Ánimas Trujano (El hombre importante)

Being a long time Toshiro Mifune's fan, I really wanted to watch this movie. Finally, I caught it on cable TV. Mifune's performance is really brilliant. I have no idea how Ismael Rodriguez came to the idea of Mifune playing a Mexican indian (Mifune didn't speak Spanish at all!)but he is just perfect for the role. I mean, I hardly can imagine somebody else doing Animas Trujano. This man is so bad and yet you are moved to sympathy at the end. I loved the serene, noble wife portrayed by Columba Dominguez.

In a sentence: this movie should be highly recommended. Bravo!

No one else could have been a better Animas Trujano than Toshiro Mifune. This movie is well-made and Toshiro Mifune is brilliant in it. Animas Trujano wants so much to be regarded as "an important man" that he is willing to do anything to reach his goal, even if it means selling his daughter's baby to get a lot of money to buy his prestigious image. This movie is very powerful and it's very sad too. Animas Trujano is really a great film and I highly recommend it.

Animas Trujano shows part of the life of the oaxaqueñan indians. Toshiro Mifume is just outrageous but the direction of Ismael Rodriguez outstands everything. This famous mexican director is just superb, as always.

A staggering performance from Toshiro Mifune anchors this Oaxacan morality play. Despite delivering his lines in phonetic Spanish and being dubbed over, Mifune delivers a moving depiction of a drunken, lazy, horny, gambling hedonist. A part that might have been highly offensive if cast differently.

In some ways, this is reminiscent of what Boorman did with Mifune and Marvin years later for Hell in the Pacific. But in this case, Mifune is often carrying the scene entirely alone. The village locale is beautiful, but the realities of patronage, social status, gender and the role of religion are not ignored.

Ismael Rodriguez probably would have won the Oscar for this, were he not up against Bergman. A shame, as the Oaxacan author of the novel it is based on had died the year before. It has been released on a subtitled DVD, but in a horrible pan & scan of a Scope film.

This is a wonderful film. A beautifully produced and acted morality tale that should not be missed. Only Mifune could make such a sleezy, slimey and morally corrupt character into an attractive and sympathetic hero. He is totally believable as a drunken and abusive Mexican Indian. This characterization could have become a cartoonish stereotype in the hands of a lesser talent, but Mifune brings dignity and charisma to a very un-sympathetic hero.