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And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (2003)
  • Caption: And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (2003)
  • Description: "When you tell people about this story--that there was an American crew filming Pancho Villa in battle, in 1914 in Mexico--they say that's not true, that it is a fantasy, a legend," says Antonio Banderas. "But it is true. It happened."

    Banderas delivers a powerful, larger-than-life performance as the title character of this extraordinary story from HBO Films, which reveals how Mexican Revolutionary Villa allowed a Hollywood crew to film him and his army as they fought the nationalist Huerta forces, altering the course of film and military history in the process.

    The adventure gets its start when early movie giants D.W. Griffith (Colm Feore) and Harry Aiken (Jim Broadbent), send a junior executive, Frank Thayer (Eion Bailey) to Mexico to persuade the cash-strapped, publicity-hungry Villa (Banderas) to let them film his revolution. Stepping into the literal crossfire, Thayer's crew risk their lives in the mingling of fiction and reality-and prove, ultimately, that "the lens is mightier than the sword."

    After a string of dangerous exploits, escapes and double-crosses worthy of a silent action short, Thayer and Villa make their movie, and "The Life of General Villa" is released in the U.S. to popular acclaim. The film turns public opinion in Villa's favor-- but the charismatic revolutionary never gets to see his star turn on the silver screen.

    Directed by
    Bruce Beresford

    Writing credits
    (WGA)
    Larry Gelbart (written by)



    Cast (in credits order)

    Antonio Banderas ... Pancho Villa
    Eion Bailey ... Frank Thayer

    Alan Arkin ... Sam Drebben

    Jim Broadbent ... Harry Aitken

    Matt Day ... John Reed

    Michael McKean ... William Christy Cabanne

    Colm Feore ... D.W. Griffith

    Alexa Davalos ... Teddy Sampson

    Anthony Head ... William Benton (as Anthony Stewart Head)
    Kyle Chandler ... Raoul Walsh

    Saul Rubinek ... Eli Morton
    Cosme Alberto ... Abraham Sanchez
    Damián Alcázar ... Gen. Rodolfo Fierro
    Pedro Armendáriz Jr. ... Don Luis Terrazas (as Pedro Armendáriz)
    Fernando Becerril ... Priest
    Michael F. Boyle ... Sgt. Edward Emerson
    Steven Calcote ... Reporter #1
    Rita López Carrasco ... Carmen
    Carl Dillard ... Charles Rosher
    Omar Espino ... Anastacio Sanchez (as Omar Éspino)
    Marcelo García ... Gen. Toribio Ortega

    Peter Gregory ... William Randolph Hearst
    Adrián Hernández ... Peon woman
    Isaías Jiménez ... Peon man

    Jorge Jimenez ... Gen. Hipolito Villa
    Jay Kimball ... W. H. Lawrence
    Jake Koenig ... Reporter #2
    José Manuel Lambarri ... Gen. José Refugio Velasco
    Madeline Lee ... Drebben's Mother
    Benjamin Long ... Duffy Dorfman
    José Concepción Macías ... President Victoriano Huerta
    Mauricio Magaña ... Older Abraham Sánchez
    Barbara May ... Irene Hunt
    Lorena Mínguez ... Peon daughter
    Darrell Pritchett ... Senator Albert Fall
    María Guillermina Ramírez ... Esperanza Sánchez
    Gabriela Reynoso ... Señora Madrigal
    Guillermo Ríos ... Federale Officer #1 (as Guillermo Rios)
    Diego Sandoval ... Gen. Felipe Ángeles
    Patricia Schweers ... Zenia the make-up lady
    Julian Sedgwick ... Carl von Hoffman
    Sacha Oberlander Tasletikye ... Adrian Brodsky
    John Wharton ... Hennie Ausenberg
    Lilia Zelinna ... Rosita
    rest of cast listed alphabetically:
    Lynnanne Zager ... Actress (uncredited)
  • Actor/Actress/Director:
  • Movie: And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself
  • Id: 10918006
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