Viva Zapata!
Directed by Elia Kazan
Written by John Steinbeck
1952/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Hernandez – Peasant who challenges ‘president’ Zapata: I don’t speak for myself now, but if anything happens to you, what would become of the people? What would they have left?
Emiliano Zapata: Themselves.[/box]
For me, the most memorable thing about this solid biopic is the Oscar-winning performance of Anthony Quinn.
This is the fictionalized story of the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata who helped to oust dictator Porfirio Diaz in the early Twentieth Century. The story begins with a confrontation between Zapata (Marlon Brando) and Diaz over some land that has been appropriated by rich sugar growers. When Diaz gives the peasants the brush off, Zapata explodes and he and his followers are pursued by the powers that be for the rest of the film. Zapata and the peasants take to arms. His elder brother Eufemio (Quinn) becomes his right-hand man. Eufemio is the muscle of the operation and takes a positive glee in fighting and killing while Emiliano is the idealist.
Along with the trials and tribulations of the revolutionary movement, including multiple betrayals by trusted allies, the story covers Zapata’s attempts to become respectable in order to win the hand of the middle-class Josefa (Jean Peters). After he returns to revolution following their marriage, Josefa is left to worry about his almost inevitable demise.
I followed Quinn’s performances in supporting roles throughout the 40’s. This movie is where he comes into his own as a kind of embodiment of the life force. Although his Eufemio is a brute in many ways his magnetism and gusto is undeniable. One of my problems with this film is that, by contrast, Brando seems pallid. He is not convincing as a Mexican and, while he acts his socks off, the fire is just missing for me. Recommended for Quinn’s performance and to those interested in the subject.
Anthony Quinn won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Viva Zapata! was nominated in the categories of: Best Actor; Best Writing, Story and Screenplay; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White; and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.
Trailer
