Reed, México insurgente (1973)

Director:

Paul Leduc

Writers:

Emilio Carballido (writer)
Carlos Castañón (additional dialogue)

Release Date:

5 January 1973 (Mexico)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | War

Plot:

A dramatization of John Reed's newspaper accounts of the Mexican Revolution. Considered the first real film in Mexican cinema to be made on the Mexican Revolution. |

Plot Keywords:

Revolution | Based On Book

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Claudio Obregón	...	John Reed
Eduardo López Rojas	...	Gral. Thomas Urbina
Ernesto Gómez Cruz	...	Pablo Seanez
Juan Ángel Martínez	...	Julian Reyes
Carlos Castañón	...	Fidencio Soto
Víctor Fosado	...	Isidro Anaya
Lynn Tillet	...	Isabel
Hugo Velázquez	...	Longion Guereca
Heraclio Zepeda	...	Pancho Villa
Carlos Fernández del Real	...	Felipe Angeles
Max Kerlow	...	Antonio Swafeyta
Héctor García	...	Periodista
Luis Suárez	...	Periodiste
Francisco Laviella	...	Cura
Luis Jasso	...	Ministro

Also Known As:

Reed: Insurgent Mexico

Runtime:

124 min (original version) | Mexico:105 min (edited version)

Country:

Mexico

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Black and White | Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Ollín y Asociados

The icon of 1970's "New Mexican Cinema"

In the early 1960s there was a strong film movement in most Latin American countries that originated the so-called New Latin American Cinema. Pioneer countries were Argentina, Brazil and Cuba, but this "new wave" mostly consisted of documentaries and shorts that hardly made it to the screens outside their countries of origin. Then, in the 1970s, with the help of the Mexican state, and through its powerful distribution machine (the now extinct Peli-Mex), we could see movies by new directors, many graduates from film schools. Among these was Paul Leduc, formed in France, whose first work "Reed: México insurgente", based on John Reed's account of his 1913 travel to México, was acclaimed as the first true portrait of Mexican revolution in a feature. Made independently from Mexican unions (which initially caused it to be banned from screens), using documentary techniques, sparse dialogue, sepia-tinted images, and a more restrained aesthetics than Brazilian film guru Glauber Rocha's wild cinema, Leduc became an icon of renovation, and his movie, a sign of hope for many filmmakers, and an early example of post-modern cinema. This work led to other films by Leduc, which are among the best of Latin American cinema, as "Etnocidio" and especially "Frida: Naturaleza viva", so far the best film based on Frida Kahlo's life and work, with an outstanding performance by Ofelia Medina.