And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (2003)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

I love this movie so much

Truly Dreadful Film

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It's all true. HBO film about a very 'truth as strange as fiction' bit of history. No doubt details have been 'movied' but this is one astonishing true life adventure story. Antonio Banderas is very good. Too 'pretty boy', but still good. Eion Bailey plays the young director in charge of the production. Alan Arkin is quietly wonderful as always. Jim Broadbent is good as the studio head. The movie is fun; big, elaborate, ambitious, filled with convincing detail and includes several well staged battle sequences sufficiently brutal and bloody. Excellent and appropriate score.

Because it is just a great story from start to end. I was riveted the whole time. I kept saying to myself, "I can't BELIEVE these people did this!" The entire cast was very good, especially the few leading roles. But Antonio, who is always very good, was maybe at his best here. There was no Antonio as the beautiful boy. Here he's dirty, sweaty, scummy, grubby, and yet he still shines. If Pancho Villa was anywhere as charismatic as Antonio makes him, he had to be one hell of a leader.I hate that most of the best movies out in the last 10 years are all sitting in stacks of ONE on some video store shelf, being totally overlooked. Did this one ever even make it to the big screen?

The film chronicles about the title role,the Mexican bandit and guerrilla leader, with broadened focus on the filming his life and actual war.Mexican revolutionary urges funds to finance the battles against the Huertas government.Great director D.W.Griffith(Colm Feore)sends Frank Thayer(Eion Bailey)and crew as Raoul Walsh(Kyle Chandler) pull off the shooting the events around Pancho Villa.Thayer converts annoyed and disappointed by the rebel.This vibrant film an uneven rehash of Pancho Villa legend including strong violence,profanities,epics battles and bloody scenes. Antonio Banderas plays the famous and rowdy bandit,he is perfect in title role.Remainder casting is frankly well:Alan Arkin,Colm Feore(Griffith),Michel McKean,Kyle Chandler..Another films about Villa feats are : the classic ¨Viva Villa¨with Wallace Beery,forever belongs this role;¨Villa¨with Rodolfo Hoyos and Brian Keith; ¨Villa riders¨with Yul Brynner,¨Pancho Villa¨with Telly Savalas and Clint Walker.The picture is based on true events,thus : Pancho Villa born in Chihuahua with the name Doroteo Arango,from his peasant upbringing he became an outlaw in his youth and adopted the name Francisco Villa from another outlaw.He played a leading role in the Mexican Revolution(1910-1920),winning many victories (as Torreon battle narrated in the film).For a time Villa,who seemed in line for leadership of Mexico,enjoyed the agreeable interest of the United States government;but William Randolph Hearsts media empire's press campaign against him and USA authorities then dropped Villa and supported his rival,Carranza.Villa's resentment resulted in the revenge raid on Columbus(deeds narrated in another films but no here) by General Pershing's column.Unable to suppress Villa by force,the Mexican government purchased his retirement from the political arena as a weary, disillusioned political liability with a handsome pension and large estate.Villa was assassinated in 1923 when gunmen ambushed his car.

This was a film based on true events that you can actually happened between 1912-1916 during the Mexican Revolution. You can check it right here at IMDb just type Pancho Villa and see the results; there four short films were made where Pancho Villa starred as himself, but good luck finding those films. I sure like to see those and see how closeto the truth this film was. Over all this was a very impressive film for an HBO TV film, Antonnio Banderas did a great job, even thought he didn't look anything like Villa who was a short and small stature of a man and he actually looked a lot more like the actor "Damián Alcázar" who plays "Gen. Rodolfo Fierro" in this film; there is a close resemblance if you see the pictures of Villa and after all Alcazar is a real Mexican compare to Banderas who is from Spain. Both the photography and location of this film was just perfect, especially the photography and the great choice of location to be able to shoot in Mexico with a great cast of real Mexican extras who really added so much authenticity and depth to this film. Its really a pity Hollywood doesn't do more historical films like this, this film was only about the deal Villa made with Hollywood to shoot his revolution and yet there is so much more to be made into a film such as the Mexican revolution and history of Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata who changed the course of History in Mexico. Maybe one day people like Robert Rodriguez who some how gets so much money handed to them to make dumb films like "once upton in Mexico" (which was the most dumbest and awful film I have ever seen) decide to look into their own history and find there is so much more to be depicted for the younger generation of Mexicans who have never even heard of Pancho Villa.