And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself
6.6 /10 1 Votes
Director Bruce Beresford First episode date September 7, 2003 Duration Country United States | 6.6/10 IMDb Genre Biography, Drama, History Initial DVD release August 6, 2004 (Germany) Writer Larry Gelbart Language English | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date September 7, 2003 (2003-09-07) Cast Antonio Banderas (Pancho Villa), Eion Bailey (Frank Thayer), Alan Arkin (Sam Drebben), Jim Broadbent (Harry Aitken), Matt Day (John Reed), Michael McKean (William Christy Cabanne)Similar movies Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb , Santo in the Revenge of the Vampire Women , Santo and the Vengeance of the Mummy , Villa Rides , Santo in the Wax Museum , Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dracula and the Wolf Man | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Loosely based on real-life events, this film follows renowned revolutionary Pancho Villa (Antonio Banderas) as he attempts to procure funding to overthrow the Mexican government. Villa strikes up an intriguing agreement with Hollywood director D.W. Griffith (Colm Feore), who is interested in paying the rebel for the movie rights to his exciting story. Soon, young film executive Frank Thayer (Eion Bailey) is joining Villa on his dangerous and violent exploits.
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And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself is a 2003 television film for HBO in partnership with City Entertainment and starring Antonio Banderas as Pancho Villa, directed by Bruce Beresford, written by Larry Gelbart and produced by Joshua D. Maurer, Mark Gordon, and Larry Gelbart. The cast also included Alan Arkin, Jim Broadbent, Michael McKean, Eion Bailey, and Alexa Davalos.
Maurer, who originally conceived the story and did extensive research, sold the project to HBO and then brought on Gordon and hired Gelbart to write and collaborate on the screenplay. At the time of production, this was the most expensive 2-hour television/cable movie ever made, with a budget of over $30 million. The movie was shot almost entirely on location in and around San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
The film concerns the filming of The Life of General Villa (which was shot in 1914) and is seen through the eyes of Frank N. Thayer, a studio bosss nephew who gets a career boost when he is placed in charge of the project. The resulting film became the first feature length movie, introducing scores of Americans to the true horrors of war that they had never personally seen. Thayer sold the studios on making the film despite their concerns that no one would sit through a movie longer than 1 hour, by convincing them that they could raise the price of movies to ten cents, doubling the going price at that time. The actual contract that Pancho Villa signed with Frank N. Thayer and the Mutual Film Company on January 5, 1914 to film the Battle of Ojinaga still exists and is in a museum in Mexico City. The original film has been lost, but some unedited film reels of the battle, showing Pancho Villa and his army fighting Federal forces, as well as photographs and publicity stills taken from the original film still exist.
In 1914, the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa (Antonio Banderas) invites studios to shoot his actual battles against Porfírio Diaz army to raise funds for financing guns and ammunition. The Mutual Film Corporation, through producer D.W. Griffith (Colm Feore), interests for the proposition and sends the filmmaker Frank Thayer (Eion Bailey) to negotiate a contract with Pancho Villa himself.
Trailer and starring pancho villa as himself
Plot
Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa (Antonio Banderas) finds himself without adequate funding to finance his war against the military-run government. He also finds himself at odds with the Americans because of the Hearst media empires press campaign against him. To counter both of these threats, he sends emissaries to movie producers to convince them to pay to film his progress and the actual battles. Producer D.W. Griffith (Colm Feore) is immediately interested and convinces Mutual Film Studios boss Harry E. Aitkin to send a film crew. Aitkins nephew Frank Thayer is initially a mere errand boy for the studio, but he makes a good impression with Villa, who demands that Thayer be placed in charge of the project. Thayer and a camera crew team film Villa leading his men to victory in battle. Despite the failure of this initial footage (which draws derisive laughter from potential backers) Thayer convinces Aitkin to invest even more money in a second attempt, and also convinces Villa to participate in making a more narrative film.
Thayer returns to Mexico with a director, actors, producers, cameramen and screen writers, and begin to film Villas previous exploits using a younger actor, future film director Raoul Walsh (Kyle Chandler). The filming goes well, although Villa becomes angry that the screenwriters and the director have changed history to make a more dramatic film. However, he agrees to do a cameo appearance as an older version of himself. Meanwhile, Frank begins a romance with actress Teddy Sampson (Alexa Davalos) whom hes had a crush on since they first met. One night Villa announces that they will attack a Federal held fort at Torreon and win the revolution. The films director and his crew tell Villa that they are not coming with him to film the battle. Villa scares them into going to the battle by having a firing squad shoot over their heads.
The next morning, Villa assembles his men to attack Torreon. Thayer and his team go into film the action. After a skirmish on the way to the fort, Villas army arrives at Torreon and lays siege to the fortress. Villa orders an attack and personally leads the charge. Villas army is initially successful, but they suffer heavy casualties and are forced to withdraw. That night, Villa orders his army to bombard Torreon into submission, and, after a long, brutal bombardment, Villas cavalry finish off the last of Torreons Federal defenders. However, Thayer and his camera crew team witness Villa personally shooting a Mexican widow in cold blood with his handgun during the aftermath of the battle. Disgusted, the team leaves.
The Life of General Villa is shown in theaters in America, and to great success, although Thayer and his camera crew members regret making the film.
Nine years later General Villa is driving his car with an associate and two of his bodyguards through Parral, Chihuahua. His car is flagged down by a Mexican civilian, when several Federals suddenly pop up with machine guns. Villa reaches for his pistol, but is shot several times and is killed.
Cast
Context
Raoul Walsh, who played Villa as a young man in The Life of General Villa, wrote extensively about the experience in his autobiography Each Man in His Time, describing Villas charisma as well as noting that peasants would knock the teeth out of corpses with rocks in the wake of firing squads in order to harvest the gold fillings, which was captured on film and had the projectionists vomiting in the screening room back in Los Angeles.
The original films producer, D.W. Griffith, directed The Birth of a Nation in 1915, which featured Walsh as John Wilkes Booth. That same year, Walsh directed the first gangster movie, Regeneration, on location in the Lower East Side of New York City, and went on to direct approximately 138 movies, including such films as The Big Trail (1930) with John Wayne (Walsh discovered Wayne as a propman, renamed him, and cast him in the lead), High Sierra (1941) with Humphrey Bogart, They Died With Their Boots On (1941) with Errol Flynn, White Heat (1949) with James Cagney, and Band of Angels (1957) with Clark Gable and Sidney Portier.
Accolades
References
And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself WikipediaAnd Starring Pancho Villa as Himself IMDb And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself themoviedb.org