-48 war. A grim fate awaits them all after the war their side is destined to loose.

In Mexico, they are remembered as heroes to this day.

No nation loves a traitor. From Benedict Arnold to the Rosenbergs to Robert Hanson to John Walker Lindh, betrayers are remembered as the most despised and vile of men & women. But the unfortunates of the St. Patrick Battalion make for the some of the most sympathetic traitors and deserters ever portrayed.