And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (TV 2003)

Hollywood makes a deal with Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa to film his war and recreate his life.

Director:

Bruce Beresford

Writer:

Larry Gelbart

Stars:

Antonio Banderas, Eion Bailey, Alan Arkin

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 8 wins & 18 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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
Colm Feore	...	D.W. Griffith
Alexa Davalos	...	Teddy Sampson
Anthony Head	...	William Benton (as Anthony Stewart Head)
Kyle Chandler	...	Raoul Walsh
Saul Rubinek	...	Eli Morton
Cosme Alberto	...	Abraham Sanchez
Damián Alcázar	...	Gen. Rodolfo Fierro
Pedro Armendáriz Jr.	...	Don Luis Terrazas (as Pedro Armendáriz)
Fernando Becerril	...	Priest

Storyline

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 empire's press campaign against him. To counter both of these, 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) becomes interested and sends Frank Thayer (Eion Bailey) with a film crew to develop film reels. Thayer becomes horrified and fascinated by the bandit. He finds an enigmatic individual that is both ghoulishly brutal and charmingly captivating. 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 ...

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Plot Keywords:

pancho villa | battle | bandit | kissing while having sex | sex in a tent | 

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Taglines:

Lights. Camera. Revolution.

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | History | War | Western

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Details

Official Sites:

HBO Films

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 September 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

E Estrelando Pancho Villa

Filming Locations:

Guanajuato, Mexico

Company Credits

Production Co:

City Entertainment, Green Moon Productions, Mark Gordon Company, The

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Pedro Armendáriz Jr. who plays Don Luis Terrazas, played Pancho Villa in the Old Gringo movie, and is the son of Pedro Armendáriz, another Mexican actor who also played Pancho Villa in Mexican movies.

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Goofs

During the battle of Torreon scene, night falls and we see a moon that is half full (1st quarter). The date is given as 30 March 1914, but on that date, the moon was a crescent and would not be half full until several days later on 4 April 1914.

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Quotes

Sam Drebben: Another day, another dollar.

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Connections

Featured in The 56th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (2004)

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Soundtracks

"Tierra Mestiza"
Written by Gerardo Tamez
Perforrmed by Los Toenegritas
Courtesy of Directóra del Toenegre

User Reviews

To the major studios....take a hint

I did not expect the premise of the movie to work but it did. This story line and the wonderful way it was developed and portrayed on screen is so much missing in the fare presented by the major studios any more. I had to put my book down! Antonio Banderas so thoroughly submerges himself into the character that after awhile he BECAME Pancho Villa. He made Pancho Villa at once hero and villain; resolute and uncertain; stoic and tender. Best of all, there was no attempt to wrap the feature up in a tidy bow at the end.

I have my TIVO permanently locked on HBO.

I am curious about the original film - The Life of General Villa (1914) - in which IMDB shows only two performers, Pancho Villa and Raoul Walsh.