Pancho Villa in popular culture
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pancho Villa was famous during the Mexican Revolution and has remained so, holding a fairly mythical reputation in Mexican consciousness, but not officially recognized in Mexico until long after his death.[1] As the "Centaur from the North" he was considered a threat to property and order on both sides of the border, feared, and revered, as a modern Robin Hood.
Pancho Villa remains a controversial figure in the United States. USA Today reported, "A terrorist in 1916, a tourist attraction in 2011. ... On Jan. 8, 1916, 18 U.S. businessmen were massacred by Villa's men in a train robbery in northern Mexico. It was not the first or last of Villa's atrocities; he personally shot a priest who begged for clemency for his villagers, as well as a woman who blamed him for her husband's death."[2]
Villa appeared as himself in the films Life of Villa (1912),[3] Barbarous Mexico (1913),[4] With General Pancho Villa in Mexico (1913), The Life of General Villa (1914)[5] and Following the Flag in Mexico (1916).[6]
Films based on Pancho Villa have appeared since the early years of the Revolution and have continued to be made into the twenty-first century. Hollywood's role in the shaping of the image of Villa, the Mexican Revolution, and U.S. public opinion has been the subject of a scholarly study.[7] The 1934 biopic Viva Villa! was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.[8][9] In 2003, HBO broadcast And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself, with Antonio Banderas as Villa that focuses on the making of the film The Life of General Villa.[10][11]
Actors who have portrayed Villa include:
- Raoul Walsh (1912, 1914) The Life of General Villa[12]
- Wallace Beery (1917) Patria[13]
- George Humbert (1918) Why America Will Win[14]
- Wallace Beery (1934) Viva Villa!,[15] with Phillip Cooper (Pancho Villa as a boy)[16]
- Juan F. Triana (1935) El Tesoro de Pancho Villa
- Domingo Soler (1936) Vámonos con Pancho Villa[17]
- Maurice Black (1937) Under Strange Flags[18][19]
- Leo Carrillo (1949) Pancho Villa Returns[20]
- Pedro Armendáriz (1950, 1957, 1960 twice)
- Alan Reed (1952) Viva Zapata![21]
- Victor Alcocer (1955) El siete leguas[22]
- Rodolfo Hoyos Jr. (1958) Villa!![23]
- Rafael Campos (1959) Have Gun - Will Travel; Season 3, Episode 6 (Pancho)
- José Elías Moreno (1967) El Centauro Pancho Villa
- Ricardo Palacios (1967) Los siete de Pancho Villa
- Yul Brynner (1968) Villa Rides
- Telly Savalas (1972) Pancho Villa
- Heraclio Zepeda (1973) Reed, México insurgente
- Antonio Aguilar (1974) La Muerte de Pancho Villa
- Héctor Elizondo (1976) Wanted: The Sundance Woman (TV)
- Freddy Fender (1977) She Came to the Valley
- José Villamor (1980) Viva México (TV)
- Jorge Reynoso (1982) Red Bells: Mexico in Flames
- Gaithor Brownne (1985) Blood Church
- Guillermo Gil (1987) Senda de Gloria (TV series)
- Pedro Armendáriz Jr. (1989) Old Gringo
- Mike Moroff (1992) The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal, "Mexico, March 1916", The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Spring Break Adventure
- Antonio Aguilar (1993) La sangre de un valiente
- Alonso Echánove (1993) By Our Own Correspondent
- Jesús Ochoa (1995) Entre Pancho Villa y una mujer desnuda
- Carlos Roberto Majul (1999) Ah! Silenciosa
- Peter Butler (2000) From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter
- Antonio Banderas (2003) And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (HBO)
- Alejandro Calva (2009) Chico Grande
More films about Villa:
- Pancho Villa's Shadow (1933) by Miguel Contreras Torres
- Deadliest Warrior, Spike TV's hit show, featured Pancho Villa in a match-up against Chief Crazy Horse (2011)
- Wild Roses, Tender Roses (2012), based on the novel The Friends of Pancho Villa, by James Carlos Blake
- Young Guns 3: Dead or Alive (2025 or 2026) This Emilio Estevez picture features Billy the Kid a.k.a William Roberts and he will fight alongside Pancho Villa in the Mexican revolution.