Interview: “One Man’s Hero”
There are countless films that, for whatever reason, slip through the cracks and never get the attention they deserve. One such film is “One Man’s Hero,” directed by Lance Hool and starring Tom Berenger, which tells the true story of the San Patricios, Irish immigrant soldiers fighting for the United States in the Mexican-American War, who after facing discrimination for their beliefs defected to the Mexican side, but were eventually executed as traitors by the US Army. This incredible story of Irish persecution & Catholic solidarity is celebrated in Mexico and Ireland, but is still a relatively unknown story here. Hool sought to change that with this film, and managed to get Orion Pictures to finance a major Hollywood production starring Tom Berenger, worthy of comparisons to “Dances With Wolves” and “Braveheart.” The film had its world premiere on August 2nd, 1999 at the West Belfast Festival in Northern Ireland. Orion Pictures was originally planning a big release, but then they were bought by MGM, who buried the film, barely releasing it in theaters and giving it no awards push.
24 years later, I’m so glad I was able to speak with Hool (who also directed “Steel Dawn” and produced “Man on Fire”) about his memories of the film, his thoughts on the studio interference, and his hopes for an eventual BluRay release.
How did this film come about?
It took me 25 years to make the movie. I was born in Mexico City, and my mother was Mexican and I lived in an area that was very middle class. It was once surrounded by two rivers, and one of the rivers was called Barranca del Muerto, which is Gully of the Dead, and I grew up thinking that we were gonna find somebody dead there.
So when I went to university in Mexico, the University of the Americas, where they had all the files of the trial of San Patricios. I got very interested because it was there in that river that they threw the bodies after they hung them. And so when I got to Hollywood in 1975, I wanted to make this movie desperately. I started my career with John Wayne, working in a couple of his movies in bit parts, because I looked American and he made all his movies in Durango, Mexico; not all of his movies, but he had a ranch there, and that’s where he would shoot a lot of the Westerns. And then I found out that John Wayne was the first guy that wanted to play John Riley. And Republic Pictures, who he was under contract to at the time, said no, we won’t touch that. And then Charlton Heston wanted to play Riley and then Michael Caine wanted to play Riley. Sean Connery wanted to play Riley, and they were all dissuaded because of the fact that, you know, the United States Army did not look very good at all, because of the treatment [of the Irish] and the hangings. It was the biggest hanging in the history of the United States’ Army. So I tried to do it independently. I tried to get any of these actors that would come on board without any financing. And then Marty Baum, which is one of the founders of Creative Artists, I met him in Mexico because he was Sam Peckinpah’s agent at that time.
And they were screening The Wild Bunch for the first time. And my agent in Mexico asked me, my brother and I both, to save a couple of rows on a movie theater for Sam and his crew that they wanted to come and see the movie with the Mexican audience. So we saved the seats and I became friendly with Sam and Marty. After that, Marty gave me a call and he said, you still have your San Patricios project? I said, yes. And he said, well, Tom Berenger is very interested in playing Riley. And I think that I can put it together for you at Orion, because they did Platoon with Tom, they got an Oscar, and they did Dances with Wolves. And I know that John Kluge has taken over the company and they want another Oscar. And I think that your script and your passion for the project can probably do that for them, if everything comes out fine. So he set up a meeting and Tom and I went over there, and lo and behold, they said, we’ll give you 8 million dollars against domestic rights. And I said, we’ll keep foreign, and we’ll see how much we can make the movie for. Because of my long history with Mexico, I got enough money to make the movie, and that’s how the movie was made.
How did you go about casting the role of Marta?
I was staying in a hotel in Mexico City where George Parra, a first assistant director that had worked with me, was doing “The Mask of Zorro.” And he called me from the lobby, and he said, we’re also staying here, and I’ve got the perfect Martha for you, can I send her up to your room? And I said, sure, and it was Catherine Zeta Jones, but it was too late. Daniela Romo was great. And then Daniel Day-Lewis contacted me that he’d like to play Riley, but I wasn’t going to change Tom Berenger; he was instrumental in getting the movie done, and he was great in it.
I love that you had actual Irish actors in the cast. Did you cast them in Ireland?
Yeah, I went there, with a great casting woman. We went to Belfast, most of the actors came from Belfast. In the group, there were five actors from the Catholic side and one from the Protestant side. When we went to Ireland, I had never been to Belfast, and I was really blown away. It was horrible. When we arrived, Gerry was marching. So we went to meet with him while marching, and that’s when we said, oh my God, we’re gonna get in the crossfire here. The machine gun turrets were everywhere with the British soldiers. And we walked past the cemetery, and Gerry pointed out that the Protestant side would not allow anybody to be buried in the Irish Cemetery more than a hundred yards closer than that. It was like being in Nazi-Occupied France. So yeah, it was not a pretty sight. It’s better now.
How did the world premiere in Belfast go?
Tom Berenger and I went over to Dublin, and then up to Northern Ireland. We screened it in two theaters on the Catholic side, which were jam-packed. It was a very hot summer day, and the theaters didn’t have air conditioning. Gerry had a reception, which was attended by all the actors and celebrities from Ireland. And we got a little concerned because, you know, we said, Hey, this is in the Catholic side and, you know, there’s no Protestants here. And Gerry said, don’t worry cuz I’ve invited the Lord Mayor [Bob Stoker], but he never shows up when I invite him. We were giving an interview to the BBC, and they said, can you hold us a second? And everybody was running to a terrace that looked over the road that wascoming to the theater, and five black cars arrived.
And these guys get off the cars, with machine guns. And Gerry gave instructions to his guys, to go and tell ’em to disarm, or that they couldn’t come in. And they did disarm and the Lord Mayor did show up. So Tom and I were in the main theater. My brother that was with me, he was in the other theater. And it had been a couple of hours that the people were sitting there and they were pretty tired, but it was still jam-packed. I think the two theaters had like 650 seats and there were people standing in the back.
And Gerry sat me between him and the Lord Mayor. And then he got up, and in Gaelic introduced the movie into the Lord Mayor’s chagrin, you know, cuz he doesn’t speak Gaelic. So we started the movie and we were all perspiring cuz it’s so hot. I was looking at Tom and he was looking at me like, what the hell did we get in to? And the film finished and you could hear a pin drop, so I said, oh man, they didn’t like the movie. And then all of a sudden, people started clapping and they stood up and women were coming up to us crying and hugging us. And the Lord Mayor and Gerry hugged right in front of me.
So obviously, my brother reported that the same thing happened in the other theater where people just went wild about the movie. And that night, we obviously went out and had a really Irish celebration. I didn’t get into my hotel room till about six o’clock that morning. And the phone rang at 7:30 in the morning. And I was like, oh my God, I thought it was my wife calling to see how it went, and it was Gerry and he said, I’m sorry that I can’t take you to the airport. And I said, Gerry, don’t worry, we can get a cab. He says, no, no, no, it’s for a good reason. And I said, what? He said, well, we’re starting the Peace Talks. So that’s the power of one movie and a movie that was blackballed in the United States. And it was blackballed by one man: Frank Mancuso.
What happened with that?
Len White, who was the CEO at that point in Orion, he said that in the lobby of their offices in Century City, they had the Oscar for Dances with Wolves, and on another wall they had the Oscar for Platoon. And in the third wall, he said, this is for One Man’s Hero. So I was like, oh my God, this is exactly what I’ve been wanting for 25 years, you know? And lo and behold, we screened it at the Academy. And at Academy screenings, the theater never got full, and I’ve been a member of the Academy since 1986 or 84. And so I’d never seen it so full as when we screening the movie. Kathy Bates was there, and she came over and said, you know, I wish you luck because you this is a controversial movie. And we had a standing ovation in the academy, and she came afterwards and she said, you’re positioned for an Oscar, from the Academy point of view. So we were in Heaven, Tom’s performance was fantastic, and all of the Irish lads that we got, and the cinematography was great. And we felt that we could at least get an Oscar for the music or something. We were flying high.
And that’s when Fiona Lewis told me that Gerry wanted to talk to me about taking it over to Ireland [for the Arts Festival in Belfast]. Then, Maggie Kelly, who ran the studio where we were officed, and she’s an Irish lady, she said, George Bush was coming to raise money for his campaign for president. And we have a table at the Beverly Hills Hotel, would you like to come for lunch? I said, sure, and George Bush said all the right things about the Mexico relationship, and like, I’m not gonna build a “tortilla wall,” where there’s employment in the United States, and there’s none in Mexico, you can’t blame them for coming over, all those good things.
And I said, Amen. You know, this is all aligning for this movie. And then I went to get my car, and I got a call from Len White telling me, I’ve got good news and bad news for you. And I said, well, give me either. The good news is that MGM has bought Orion, and the bad news is that I won’t be able to be in the campaign because they have a president there, and his friend is Frank Mancuso. So I heard somebody in the parking lot of the Beverly Hills Hotel saying, Hey, Frank. And I asked Maggie, who’s that Frank? She said, Frank Mancuso. And so I walked over and I stood right beside him. And I said, Mr. Mancuso, I hear that you just took over MGM and I know you have a movie about the Mexican American War. And he stopped me right there, and he said, don’t worry about it. We’re never gonna release that movie. And I said, why? He says, because it emboldens Mexicans.
And he got in his car and left. So I was like, what? We were flying in cloud nine. And I drove straight to CAA, Marty Baum, and I said, this is what this guy said. So we called Tom, and Marty called MGM and said, we’re coming over. We went over there, and he wouldn’t meet with us. And Chris McGuirk, the second in command, said, look, he’s not gonna release it. And so I said, contractually, you have the obligation to release it in 200 theaters at least, and New York and in Los Angeles, cuz back then you needed to release a movie theatrically in those two markets to be considered for an Oscar. And he said, well, take your best shot, but I’m telling you that he’s not gonna release it. So they said they would release the movie in the 200 theaters, but not in New York.
So the bank that loaned the difference of the money that from Orion against the rights to Foreign, they said you’ve gotta take it, to pay us off. They released it in all the Mexican movies in theaters downtown Los Angeles and downtown Chicago, with no publicity. That’s how it was released. However, in all the other countries around the world, it was a big hit. We had distribution, for instance, in Italy, Sergio Leone’s kids, they had inherited his distribution company, they bought it. And it was a big hit in Italy, big hit in Spain, big hit in France, big hit in Germany, big hit in Ireland. Not in the UK, funnily enough.
What impact did the film have in Mexico?
Mexico, as a result of the film, has engraved in their senate the names of the Irishmen that fought, in gold leaf letters. And now they have a statue for them. We also were invited by de Valera’s daughter, she was the cultural minister then, Mexico gave Galway, where John Riley was from, a statue, and we were invited to go back to Ireland with that statue. So it’s very bittersweet, and it was a bit big letdown for me because, you know, after all of that, and now I’m in Hollywood, and I have a shot, not only at the Oscar. I was nominated for directing by the ALMA Awards, which is the Latin Awards, but unfortunately it’s not as meaningful. Now it’s on Amazon, but I haven’t seen any residual value from MGM, but at least it’s got like four stars or whatever it is.
How do you feel about the film today?
It’s probably my favorite movie that I’ve been involved in. I just wish more people had seen it in the United States. But funnily enough, that night with Gerry Adams, people flew there, like Martin Sheen, from the United States to see this movie. They knew at that point that it wasn’t gonna be screened, other than at the Academy. And we did do a big fundraiser for Ireland with the Academy as well, which was very well attended. And Kevin Thomas, the great film critic, wrote a beautiful art article on the movie [for the LA Times]. So it was like, why didn’t these guys just take a chance? Orion would’ve, so there you go. Can’t win ’em all. But it’s a shame.
Have you had any talk with them about possibly getting a Blu-ray of the film released?
That’s why I wanted to talk to you because you gave me the idea about that. But unfortunately Blu-ray today doesn’t mean what it used to, but it would be nice for the film to be seen in Blu-Ray. So I’m gonna get in touch with them, whoever it is running MGM now. They use the film a lot to teach courses in other countries about American History. Orion was a really good place for us because they’re the only ones that really at that point had made, you know, movies that really sort of showed how it was in the 1800s in the United States. I mean, obviously Spielberg, with Amistad, and other movies about slavery, but not really about Irish Immigrants.
Are you still in touch with Tom?
Oh yeah, we’ve remained friends, one of the only actors that I’ve stayed very close with. And his career has not done what it should have done, but he’s a great guy, and he loves to get involved with his makeup artists and marry them.
Well thank you for talking with me. I just hope more people check out the film, all these years later.
Tell anybody that’s interested to stream it. It looks good on streaming, but it’s not the same as seeing it in the theater. And actually Gerry Adams has talked about doing a screening in Belfast on the 25th anniversary. But he’s not well now, because they tried to assassinate him so many times that he’s got, um, yeah. If you read about the Troubles, then you’ll know.
The other thing that came out of it that was very positive was that Jim Sheridan of My Left Foot, he’s a big fan of the movie, and he and I were gonna do the Joe Kennedy story, which is a great story, the Irish immigrant that became King Maker, and his son John was the first Catholic Irish president of the United States.
Is there any chance that could happen someday?
Oh, you know, we’re both getting old, so I don’t know, but you never know.
