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List Price: $5.98 | | Label: Hbo Home Video
Salesrank: 23613
Released: May 11, 2004 |
| Our Price: $2.21 |
| Used Price: $0.09 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Antonio Banderas (Spy Kids, Once Upon a Time in Mexico) delivers a powerful, larger-than-life performance as the title character of this incredible true story of how Mexican Revolutionary, Pancho Villa, allowed a Hollywood crew to film him in battle, altering the course of film and military history in the process. The adventure gets its start when early movie giants D.W. Griffith (Colm Feore) and Harry Aiken (Jim Broadbent), send a junior executive, Frank Thayer (Eion Bailey) to Mexico to persuade the cash-strapped, publicity-hungry Villa to let them film his revolution. Stepping into the literal crossfire, Thayer's crew risks their lives in the mingling of fiction and reality. After a string of dangerous exploits, narrow escapes and double-crosses worthy of a silent action short, Thayer and Villa make their movie, and "The Life of General Villa" is released in the U.S. to popular acclaim. The film changes the public opinion in Villa's favor and proves that "the lens is mightier than the sword."
DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Audio commentary with writer/executive producer Larry Gelbart
Featurette:Behind the scenes
Description of And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself:
A bizarre footnote from film history comes to life in And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself, an ambitious made-for-HBO opus that casts a jaundiced eye on Hollywood and politics. It's based on truth: in 1913, a movie crew went to Mexico to film general Pancho Villa, who was in the middle of leading a revolution in his country. Screenwriter Larry Gelbart and director Bruce Beresford use this mind-boggling situation to measure various Hollywood absurdities, but also to comment on the way showbiz has bent reality to fit convenient, crowd-pleasing expectations. Antonio Banderas gets a full head of steam going as Villa; he's so much better than anybody else in the movie, he underscores the weak performances of the other leads. You get the impression there were so many good anecdotes about this production, the movie can't quite find a focus. Still, for aficionados of movie lore, it's an absorbing look back at truly wild days. --Robert Horton
And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself Reviews:
A large pile of hourses**t served as history... 
2009-07-03 - Such shame... such waste of time... such insult to history... to real people... such hollywood arrogance ... how much did this cost again???!!! I am sorry I can't even finish watching it...
Thanks 
2008-12-25 - I am grateful for this film. It introduced me to a remarkable if not astonishing incident in film history and history in general -- but one that has become unknown. This film is quite adequate or solid in its acting and production values.
The writer/producer's commentary is in the top 10% with plenty of appropriate and thoughtful information on the subject itself instead of the usual hype and self congratulations and ha-ha-ha remember this and that.
On the other hand, if you are not intrerested very much in the history or Mexico or film making beyond the technical aspects then this may not grab you. It does not follow tightly the usual formula for suspense and drama in action storytelling. It is not an ordinary action flick or western.
The actual silent film that was made during the revolution about and including Villa, the most expensive film ever made up to that time, has been lost, as have been so many early films. So if you have a serious interest in history you will understand that the details in the film cannot stand for a documentary. There has to be a lot of fill-in and interpretation. Anyone with a serious interest in history will want to use the film as a yeast starter and go out and gather their own ingredients from academic sources and come up with their own best approximation of how this astonishing project back during the revolution might have played out in detail. There are a lot of good leads in the commentary as to the actual detailed facts of the project. For me this was a must.
If you happen to be interested in how films distort reality and heros, this is a very interesting back story that the film develops and this includes some moral dilemmas.Again, the commentary is very interesting here.
THE REAL, TRUE PANCHO VILLA??????
2008-07-11 -
I read alot of westerns as well as watch western movies, so when I found this DVD on a $5.00 rack what could I lose?
Now, I have read a few books concerning Pancho Villa, finishing one at the moment by Frank O'Rourke entitled THUNDER IN THE SUN, but I do not know much of Pancho Villa, the man of history, so while this movie was very riveting, I cannot speak to much of its historical accuracy. I can, however, speak to its entertainment value and for me it was a very enjoyable movie.
I'll leave the deep, scholarly reviews to others. I will only say that the color and transfer to DVD is very sharp and good, the acting is more than adequate and you not only get information of Villa and the revolution but one also comes away with information of how films may have been constructed shortly after the turn of the 20th century during the silent era.
I don't know that I would want to pay big bucks for this movie, but for my cost and use, this is one whale of a movie. Don't mind at all having it on my shelves of watchable westerns. Better at least check this one out.
Semper Fi.
It meet my needs well 
2007-11-26 - The movie meet my needs well. I was able to show my Spanish class a little of the history of a famous Mexican and allow them some fun in the process.
balderdash, marketing film fiction as pseudo history
2007-06-01 - This is a B grade movie for HBO that is not even up to that networks standards. Disclaimer at the start {this movie could have happened.......] does not cover the utter nonsense of this film.Yes Pancho Villa did cut a deal with a movie company to shoot his revolution and that is where this movie takes off in a blaze of BS. YES, antonio Banderas is handsome, spanish and swaggers around alot. YES, Pancho Villa was an amazing historical character that fought the repressive totalitarian regiems of Diaz and Huerta for ten turbulent years of the mexican revolution. YES, This film is stupid hollywood pulp made to make money and the same old stuff repeated over and oevver again. Also, why does every film have William Randolph Hearst as the "the bad guy". I'm getting tired of this device and it is also fiction passed off as history. negative stars would be better becasue this is bad for you to watch as it totally mis represents the truth.
