And we have a movie

“And Starring Panchovilla as himself” did not seem to be much of a title, since I didn’t know who Panchovilla was in the first place. A low angle shot of Antonio Banderas brandishing old type rifles was the only recognizable feature on the cover.

But the movie was recommended to me by a good source, so I thought I should give it a go. I didn’t know the director Bruce Beresford, but upon googling, my jaw dropped when academy award nominations for his movies over the years were enough to turn a list into an ‘angavastram’.

Panchovilla was a revolutionary in turn of the century Mexico where a group of people had had enough of the government kissing American asses and turning over all the oil to the US. (I know this is a common thing for the US to do, but in 1914?? Old habits die hard!) When times were tough to run the revolutionary army with the arms embargo by US President Wilson making things impossible, Panchovilla announces that he will let any film company shoot his war for a small price of 20%.

The mutual film company, who at that time had in their rolls great names including that of Chaplin, sends a newbie named Frank Thayer to discuss and finalize terms with General Panchovilla. Pancho smirks at Frank “I wasn’t good enough for Chaplin eh?”.

But he needs the gold and agrees to the deal. This marks the start of a friendship between Frank and Pancho (the nickname for Franco in Spanish or Mexican as Pancho would say).

The cast is amazing. This is Antonio Banderas’ first serious acting assignment where he has to actually perform rather than let his ‘sex symbol’ image do it. And he does it with aplomb. His witty lines will leave you in peals of laughter or serious thought. His portrayal of Pancho as a man who is burdened by the weight of the expectations from his people is sure to surprise the audience.

The movie is a HBO production, but looks gorgeous enough to pass off as any major studio production.

Apart from telling a great story, the movie also gives interesting insights into cinema production in the early 1900s. What a long way we’ve come!!

On another note, because of the HBO tag maybe, I noticed that his movie has been completely missed by Roger Ebert and Filmcritic.com which was very surprising. Mysterious lack of publicity!