Cuando ¡Viva Villa..! es la muerte

This is the third of the Pancho Villa movies written, directed and produced by Ismael Rodríguez with Pedro Armendáriz starring as the shrewd, often buffoonish Mexican revolutionary general. As I have noted in my reviews for the two earlier pictures, this image of Villa was one promoted by himself and was undoubtedly very useful in keeping the loyalty of his soldiers: he presented himself as just like them, only larger, the man they would imagine themselves. But I believe it was largely a pose.

In this one, introduced, as were the previous two, by the pickled head of the dead Villa, there is a subtle change in the composition of the film. In the first, we see him in vignettes; in the second, we gradually move into a story of the passion and loyalty he inspires and in this one, encompassing his assassination, we see him definitely larger than life, a fit dead hero of the revolution and Mexico. The vignettes are also much more telling and raise this flag-waving programmer to a superior level.