Viva Zapata! (1952)

Viva Zapata! tells the story of the legendary Mexican revolutionary, Emiliano Zapata.  He was a historical figure who helped fight for the rights of poor Mexican farmers during the early 20th century.  Zapata helped lead the peasant farmers in a revolution against the corrupt and oppressive government.  Zapata in this film is portrayed as a reluctant but successful leader who is determined to fight for justice. 

 

As the film opens, we see a group of peasant Mexican farmers petitioning the president, Diaz, to return their land back to them.  Zapata is among the group of farmers.  The president responds with an answer that is only meant to appease the farmers but he is not really concerned with actually helping them.  This angers Zapata and he speaks up.   Diaz then writes Zapata's name down on a list.  Traveling on the road back, Zapata rescues a prisoner from the military and as a result, becomes a wanted outlaw.  After encouragement from an exiled rebel, Mader, Zapata helps to lead a rebellion against the Mexican government.  The farmers are eventually successful and Madero, the fellow revolutionary becomes the new leader of the government.  However, Madero is assassinated by his own general.  Zapata hesitantly steps up as the new leader. Later on in his new position, a similar experience occurs as to the one in the very beginning of the film.  But this time the roles have reversed.  The scene shows a group of farmers making a complaint to the president, Zapata, and he responds to them the same way Diaz responded to him.  Zapata realizes what that he is becoming just like all the other before him and he decides to step down as leader and return home.  A new leader takes his place who is encouraged to have Zapata killed.  Zapata is tricked into meeting with the new regime and they have him gunned down and Emiliano Zapata dies. 

 

 

After the supporters of Zapata find his dead body, they refuse to accept that he is in fact dead.  They make a statement saying "you can't kill an idea" and they choose to believe, rather, that he is in the mountains.  A shot of Zapata's horse is then shown on the side of a mountain.  This signifies that the spirit of Zapata will live on for he had inspired others to fight for what they believe in as well.  He left a legacy and his followers were going to continue in his foot steps.

Some broader themes that can be seen in this film are the common themes of good vs. evil and individual vs. society.  Zapata is portrayed as good, while the dictator presidencies are the bad.  Interestingly though, the movie shows how power can go to one's head and as a result make a good person turn evil.  This is seen with Zapata's brother and Zapata himself.  Zapata does not necessarily turn evil but he starts to head down that past after he is made president.  Fortunately he realizes his mistake and corrects himself, which is not the case for his brother. 

Some were displeased with the outcome of this movie, believing it to be a very inaccurate portrayal.  The movie is based off of real historical events and much of the events and characters depicted in the film are true to history.  However, there is some fictionalization incorporated into the story.  For example, the character Fernando Aguirre was completely created for the film.  But he was created to serve the purpose of illustrating the evil and corrupt aspects of the Mexican Government.  Also being an American made movie, anti-Communist elements were incorporated into the movie which did not exist in the real story.  The film was produced in the US in the 1950s, in the middle of the Cold War.  This movie was produced more as a vehicle to convey a message to America during this time than it was to recount a history lesson. Despite some inaccuracies, many feel that Viva Zapata! does accurately depict the spirit of Zapatismo.

I think this is a pretty successful film.  I think the U.S. got their message across while still making an informative and entertaining movie. I think you definitely can take away some important historical pieces of information from the film.  You almost get a double dose of history.  You get to learn about the Mexican Revolution with the infusion of American post World War II elements. Viva Zapata! helped give me a better sense of what the rural people of Mexico were fighting for during their revolution.

The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)

The film The Motorcycle Diaries is based on the real life diary of a young Ernesto "Che" Guevara.  It follows the Argentines, Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado, as they travel via motorcycle across South America on a quest for adventure and medical experience.


As the film begins, Ernesto Guevara is just a young college student who is about to graduate from medical school.  He is packing for his upcoming trip through South America.  He and his friend are going to go through all of the major tourist destinations but their ultimate destination is a leper colony located in Peru, where they will be able to study the disease and gain experience. Initially they are both looking for fun and excitement.  Soon after there departure, they begin to realize that their trip is not all that easy.  They encounter harsh climates, trouble with locals, and witness the sufferings of others.

The goal of this film is to show the experiences that Che Guevara went through that contributed to making him the man he later became.  A few of the major incidents portrayed in the film that really impacted Guevara were the encounters with the Communist mining couple, the poor indigenous populations, and the leper colony.

Ernesto meets a poor Communist couple while traveling through the Atacama desert.  They befriend the couple and the couple tells Guevara and Granado of their troubles.  They explain that have been persecuted for their political beliefs and cannot find work. They are on their way to a mine in the hopes that one of them will be selected for work.  Guevara and Granado follow them to the mine and witness the harsh reality of the job scarcity.  They see dozens of people gathered all with the same hope of being selected.  However, only a few are needed.  The man in charge chooses a few and the rest are told to go home, which angers Guevara.  Guevara later reveals to Granado that he gave the couple the stash of money he had been saving.

After this, while traveling through the Andes Mountains in Peru, the two witness the poverty of the indigenous peoples.  This deeply effects Guevara and Granado.  This makes Granado say he would like to start a peaceful revolution in South America in hope of helping the indigenous populations.  Guevara responds by saying, "A revolution without guns? It will never work."

The last stop on their journey is the leper colony.  The leper colony is divided into two sides, separated by a river.  The doctors and medical staff live on one side and the lepers live on the other. As soon as Guevara and Granado arrive, they refuse to wear gloves and instead chose to shake the lepers hands with bare skin.  Guevara bonds with all of the people at the colony, doctors and patients alike.  He is even able to befriend the most stubborn and tough patients.  Guevara has a birthday the night before they are to leave the colony.  The doctors and nurses throw him a party on their side of the river and the lepers are not able to attend.  While Guevara does have a good time at his party, he wants to spend time with the patients as well.  Therefore, he swims across the whole river in the middle of the night and spends the night on the leper side.  The next morning, everyone is sad to see Guevara go.

After each of these three incidences, we can see more of a change in Guevara each time.  His demeanor changes as well as his goals. He becomes extremely sympathetic for those  less fortunate and has a strong desire to help them.  He seems to almost become disturbed by all of the suffering he has witnessed.  He goes from being a young man looking for fun to becoming an adult with a whole new outlook on life.

Personally, I enjoyed this film very much.  I found it pleasant to watch as well as interesting and informative.  It takes a different approach to the Che Guevara most people think of.  Instead of focusing on his later and more infamous life, it centers on the things that effected his beliefs during his youth.  Prior to this movie, I knew nothing about Che Guevara's younger years. I learned a lot about him from this film.  I also especially liked the fact that this film is based on the real life memoirs of Guevara himself.  That makes for a more accurate interpretation and portrayal.  Overall, I would consider this to be a successful historical film.

The Mission (1986)

The Mission is a film that tells the story of the conflict that occurred between a Jesuit mission against the Spanish and Portuguese during the 1750s.  The film begins with a Spanish mercenary and slaver, Rodrigo Mendoza, returning home from an excursion.  He arrives to find that his lover is now in love with his brother.  As a result, he kills his brother in a sword fight.  His extreme guilt from killing his brother leads Mendoza to become a Jesuit priest as penance.  He follows a fellow priest, Father Gabriel to Paraguay to a mission for the Guarani Indians.  This mission is a sanctuary for the Indians.  They are able to work and live in peace and without having to fear for their lives because their location is under Spanish rule. However, during Mendoza's stay, the Treaty of Madrid is passed. This redistributes the land granted to Spain and Portugal.  The mission would then become under Portuguese jurisdiction and the Portuguese allowed the enslavement of the Indians.  The Jesuit priests and the Guarani decide to not go down without a fight.  Mendoza teaches the Indians how to fight.  They are soon attacked by Spanish and Portuguese officials.  Mendoza and his makeshift army fight back but are mostly unsuccessful.  Father Gabriel refuses to fight as it would go against his vows.  He stays with a group of Guarani singing hymns in the midst of the battle.  The majority of the priests and Guarani are killed, including Mendoza and Father Gabriel.  However, a few children are able to escape into the woods.

 

One of the broad themes seen in this film is good vs. evil.  The Jesuit missionaries in this film are the obvious good side, while the Portuguese slavers are the evil side.  However, in this case, good does not prevail.  The evil side is the one that comes out victorious in the end.  Another broad theme is that of redemption.  The main character, Mendoza starts out in the film as a mercenary and slaver.  He makes a decision to change his ways and actually becomes like a brother to same group he was once persecuting.  He even gives his life in order to protect him, and he is able to die a noble death doing a good and sincere deed.  We also see some elements of the individual versus society.  The individual here would be Mendoza and his mission versus everyone else.  They seem to be alone in the world but are still going to fight for what they believe in.  They can't even get the Cardinal to support their side.

 

I think one of the main goals of this film was to educate people on an interesting historical event and to do so in a way that would capture the audience's attention.  The Mission is a very informative film and it is based off of real life occurrences.  The movie is based on the events surrounding the Treaty of Madrid which was enacted in 1750.  In this treaty,  Spain gave up part of Jesuit Paraguay to the Portuguese.

 

This movie, however, has its share of historical inaccuracies.  The filmmakers play into black legend and white legend.  The use of black legend is seen in the Portuguese officials and slavers.  White legend is personified here in the Jesuit priests.  The film shows the Jesuit priests defending the indigenous groups to the point of death.  In reality, while the Jesuits did try to defend the Guarani, the Jesuit priests abandoned the converts before actual fighting began.  The Guarani actually fought for themselves in a three year long war with the Portuguese. Which leads us to another inaccuracy.  The period of fighting portrayed in this film is very short.  It seems as though the European officials come one day, kill practically everyone, and the issue is settled.  But in real life, the conflict between the Guarani and Portuguese lasted much longer and was much more drawn out. 

 

In conclusion, I would say that this is a fine historical film.  It is not perfect as it does contain some accuracy errors but that is probably in order to make a more interesting movie and to create a more epic seeming battle. But as a whole, it does help to teach its viewers about a major historical event, the Treaty of Madrid, and goes to show how poorly the indigenous population was treated after the arrival of Europeans, all of which really did happen.  And it is able to do so in a very moving way.

Lucia (1968)

The film Lucia is a Cuban film that was produced in support of Communism.  The film is divided into three distinct segments, each having a different female lead character with the same name - Lucia.  The first segment takes place in the era of independence for Cuba (1895-1898).  The second is set during the early 1930's during the era of Machado and the failed revolution.  The last segment takes place during the Communist Construction era from 1966-1970.  In this post, I will be discussing the first and last segments of Lucia.

The story of the first Lucia is a very melodramatic portrayal of an aristocratic Cuban lady and her ill-fated romance.  Lucia is a wealthy Cuban who catches the eye of a new-comer in town, Rafael  The two instantly fall in love and begin spending much time together.  While at Lucia's family dinner, Rafael reveals that he is half Spanish and half Cuban but claims he is impartial to either side in the war, rather he sympathetic for both sides.  At this same dinner, Rafael learns that Lucia's family owns a coffee plantation.  He inquires to the plantation's whereabouts, however, Lucia says that no one knows how to get there.  Later, we are informed that Lucia's brother Felipe is part of the Cuban war of independence, fighting on behalf of the Cubans.  Lucia keeps this piece of information a secret. 

In the guise of wanting to run away with Lucia, Rafael convinces Lucia to disclose the location of the coffee plantation.  While, Lucia is sneaking through the city streets in the wee hours to meet Rafael, she is confronted by a homeless lunatic.  Supposedly, this lady was a former nun who was raped on the battlefield while performing last rites for what she thought were dead soldiers.  She tries to warn Lucia not to meet Rafael, but Lucia does not heed this warning.  As she and Rafael arrive at the plantation, they are met by an army of Spanish troops.  Lucia realizes that the whole love affair was a trick.  A battle ensues and Lucia's brother is one of the Cuban casualties.  After this devastation, Lucia later sees Rafael in the street and stabs him to death.

The last Lucia tells a story of two Cuban newlyweds living in the Communist Construction era.  This segment incorporates elements of slapstick comedy.  Lucia and Tomas are a young couple who have recently been married.  At the beginning, their relationship is full of love, playfulness, and sex.  However, Tomas soon becomes possessive and abusive towards Lucia.  He is jealous and in order to keep her away from the attention of other men, he makes Lucia quit her job and does not allow her to leave the house.  Lucia soon tires of this and longs to return to her job.  Tomas attends a town meeting that promotes Communist ideas, one of these being literacy.  As Lucia cannot read, a government official is sent to their home in order to teach her.  Tomas becomes insanely jealous of this man.  More fighting between the couple erupts.  Finally, Lucia leaves Tomas and returns to working in the fields.  At the end, Tomas finds Lucia and wants her back.  The film ends with the couple fighting each other on the beach while a little girl onlooker laughs, indicating hope for the future.

The main goal of this film really is to promote Communism and illustrate the relationship between class and nation, at the same time presenting all of this information in an artistic manner.  It presents the progression of Cuba from a capitalist nation to a socialist society. And this was done through the progression of social classes.  With the first Lucia we see the aristocratic society fighting for their independence.  The people in Lucia's realm are dressed in imported Victorian clothing and their features reveal them to be of European descent.  By the third Lucia, we see a total transformation of Cuba.  The characters in this segment come from a mixture of racial backgrounds.  The main character herself is a mulata.  The emphasis seen here in this section is of working and being productive.  It also tries to teach people that the old ways are gone and that Cuba is changing. Flavio and Angelina try to explain this to Tomas who is old-fashioned.  They tell him he needs to let his woman work.  An important aspect of Cuba's Communist Revolution was the valuing of the working classes and the demonization of the aristocracy.  The director of this film used media to promote these Communist ideas.