Cuando lloran los valientes

This film combines comedy and drama to provide an all-round entertaining viewing experience. It includes several twists of fate to sustain the intrigue of the viewer and to carry the plot forward. Much of the soundtrack comprises historical Mexican Corridos (folk songs) used during the Revolution to recount and pass on historical events and love triangles. The film itself is a cinematic representation of one such Corrido, about brave men and their exploits in battle and in love. Although the twists and turns make for a successful plot, they do at times over-complicate what could potentially be a simple and powerful story of love and betrayal at the time of the Mexican Revolution.

"Cuando Lloran Los Valientes" is a highly melodramatic film...highly. It's certainly NOT realistic and the plot is, at times, a bit hard to believe. However, despite this, it's still an entertaining film.

The film is set during the Mexican Civil War of 1857-1861. This was a period of chaos and two separate governments claiming sovereignty over the country. In the middle of this is Agapito (Pedro Infante)--a peasant who just wants to marry his Cristina (Blanca Estela Pavón) and live his life. However, apart from the war, another thing stands in his way--his crazy (and trampy) step-sister, Chabela (Virginia Serret). Chabela secretly loves Agapito and to stop him from marrying Cristina, she gets herself pregnant and gets Agapito to agree to marry her--although it's NOT his baby. In addition to this plot, there is the evil brother of Cristina (the baby's real father) and an unknown step-brother! How all these play out in the end is completely ridiculous but entertaining.

As usual, Infante was quite entertaining and sang a lot of lovely songs. In many ways, the film seems very light and trivial--much like a Roy Rogers B-movie merged with a historical drama. Not a bad film at all, but not especially deep or realistic.

By the way, I think the captioner working on the English captioned version took some liberties with interpreting the film into English. The film abounds with lots of cursing--and rather hardcore at that. I doubt if this was actually said in the original film.