The Last Brando
Elia Kazan's Viva Zapata (1952) is the only Marlon Brando film that hasn't been decently mastered for DVD. Why? I love and miss this film. It's one of Bud's three golden-era Kazan collaborations, two years before Waterfront and a year after Streetcar. And he's truly great in the part. Ditto Anthony Quinn and Joseph Wiseman. (I love how Wiseman shouts in a crazy manic stream, "Zapata, in thenameofeverythingwefoughtfor don't go!") And Brando's death scene near the finale (i.e., getting shot 112 times) is a classic of its kind.
Guillermo del Toro once told me he won't watch it. "How would you feel," he said, "if Mexico made a film about Abraham Lincoln starring a Mexican actor, and speaking English-accented Spanish?" He has me there, but the craft, heart and political conviction in Viva Zapata still feel genuine to me. (Even if it's a little too simplistic and sentimentalized at times.) Kazan was coming to terms with ratting (i.e., confirming names) when he made it, but he was still an old leftie from the '30s and knew about the emotion behind a rebellion.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on October 12, 2008 at 5:32 PM
comment #1
scooterzz
says ...
he dies!?!?....damn you and your spoilers, wells!
Posted by scooterzz
at October 12, 2008 6:23 PM
comment #2
BurmaShave
says ...
Hopefully the special edition can be out in time for McCain to spin it as he ponders his landslide defeat.
Posted by BurmaShave
at October 12, 2008 6:44 PM
comment #3
huisache
says ...
for the curious, the real Zapata's funeral is on youtube
Posted by huisache
at October 12, 2008 7:17 PM
comment #4
mattn
says ...
This is McCain's favorite film.
Just thought Wells would like to know.
Posted by mattn
at October 12, 2008 7:19 PM
comment #5
Rosebudsthesled
says ...
The above fact has just prevented me from ever taking this movie seriously.
Posted by Rosebudsthesled
at October 12, 2008 7:27 PM
comment #6
gruver1
says ...
I won't let John McCain's admiration for this film muck up its reputation. It's not right, not fair. It was a fine film before he came along and will still be that when he's gone.
Posted by gruver1
at October 12, 2008 7:39 PM
comment #7
mattn
says ...
Yeah. Actually, I think this goes to show no one is *all* bad. (Or maybe this is all that's left of the McCain of 2000.) He actually seems to like the film, as opposed to having picked it out of a list some staffer gave him:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4472927n
Posted by mattn
at October 12, 2008 7:52 PM
comment #8
polarbear2
says ...
del Toro's argument is both self-righteous and absurd. Jeff, what did you mean by 'he has me there'? Seriously, how would you feel if some Mexicans made a Spanish language Abe Lincoln story? Would you really care one way or the other what language it was in, so long as it was a good movie? Would Abe Lincoln care? Zapata is probably a lot happier to have been portrayed by Brando than Fernando Lamas.
Hell, personally, I'd love to see that movie. And I'm sure a lot of other Americans would too. I bet the Mexicans would make it a lot sooner and cheaper than Spielberg; and their version probably wouldn't have a 30 minute epilogue after Lincoln gets shot.
Posted by polarbear2
at October 12, 2008 8:38 PM
comment #9
erniesouchak
says ...
My hunch is Fox has no negative & is looking for a suitable alternative.
Posted by erniesouchak
at October 12, 2008 8:38 PM
comment #10
JasonGeyer
says ...
Doesn't One-Eyed Jacks need a good transfer, too? I think the only one out is a horrible public domain pan & scan.
Posted by JasonGeyer
at October 12, 2008 8:44 PM
comment #11
gruver1
says ...
Actually, yes, that's true abut One-Eyed Jacks. Public domain crap-level versions out there.
Posted by gruver1
at October 12, 2008 8:57 PM
comment #12
gruver1
says ...
Actually, yes, that's true abut One-Eyed Jacks. Public domain crap-level versions out there.
Posted by gruver1
at October 12, 2008 8:57 PM
comment #13
TheJeff
says ...
Guillermo del Toro once told me he won't watch it. "How would you feel," he said, "if Mexico made a film about Abraham Lincoln starring a Mexican actor, and speaking English-accented Spanish?"
Thirty years ago, Ricardo Montalban would have made a killer Lincoln.
Posted by TheJeff
at October 12, 2008 9:28 PM
comment #14
frankbooth
says ...
"Hell, personally, I'd love to see that movie."
I would, too. It'd be a totally surreal curiosity.
But you have to give del Toro this: there's no real history of foreigners making films about iconic Americans in their own languages, so we have no reason to be bitter about it.
"Another damned French George Washington bio starring Depardieu! This has got to stop!"
Posted by frankbooth
at October 12, 2008 11:31 PM
comment #15
lbeale
says ...
Zapata and his army were full-blooded Indians. Short of stature, and dark-skinned. I like the film, but casting Anglos like Brando and Jean Peters is slightly insulting to the Mexican people. At least when Paul Muni played Benito Juarez, he was made up to look like him, and had the same physical stature. Brando resembles Zapata about as much as Sarah Palin does an intelligent human being.
Posted by lbeale
at October 13, 2008 7:29 AM
comment #16
Deathtongue_Groupie
says ...
Ibeale - Zapata and many of his men were Mestizo, which as the name implies means "mixed."
Posted by Deathtongue_Groupie
at October 13, 2008 8:27 AM
comment #17
lbeale
says ...
My bad, Deathtongue, you are correct. However, there is still zero physical resemblance between Brando and Zapata, less between Peters and Zapata's spouse. I've been to the town where Zapata was born - there's a memorial there - and there ain't no one there who appears Brandoesque. Just putting on a fake mustache and dark skin tone does not a resemblance make.
Posted by lbeale
at October 13, 2008 9:03 AM
comment #18
janee
says ...
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Posted by janee
at May 18, 2011 5:33 AM