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Each mascot from this year’s Super Bowl teams has a sprawling epic film, so let’s see if the movies can help us predict the future National Football League champion. In one corner, for the New England Patriots, there is The Patriot (2000), starring Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger. In the other corner, for the New York Giants, there is Giant (1956), starring Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, and Dennis Hopper. Like the two football teams and their quarterbacks, the male lead in each film has an interesting storyline in real life as well as on the field or screen. But who will emerge victorious?

The Patriot covers one man’s family through the American Revolution, as Mel Gibson plays a reluctant fighter who leads a rag-tag group of patriots. The film follows the usual Mel Gibson movie pattern with one of his loved ones getting killed, Mel getting mad, and Mel killing a lot of people (Braveheart, Mad Max). Although the film has its detractors (a 62% critic Rotten Tomatoes rating) claiming the movie glosses over the slavery issue and it makes the British into sort of 1700’s evil Nazi-type characters, it is a fun action move with exciting battle scenes (an 80% audience Rotten Tomatoes rating).

Giant, a movie that traces the ups and downs of the fictional Benedict family in Texas, also has its detractors claiming the epic is overlong. Still, the film, which is based on a novel by Edna Ferber, has great actors and it was the last time James Dean appeared in a leading role. In trying to capture a scope as big as Texas, the movie features several classic scenes, such as one where James Dean marches across the land his troubled character inherited, and another classic scene is where Rock Hudson’s bigoted character stands up for a family of Mexican immigrants in a diner as the jukebox plays “The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You.” While our twenty-first century eyes may recognize some problems with portraying a white man as the rescuer, the fact that Hudson faced discrimination in his real life adds another layer to the scene.

Using our movies to predict the Super Bowl, who wins? With a 95% critic rating and 85% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Giant is the winner in the battle of the movies. Going by the audience ratings of The Patriot (80%) vs. Giant (85%), the New York Giants will beat the New England Patriots by five points, which seems a little more believable than the film critics’ prediction of a 33-point romp for the Giants (95% to 62%).

Like the New England and New York teams, both films have their imperfections but are fun to watch. If the football game this weekend gets boring, you could do worse than popping in one of these movies.

What do you think of The Patriot or Giant? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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