And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself

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.

I don't know how historically accurate this film is, although I know the basic plot is correct. This was an entertaining look at Villa's Hollywood escapade, and Banderas' performance is, as usual, believable, funny, horrifying, likable, and despicable. Sometimes all within just a few minutes.

Highly recommended to film history buffs and Antonio Banderas fans!

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.

In 1914, the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa (Antonio Banderas) invites studios to shoot his actual battles against Porfírio Diaz army to raise funds for financing guns and ammunition. The Mutual Film Corporation, through producer D.W. Griffith (Colm Feore), interests for the proposition and sends the filmmaker Frank Thayer (Eion Bailey) to negotiate a contract with Pancho Villa himself. They become very close and along months, Frank makes the first feature five reels length movie, "The Life of General Villa", when the usual was two reels only. After edition, another reality about Pancho Villa is screened for the audience.

"And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself" is a surprisingly good made for television movie. The story about the life of Pancho Villa is also homage to a lost movie. In accordance with the legend, the first five reels length movie would be "The Life of General Villa", directed in 1914 by Frank Thayer with Pancho Villa as himself. Truth, or legend, this interesting movie was nominated for Golden Globe, awarded with seven wins and another eighteen nominations. The cast is splendid, highlighting the performance of Antonio Banderas, who gives a great credibility to General Pancho Villa. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "E Estrelando Pancho Villa" ("And Starring Pancho Villa")

That the movies are a perfect way of making propaganda isn't new. The Germans used it very often during the Second World War and even in more recent times it has been used to make publicity for the army (remember the boom of young men who wanted to join the US Air Force after seeing "Top Gun"). But that Pancho Villa already used it during his Mexican Revolution between 1912-1916 is something special. And don't think that this has been made up by some smart Hollywood wise guys who thought that this might be a nice story and an easy way to make a lot of money. No, this actually happened. If you don't believe me: just type Pancho Villa in the IMDb search box and check his filmography. You'll see that there have been several movies made with him in a leading role. Too bad that they are all lost.

But no problem, we still have HBO, a company that is known for its good quality work when it comes to historical projects (think for instance of "Band of Brothers" and "Citizen X"). This time they have recreated the actual events of the film crews that had an exclusive deal with Pancho Villa and that followed him during the different battles with the federal Mexican army. They show how the studio payed big money (which Villa used to fund his revolution with), so they could introduce Villa (as a good man, but also as a merciless villain), his revolution and the war the way the American public had never seen it before. All this resulted in the very first feature length movie in history.

When you are interested in the history behind the Mexican Revolution, than this is definitely a movie you shouldn't miss. But even when that subject doesn't appeal to you all that much, you should give it a try, because it's also very interesting to see how the movie studio's worked at the time and how a movie was shot. OK, you don't get to see the actual movie from 1912, but you get a very good idea of how it all worked. And the fact that this is a TV movie certainly doesn't mean that the battles don't look real or that the characters seem to be made out of cardboard.

Next to the 'historical' value of this movie and the interesting story, I also want to point out that Antonio Banderas did an excellent job portraying Pancho Villa. There are perhaps people who don't agree with me, but personally I find this his best and most convincing role ever. The other actors did a very good job as well, but in my in my opinion he was the best.

All in all this may not be a masterpiece, but it certainly is worth a watch. Don't be scared off by the label TV that you find behind the title. This isn't a typical, extremely dramatic TV movie, but a very decent and strong historical drama. I reward this movie with a 7.5/10.