- Format: PAL
- Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: PG
- Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
- DVD Release Date: 4 July 2005
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B0009I9XN8
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 43,686 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
A great classic film, Viva Zapata! gives us Kazan (the director), Brando (the star), and Steinbeck (who wrote the script) at the height of their powers, with the splendid additions of Jean Peters, Mildred Dunnock , and the young Antony Quinn (who won an Academy Award as Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the Mexican leader's heedlessly macho brother). Brando's nose is flattened and his nostrils are dliated by plastic thimbles to make him look the part, which he does magnificently. He is heroically natural, quite perfect as Steinbecks's version of the passionate Zapata.
Steinbeck's knowledge and love of Mexico by this time in his career was genuine and deep; and his writing throughout the film is enlivening, intelligent, and original: the dialogue of the delightful scene in which Zapata tries to win a wife from a middle-class family, for example, is cast entirely in dichos---proverbs or sayings--- traditional in Hispanic culture. Minor parts are filled brilliantly and range from obscure double agents to such historic figures as Diaz, Huerta, Madero and Pancho Villa.
Kazan's sustained visual and dramatic sense do full justice to the talents of his writer and cast and to the story he has to tell, of a revolutionary leader whose charisma still has enormous power many decades after his death. Two battle-scene set-pieces are tremendous. As in the best of Kazan's other work, though, he shows us in Viva Zapata! the heart-breaking beauty of ordinary, gritty, every-day life among simple people who deserve better than whatever it is they have been offered. A thrilling movie.
Steinbeck's knowledge and love of Mexico by this time in his career was genuine and deep; and his writing throughout the film is enlivening, intelligent, and original: the dialogue of the delightful scene in which Zapata tries to win a wife from a middle-class family, for example, is cast entirely in dichos---proverbs or sayings--- traditional in Hispanic culture. Minor parts are filled brilliantly and range from obscure double agents to such historic figures as Diaz, Huerta, Madero and Pancho Villa.
Kazan's sustained visual and dramatic sense do full justice to the talents of his writer and cast and to the story he has to tell, of a revolutionary leader whose charisma still has enormous power many decades after his death. Two battle-scene set-pieces are tremendous. As in the best of Kazan's other work, though, he shows us in Viva Zapata! the heart-breaking beauty of ordinary, gritty, every-day life among simple people who deserve better than whatever it is they have been offered. A thrilling movie.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
only if you know a bit about Mexican history.
John Steinbeck might have been a great writer, but of FICTION! The fact is the real Zapata stayed a lot longer in office than this film would have you believe;he liked power, however poor his background.
He was a man of principle, though;he let someone else shoot his opponents, instead of dirtying his own hands or conscience!
And any contemporary photograph of Emiliano will show you a moustache much more reminiscent of a dead water-rat than Brando's. Though Marlon's style did at least live to surface again in hippier times!!
But, who cares? Flaws there are, but it's a superb film. Joseph Wiseman may be a totally spurious agent provocateur/prototype CIA operatve, but he creates one hell of a persausive force for Zapata. Ditto his brother, Anthony Quinn, to illustrate the venal, macho culture as another primrose path Emiliano has to avoid.
Finally, beyond the well-recreated Pancho Villa & Huerta, who would have made a great double act if they'd been on the same side, there's Brando. He takes a long while to even engage you, and you frequently feel Zapata will only be a minor player in historical terms.
But Brando gets you there in the end, wisely illustrating both the agonised choosing Zapata goes through to stay true to his principles and the fact he very much had feet of clay. The humanity and human frailty shine through, and you can guess how this will end, even if history is being radically rewritten.
Thankfully, it doesn't end there, as no-one involved in this could have predicted the rise of the Zapatarist party in Mexican politics in recent years. They aren't responsible for the modern Mexico, but they are an important part in shaping it.
And, from a filmic point of view, this is actually a well-made and acted melodrama. Basically, another of Brando's ones you should not miss.
John Steinbeck might have been a great writer, but of FICTION! The fact is the real Zapata stayed a lot longer in office than this film would have you believe;he liked power, however poor his background.
He was a man of principle, though;he let someone else shoot his opponents, instead of dirtying his own hands or conscience!
And any contemporary photograph of Emiliano will show you a moustache much more reminiscent of a dead water-rat than Brando's. Though Marlon's style did at least live to surface again in hippier times!!
But, who cares? Flaws there are, but it's a superb film. Joseph Wiseman may be a totally spurious agent provocateur/prototype CIA operatve, but he creates one hell of a persausive force for Zapata. Ditto his brother, Anthony Quinn, to illustrate the venal, macho culture as another primrose path Emiliano has to avoid.
Finally, beyond the well-recreated Pancho Villa & Huerta, who would have made a great double act if they'd been on the same side, there's Brando. He takes a long while to even engage you, and you frequently feel Zapata will only be a minor player in historical terms.
But Brando gets you there in the end, wisely illustrating both the agonised choosing Zapata goes through to stay true to his principles and the fact he very much had feet of clay. The humanity and human frailty shine through, and you can guess how this will end, even if history is being radically rewritten.
Thankfully, it doesn't end there, as no-one involved in this could have predicted the rise of the Zapatarist party in Mexican politics in recent years. They aren't responsible for the modern Mexico, but they are an important part in shaping it.
And, from a filmic point of view, this is actually a well-made and acted melodrama. Basically, another of Brando's ones you should not miss.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
In 1952 Elia Kazan, reunited with Marlon Brando after "A Street Car Named Desire", and begun shoting another powerfull social drama, this time about the Zapatist revolution in Mexico.
With a script by John Steinbeck, author of such brilliant novels as The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men, the film presents a great cast with good performances by Marlon Brando and specially Anthonny Quinn who won the Oscar for best male in suporting role.
With a script by John Steinbeck, author of such brilliant novels as The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men, the film presents a great cast with good performances by Marlon Brando and specially Anthonny Quinn who won the Oscar for best male in suporting role.
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