Mexicanos al grito de guerra
Directed by Álvaro Gálvez y Fuentes and Ismael Rodríguez
Written by Álvaro Gálvez y Fuentes, Joselito Rodríguez and Elvira de la Mora
1943/Mexico
Producciones Rodríguez Hermanos
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Mexicans, at the cry of war,/ make ready the steel and the bridle,/ and may the Earth tremble at its centers/ at the resounding roar of the cannon! — Mexican National Anthem [/box]
Made at the height of Mexican cinema’s Golden Age, this is a nice telling of the origin of the country’s national anthem during its fight against France to keep its independence.
Lt. Luis Sandoval (Mexican heartthrob Pedro Infante) is a patriot and student of Jaime Nunó, who in a burst of inspiration writes a poem for a competition to come up with a national anthem. Later a composer puts the words to music. The song wins the competition but is almost totally ignored, its premier being snubbed by corrupt President Santa Anna. Later the common people bring the song to national hero Benito Juarez, who embraces it. When the French take the advantage of Mexico’s inability to pay off its huge foreign debt to install Emperor Maximilian, Juarez and his supporters go into battle against them and the song rallies his troops to victory.
Running parallel to this story is Luis’s choice of his country over his father, a supporter of the French, and his love for the niece of the French Amassador.
The film is full of pride and sentiment and is very competently made. The battle sequence at the end is stirring and Infante is appealing and convincing. It made a nice companion piece to Warner Brother’s film Juarez (1939), starring Paul Muni, Bette Davis, and Brian Ahern.
The Mexican Army takes up their national anthem at the Battle of Pueblo (no subtitles but this is almost entirely action)
What made you decide to watch this film, which I never heard of? The story of Emperor Maximilian is one of the great sidelights of history but it appears that this film is about the birth of the Mexican national anthem. Sounds very obscure and I love obscure film finds.
Maybe I should also explain what I do to get ready for a new year. I go to IMDb and search for movies from the year using Advanced Search. I sort them by user rating. Since Amazon owns IMDb, the listings also show whether the film is available on Amazon Instant Video. Then I go through and see what is available from Netflix. Then I check and see what I can get on Hulu Plus, which carries a bunch of movies either in or owned by the Criterion Collection. If there’s some Academy Award nominees that don’t seem to be available otherwise, I check out YouTube. Then I make a list. I watch starting with films with the highest user ratings. I try to watch all the films I can get my hands on that were Oscar nominated in one of the major categories no matter what the rating is. Then I keep going down my list basically until I feel like I can’t stand to see another mediocre movie from the year, when I give up and start another year.
Mexico al gritos de guerra was an easy choice since it was on Netflix. Also, I am trying to brush up my Spanish so I like watching films in the Spanish language. Although, I still need the subtitles! It’s a good film. Maximilian and Carlotta aren’t in it at all but there’s a nice performance by the actor playing Juarez and you can tell why Pedro Infante was such a big star in Mexico.
Wow, Bea……I’m exhausted!!!! No wonder you find such great films but when do you sleep??????
It helps to be retired … I like doing it.