And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (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 9 wins & 21 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 ...

---

Plot Keywords:

revisionist western | man murders a woman | pancho villa | battle | bandit | 

---

Taglines:

Lights. Camera. Revolution.

---

Genres:

Biography | Drama | History | War | Western

---

Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Official Sites:

HBO Films

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 September 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

Pancho Villa

Filming Locations:

Guanajuato, Mexico

Company Credits

Production Co:

City Entertainment,Green Moon Productions,HBO Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

WILHELM SCREAM: At 8:56 when Frank Thayer (Eion Bailey) is looking through his binoculars at a Federale being killed by thrown dynamite.

---

Goofs

Irene Hunt was twenty-two years old in 1914. In the real film, she played one of two sisters (this film shows only Teddy Sampson playing one of them), not Villa's mother.

---

Quotes

Frank Thayer: [Frank Thayer and Teddy Sampson are lying inside a tent after having sex] I've had this scene written in my head from the moment I first lay eyes on you.
Teddy Sampson: Did I do OK? Do you want to try one more take?
Frank Thayer: You sure its not too late?
Teddy Sampson: Ooh, I'm sure not!
[Frank lays on top of her and they continue to have sex]
Frank Thayer: Onward and upward, thats the ticket.
[kisses Frank]
Frank Thayer: That's what mom told me.

---

Connections

References Life of Villa (1912)

---

Soundtracks

On a Tree by a River a Little Tom Tit
from "The Mikado"
Written by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
Performed by John Reed, the Royal Philarmonic Orchestra and D'Oyey Carte Opera Company
Courtesy of Decca Music Group Limited

User Reviews

Excellent account of an absurd true story

Pancho Villa is a Mexican general who makes a deal with a movie studio where he will get $25,000 in gold, in exchange for the rights to film his battles. This is quite an absurd idea, especially as it leads to certain battles being 'made to measure' for the camera, and it becomes even more absurd when you realize that this is actually a true story. Yes, that's right; And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself is actually a film about the making of another film from 1914, known as 'The Life of General Villa'. The film is a little like Shadow of the Vampire, in that it depicts the making of an old film, using today's actors to play the people involved in the making of the old film. This film was made for American TV, and to me this seems a great injustice and a commentary on what the American film industry thinks of it's audience. Like 1995's Citizen X, the only reason that I can think of as to why this wasn't given a cinema release is that it would be lost on it's potential audience.

The film features a number of familiar faces. People that you often see in films, but don't know their names. Here we have the excellent Alan Arkin, who's one of my favourite 'smaller' stars without a doubt, Jim Broadbent, Eion Bailey and Anthony Head from the rubbish 'Buffy' program also makes an appearance. The real acting plaudits, however, go to Antonio Banderas for his complete embodiment of the title character. I've heard a number of people say bad things about Antonio in this movie, but I have no idea why; here he gives what is probably the best performance of his career. In fact, he is so good that after a while you forget that you're watching an actor and it actually seems like Pancho Villa really is starring as himself. This does the movie no end of favours on the reality front as it continually switches between the movie that they're making and the reality of Pancho Villa's revolution. This movie does an excellent job of catching an authentic Mexican atmosphere, and this is made even finer by way of an excellent, subtle, score.

The battles in the film are excellently staged, and also quite violent and bloody; which is always nice to see. That came as something of a surprise to me as, with this being a TV movie, I wasn't expecting the battles to be particularly well done. The message that this film has seems to be that people can be made to believe anything. As one character professes at one point in the film, "the lens is mightier than the sword", and through the way that the film shows the difference between what the film that the characters are making shows and what the truth is; this message comes across loud and clear.

Please don't miss this movie because it is cursed with '(TV)' after it's title; as although it isn't a masterpiece, it most definitely is well worth seeing.