Americans and Irish alike have a strong emphasis on their family. This is shown very much so in The Devil’s Own. The O’Meara family gains a new member when Frankie McGuire is placed into their family the local judge. Much like Patriot Games, we have the IRA family and the American family side by side. The dynamics of IRA family is not so much prevalent in The Devil’s Own. Therefore, a scene I would like to focus on is the post-confirmation party when Tom O’Meara fully recognizes Frankie as a member of their Irish-American family. O’Meara does two things which Pakula purposefully puts high emphasis on in this scene. First, Frankie is asked to be part of a photo with O’Meara and his partner, Edwin Diaz. Some say a picture is worth a thousand words, and I agree. As a native New Orleanian, on numerous occasions we have had to evacuate for hurricanes. On our checklist of items to grab, the number one item is a photo album of the past 25 years starting with my parent’s wedding picture. If some day we lost out home to a natural disaster, we would still have our photos to look back upon and memories will never be forgotten. Second, Frankie is included in the traditional Irish dance by O’Meara. Frankie feels like he is back at home in Ireland, and buys into the O’Meara family lifestyle. By a simple dance, he is able to relax his mind of all the bad things he has done in his past and remember his heritage.
I forgot to press post. You need a picture of the confirmation not the picture you have, although I suppose you are trying to show that, while their are millions of people in the world, families are what make individuals.
ReplyDeletePhotos can be lost--note Katrina--memories are what keep people alive in our minds.