Let’s Go with Pancho Villa (1936)

Let’s Go with Pancho Villa (“Vámonos con Pancho Villa!)
Directed by Fernando de Fuentes
Written by Fernando de Fuentes and Xavier Villaurrutia based on a novel by Rafael F. Muñoz
1936/Mexico
Cinematographia Latino Americana S. A.
First Viewing

[box] Don’t let it end like this. Tell them I said something. [Last words] — Pancho Villa[/box]

I do not understand why this was selected as the best Mexican film of all time by a prestigious poll.  Perhaps if I had a better knowledge of Mexican history I would.

A group of comrades from the village of San Pablo decides to join up with Pancho Villa’s army during the Mexican Revolution.  They fight so valiantly they become known as “The Lions of San Pablo.”  However as the struggle goes on and one after another of their number is killed, they become disillusioned by the cruelty of war.

This is a kind of Mexican All Quiet on the Western Front or would be if it were not marred by constant comic relief.  The battle scenes are pretty good but there are a couple of puzzling sequences that I suppose are meant to show the meaninglessness of war.  In one, a group of thirteen soldiers sitting around a table decides that this is an evil omen portending death for one of them.  So they turn off the lights and shoot a gun in the air at midnight so that the most cowardly will die???  (See clip below.)  There’s also a weird scene where a soldier is asked to burn his friend alive (!) because he has smallpox. These things just do not compute for me and I could not get behind the film.

Clip