( music playing )
( gun cocks )
( gunshots )
Man: More, more, Mr. Walsh!
Got to kill them all!
The last thing in the world you want
is to be captured by those heathen redskins!
( camera clicking )
Man: Rush to him, Miss Sampson,
rush to your protector!
Seek the shelter of his manly arms.
True love, Adrian-- true love laced with
heart-rending devotional gratitude.
And... cut!
That's a cut, everybody!
- Next setup, Charlie. - Yes, Mr. Griffith.
Let's have the tent in now, babe.
Get another couple of rolls for you, Carl.
Teddy, go get those horses.
I know you're freezing, but we're all freezing.
There he is, Frank.
Ask him over, gently.
Very good, my dear. Very good, indeed.
Mr. Griffith, sir?
Mr. Aitken's in the car and he'd like to have a word with you.
- Ah, Duffy, how are we getting on with Mr. Walsh? - Oh, hello.
- Hello. - I want it a bit higher than usual.
About there.
Be a bit more generous with the blood this time, lay it on thick.
He's over there, sir, he says that it's important.
When will Mr. Aitken understand
that when Griffith is filming,
nothing is of greater importance to Griffith?
Harry.
Sorry, David, but we need to move fast on this,
if you think it's worth moving at all.
Eli Morton in our Texas office
went to some kind of press conference
just over the border,
pulled together by this Pancho Villa fellow down there.
- "Vee-ya." - The Pancho Villa?
Right, according to Eli, Villa is offering
"exclusive rights to any motion picture company
interested in filming his revolutionary army,
the División Del Norty--"
Del Norte.
",,,in action against the federal forces of--" who he calls,
"the despotic president of Mexico, Victorio"...
"Victoriano Huerta."
Huerta, right.
Villa's terms as follows--
he's asking for $25,000 in advance
against 20% of the profits.
And he wants the money in gold!
Quite the horse trader.
Isn't he supposed to be some kind of "Injun" or something?
He's mestizo, it's a racial mix.
Where'd you get all this stuff?
Is it worth a shot?
No story, no actors,
just shooting an actual military scrap?
Just that, and that alone?
Just filming men at war?
Being allowed to place cameras in the thick of battle?
This may prove as much a revolution for motion pictures
as the one Villa's waging on the ground!
Real death, real blood.
People would get sick to their stomachs
at that kind of show, wouldn't they?
Hold it a minute, Harry.
Give her your gloves, will you?
Excuse me.
Miss Sampson?
Hello.
I'm Frank Thayer, I'm with the Mutual Company.
Mr. Griffith said that, uh...
You're in charge of gloves, are you?
Griffith: ...but the historian's pen over time
will be no match for the image
the moviemaker captures in the eye of his camera!
20% of the profits for some guy who's never done a movie before!
There's not a day that passes, my dear Harry,
where this guy is not featured
on the front pages of the world press.
The man is a star!
And stars are the mother's milk of the box office!
You wouldn't consider going down there
and try getting us a better deal?
The bird hasn't been born yet that D.W. Griffith couldn't charm down off a tree.
Be serious-- with all I've got to do setting up the California studio?
Just how competent would you say he is?
Do you think he's ready to do something useful?
Who? Who are we talking about?
Your nephew.
Frank?
Anyone else bidding on the rights, Mr. Morton?
- Let me help you. - Oh, thanks.
Any other movie companies-- any other movie companies
showing an interest that you know of?
Oh, we got the inside track.
Money does a whole lot of talking around here,
and the heavier it is, the better it's heard.
Right.
You gotta keep your wits about you around here.
Yes, sir.
First number one thing to remember, when you meet him,
never look Villa straight in the eye.
You forget that, you wake up deader than a doornail.
And making any sudden moves around him,
that's another real good way to get your scalp creased.
When do we actually meet? What's the plan?
Villa calls the shots.
We gotta work out how to slip over the border
and find out wherever he's hiding out.
We have to be smuggled into Mexico?
Ain't no "we" in that equation, Mr. Thayer.
Eli Morton's got a wife and kids to think about.
( cannon firing )
That's not, uh, gunfire, is it?
Step right this way, Mr. Thayer.
Let's get you boys a ringside seat at the revolution!
( firing continues )
Morton: Come on up.
This way, Mr. Thayer.
Come on, fellas, let's get a look.
Just go right up to the front, come on.
Just go right up here.
Excuse us for a sec-- Colonel.
How you doing, do you mind?
Thank you very much, these guys are from back East,
they've never seen-- thank you very much.
Come on, step right up.
- There you go. - ( gunfire, explosions )
Thank you.
It feels almost like watching a show
from up here, doesn't it?
Well, it's a bit more than playacting, sir.
What you're watching is a dictatorship
in the throes of dying,
yielding up one life at a time.
John Reed, "Metropolitan" magazine.
Frank Thayer, Mutual Film Company.
You're taking the bait, Mr. Thayer?
You're gonna film the battle?
I'm going to try.
Have a peek at your picture show.
( screams )
( whinnies )
- Hey, it's my turn! - Don't push!
Look at that. To your left!
Hope you don't have any stock in Doheny Oil, Mr. Thayer.
My God.
British man: It shows you what Pancho Villa
thinks of Americans owning Mexican oil.
Bastard doesn't care whose property he burns.
There he is.
There's your bloody Robin Hood of Mexico!
( Villa shouting in Spanish )
General!
Donde?
Sí--!
( speaking Spanish )
( bugling )
What's he doing? He's only taken half the town.
( speaks Spanish )
D.W. Griffith!
- Good night, fellas. - Good night, Frank.
Get some sleep!
Wait, wait.
Wait, I've never been on a horse!
You will like it.
Come on.
( speaking Spanish )
He wants to know why the movies sent him such a clown.
He wants to know, was Charlie Chaplin too busy to show up down here?
Dónde está Señor Griffith?
- He wants to know-- - Griffith, he wanted to come, he truly did,
only he's kind of involved right now.
And this guy's just fucking around down here, right?
( speaks Spanish )
He says he don't trust nobody
that don't look him straight in the eye.
I was told that he would kill a man for doing that.
That's a pile of crap.
They don't stop telling stories about this guy!
( speaks Spanish )
What's that all over your tie?
It's my school emblem.
- ( translator speaks Spanish ) - My college's.
Sí, college.
To which college do you go?
Did, sir. Harvard. Harvard in Boston.
Oh, sí, that's the school where you make presidents, sí?
A few have attended, yes, sir.
One day, Pancho Villa
will send his son to Boston, Harvard.
( speaking Spanish )
( laughing )
He says he's knocked out enough sons
to fill every college in America.
Is that the gold?
Cash would have been a lot lighter, I can assure you.
The last person tried to give him cash,
Pancho cleaned off his glasses with a bullet.
El contrato.
Yes, sir, it's right here, sir.
Those are the glasses.
One for you, one for me.
Hey.
Those actresses you work with,
they're like nurses, right?
They gotta have it all the time, don't they?
I'm not sure that's really true.
Yeah, right.
Like you're not jazzing your brains out, are you?
( speaking Spanish )
What?
( speaks in Spanish )
What?
What's this 10% of the profits bullshit? His cut's supposed to be 20.
You lie to Pancho Villa, you go back to Harvard in a box!
Sir, that is a mistake! Somebody must have changed the figures
before I had a chance to proof--
it's just my pen.
La plume?
El plume-o, whatever you call it.
Let me change all these tens here into twenties here, okay?
Here we are, fixed.
Twenty, twenty, twenty, twenty.
Translator: See, you gotta understand. He needs the money.
With Wilson's goddamn embargo,
you gotta go the black market route to get guns.
It costs an arm and a leg to kill somebody down here!
No, please.
This pen has gone to college.
It's for your son.
Any of your sons.
But your Señor Hearst,
he only writes bad words about Pancho Villa
en sus periódicos.
- In his newspapers. - Right.
People, I think, they believe more
what they see on the picture screen.
When your President Wilson, when he sees my movie,
he will know he must support Pancho Villa.
He will see that Pancho Villa is a good guy,
that he's not like Presidente Huerta...
( yells in Spanish )
- That donkey fucker. - Yeah, got it.
Pancho: Bueno.
Bueno, bueno, bueno...
pues.
( speaking Spanish )
I hope he's not gonna be offended,
I'm not much of a drinker.
Ah, don't worry about it, he never touches the stuff.
You are Frank, that is your name.
Frank Thayer, yes, sir.
Pancho is also Frank, Pancho is Francisco.
That's his real moniker.
Tell me, what would you like, Francisco Two?
Lemon? Vanilla?
Gracias.
Thank you.
I've never seen anyone like him.
There is nobody like him, sonny boy!
If there was, he would blow their brains out.
( cannons firing )
How do we do this?
You got a plan, Frank?
Besides praying a lot.
I think we all just fan out, catch whatever you can.
Other than bullets, you mean?
( distant cannon and gunfire )
Those crazy bastards
are not gonna last 10 minutes out there.
Behind the wagon!
Gentlemen, the Mutual Film Company is about to make history.
Thanks to an exclusive arrangement
with General Pancho Villa,
who joins such illustrious Mutual artists
as Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Fatty Arbuckle,
the public will, for the very first time,
be treated to the thrills and chills
of an actual battlefield
as seen through the lens of the motion picture camera.
( yells )
( clicking )
- ( whinnying ) - ( shouting in Spanish )
( yelling )
Are you worried at all about the physical danger
your people might be exposed to, sir?
The General Villa has assigned his crack guards, his "Dorados"--
that's D-O-R-A-D-O-S-- to guarantee the safety
of each and every one of our camera operators.
Set up in the doorway!
Hurry!
Turn around and film the gunner!
( yelling )
Sir!
You must be really devoted to this cause!
For a grand a month,
there's nothing Sam Drebben can't get devoted to.
Plus all the gold teeth I can pull.
Watch your ass, sonny boy!
( firing )
Another day, another dollar.
"Hearst Publications."
You don't have any qualms
about manipulating public opinion in favor of a man
many people consider to be nothing more
than a socialist rabble-rouser?
Unlike your employer, Mr. Hearst,
this company has no interest whatever
in meddling in politics, foreign or domestic.
For the millions he's trying to free of a cruel dictatorship,
Pancho Villa hardly needs Mutual's help
to enhance his reputation as the George Washington of Mexico.
( yelling in Spanish )
Oh, bloody hell!
Francisco, you are not dead yet, huh?
Still alive, sir!
( yelling continues )
- Man: Fuego! - ( gunshots )
These are just civilians, aren't they?
Yeah.
You make the mistake of supporting Pancho Villa,
you wind up being a tree ornament.
( flies buzzing )
( speaks Spanish )
It saves ammunition.
( yells in Spanish ) The captain's mine.
( tooth cracks )
Next patient.
( speaking Spanish )
Andale, jugar. Andale, vámonos, vámonos!
Padre, Padre, Padrecito.
General Villa...
Muchas gracias.
Sí.
( speaking Spanish )
The kid's gonna have a playmate soon.
Somebody knocked her up.
( continues speaking Spanish )
- That figures. - What?
The Father's the father.
( speaking Spanish )
He's swearing to take care of the kid and the baby,
however long they need it for.
( speaking Spanish )
Desgraciado.
( speaking Spanish )
( men singing in Spanish )
Hiya, Charlie.
Good work, Frank!
You didn't get in my way once.
Thank you, Hennie.
How'd it feel today, Mr. Thayer?
Being smack in the middle of the killing ground.
It's shameful to admit how exciting I found it.
Oh, it's strictly a survivor's sensation.
Someone else's death serving as your own reprieve.
You're in good company, Mr. Thayer.
Shamelessness has a big following down here.
Bank robbers, painters, poets, soldiers of fortune.
Enough anarchists to blow up Wall Street 10 times over.
Healing Jews and fighting Jews.
Morris Rauschbaum, a surgeon from Indiana.
Sam Drebben, a machine gunner from the Bronx.
General Ángeles came over from the Federales.
Studied von Clausewitz, well read, an idealist.
He's the other side of the peso to General Fierro.
He gets really ugly unless he kills
at least one prisoner before breakfast.
From the merely curious to the merely morbid...
all of this in Villa's orbit,
all of this in Villa's thrall.
( singing continues )
Men: Hey! Hey! Hey!
- ( laughing, cheering ) - ( music playing )
You take home a nice recuerdo, amigo, a souvenir.
But be careful.
Or she'll give you some crawly souvenir in your underwear.
( men chuckle )
( speaking Spanish )
Her husband got killed in the fighting today.
Her youngest son, too.
Charlie.
Get this.
Sam: He just gave her more money
than her old man saw in his entire life.
Pancho: Juan...
what will they think, Juanito, my American friends,
when they see the movie of Pancho Villa?
Well, I think Mr. Doheny is gonna be very impressed indeed.
( speaking Spanish )
He worships the ground that is Mexico.
Doheny worships what's underneath it.
Your Señor Hearst is also muy, muy nervioso. Sientense.
Very nervous.
You know how much he owns of Mexico, Francisco?
Señor Hearst, how many acres?
Siete millones.
More like eight.
Eight million acres?
And how many head of cattle have you stolen from him?
60,000, he says.
Oh, you are loco, Juanito, 60,000.
50,000, maybe.
Maybe 50,000, the most. ( laughs )
So, Francisco, today was not too, um...
( speaks Spanish )
- Boring. - Boring!
It was not too boring?
You became more a man, a little, I think, today.
Maybe you and your amigos--
I'd say we had a good start.
Today, I think,
they found a little bit, their huevos.
Even though a few of them got a little wet.
Yes, sí, sí, sí.
( speaking Spanish )
You will help... ( speaking Spanish )
You will help Americans know
that hope does not stop at the border.
It's my Virgin of Guadalupe.
I'm deeply honored, sir.
( speaks Spanish )
He says you should be.
( speaks Spanish )
You've got the only virgin left around here.
Andale, andale.
Aitken: Please bear in mind that our camera operators
had to constantly deal with movement of men and horses,
exploding bombs, clouds of gunpowder.
But what you're looking at is without a doubt
never-before-seen footage of live action
shot on an actual field of battle.
Never-before-seen footage?
You still can't see it.
( laughing )
Hearst reporter: They'd have bit the dust a lot better
if D.W. Griffith had directed it.
( laughing )
Let me assure you that every one of these men and women
and every child died in the very best way that they could.
There he is, boys!
On motion picture film, for all the world to see,
General Pancho Villa.
( reporters laughing )
Reed: Despite its technical flaws,
clearly more people will discover Pancho Villa
from a few feet of this crude historic film
than from the reams that have been written about his struggle
to rid Mexico of its greedy robber barons,
the only ones to profit from their cozy marriage
with rapacious American interests.
Unfortunately, not everyone happens to be
the socialist lover that John Reed is!
Hearst, no surprise, is putting our nuts through a wringer.
Pardon me. ( clears throat )
With all he's got invested in Mexico,
Hearst stands to lose one or two of his fortunes down there.
Speak up, Harry,
we're a whole country apart, for God's sake!
Aitken: Listen to this.
"Pandering to Villa's overblown vanity,
the perpetrators of this clumsy excuse of a film..."
"Clearly demonstrate that they have a far greater interest
in selling tickets to a gullible public
than in telling the real truth about--"
Frank.
I'll take a pastrami on rye.
"...than in telling the real truth
about the self-styled General Villa and his ragtag army,
with nary a piece of modern artillery to its name."
Mightn't it be more productive
for you to be reading the want ads?
You know what's so galling about all this?
It's all true!
We had so little control over what was happening,
Villa comes off as some kind of simple, starstruck cowboy!
Give me the strudel!
We didn't offer a clue to his complexity,
to his greatness!
What a movie that would make!
This would all be better said
to someone with a checkbook, wouldn't it?
He's been beaten and tortured all his life.
They say that he still has whip scars across his back.
He was a convict before he turned 20.
Frank, it's midnight.
Before he was 12, he was already being hunted by the law.
Now, now there are places in Mexico where he is the law.
Don't make me fire you twice in one week.
He's the James Boys, he's Billy the Kid,
he's Napoleon all rolled into one!
But he asks nothing for himself.
He takes nothing.
He builds schools where there were none!
He seizes the homes of the wealthy,
he redistributes the land.
He gives it to the poor, he feeds them!
He even prints his own money!
He prints his own money?
Well, the man's not all bad, is he?
Tell me that this material
would not make a fantastic moving picture.
Forget it!
The "Times" said the one we made
looked like a high school play
that couldn't afford the costumes!
For my money, and that's sure as hell
what every penny of it was,
we gave Pancho Villa more than his shot.
But we didn't.
That's the whole point!
Be realistic!
You'd never crowd all that stuff into a two-reeler,
not in a million years!
I'd make it more like seven.
Seven reels?
Seven reels!
You smoke some of that funny stuff down in Mexico, Frank?
Who in their right minds is gonna want to
sit through a movie that runs for over an hour?
There's never a first... until someone tries it.
Don't give me fortune cookies
in the middle of the night, Frank.
Seven reels is a whale of a show
you're ready to give away for a nickel a ticket.
Then double it.
Double it?
A dime? A dime a ticket?
A dime a ticket.
One good first deserves another.
These are exciting thoughts, Frank.
They are.
I'm definitely getting excited.
Don't let me stop you.
( groans )
If only they didn't all look so crummy down there.
For 10 cents, people are gonna wanna see
a hell of a lot more than a bunch of barefoot buggers
jumping around in the cactus.
We can help him look better, I know we can.
I'll have to run this past D.W., of course.
He'll see the possibilities in a minute.
I promise you.
"The Life of General Villa!"
Okay, okay.
( chatter in Spanish )
Hey, you moron, watch the vase!
( speaking Spanish )
Gringa, this is for you.
( Pancho laughs )
I'm only kidding.
Pancho: Mm-hmm.
( yells in Spanish )
Vamos.
- Pancho! - Sí.
Frank: Aqui.
Francisco.
Hello, sir.
Francisco Two.
Do I know you were coming?
I sent a telegraph.
Well, when I see it, then you know you are here.
( laughs )
I miss you many times, mi amigo, many times.
I've missed you.
Yeah, good, bueno, bueno, bueno.
The virgin, does she answer your prayers?
Not with my Spanish, she doesn't.
It's not Spanish, never Spanish.
Mexicano.
Two things Spain give to my people.
The church and the women.
You should write a book.
Oh, maybe I have to read one or two first.
Mira.
( speaks Spanish )
This is the battle?
Yeah.
So much death...
two little circles.
Magic.
Tomorrow, we must liberate a projector somewhere.
Tell me, are you hungry, thirsty?
No, no problemo, estoy muy bien.
A house of great wealth, huh?
Not one drop of ice cream.
( laughs )
Sí, sí...
if my father saw us here, me and my brother,
he would say...
before your hair grows a boot.
A room like this, such a room.
It could be only for a don.
Or for a foreigner.
To a room like this, my father could only crawl
to beg for some food for himself, for his family.
There are books here
that weigh more than he did when he died.
Welcome back to Mexico.
Are you all right, Francisco?
Yes, thanks.
Is the horse riding you well?
Uh-huh.
Digame...
you did not come all this way
only to bring me my film, right?
( speaking Spanish )
Another movie?
You want to make another movie with Pancho Villa?
Yes, sir.
Same deal as last time, same money.
Well...
your President Wilson has lifted the arms embargo.
Money is not a problem for Pancho Villa anymore.
Tell me, has there ever been a movie of "Don Quixote,"
do you know?
No, not that I know of, no, sir.
Oh, not one movie of "Don Quixote,"
and Señor Aitken wants to make two of Pancho Villa!
We believe that this story, this photoplay,
will greatly enhance your popularity.
And it's gonna go a long way to helping the revolution.
You still have a lot of enemies in high places.
Yeah, that's the best place for enemies.
High up, where you can see them.
Well, look,
you'd be doing me a very, very big favor.
Remember "Don Quixote," mi amigo.
( speaks Spanish )
"Man must not fight windmills."
Frank: "Villa positively not interested.
returning New York immediately.
Awfully sorry, did my level best.
Frank N. Thayer."
"N" for nephew.
Villa!
( speaks Spanish )
Oh, don't give me that Happy Peon lark.
You're on my land.
You and all your bloody banditos
think you can just ride off here
with my horses and my guns, eh, amigo?
No.
Soldiers of Pancho Villa, are not banditos.
You've been robbing me blind and you bloody well know it.
5,000 head of my cattle,
and not so much as one bloody fucking peso.
Thank you very much.
Now, these tinhorn bean-o-crats down here
may put up with the crap you dish out,
but you've finished shitting on this white man.
Comprende?
- Pancho: Sí. - ( spits )
Sí, sí.
Comprendo.
Fierro.
Sí, General?
( music playing )
♪ On a tree by a river a little tom-tit ♪
♪ Sang willow titwillow, titwillow... ♪
Aye, Carmencita.
Carmencita.
♪ ...in your little inside ♪
♪ With a shape of... ♪
( gunshot )
Shh.
Aitken: David!
Did you read Hearst today?
I've got it right here.
"The cold-blooded murder in Mexico
of English ranch owner William Benton,
but the latest example of the socialist Villa's
rabid hatred of foreigners,
reinforces the Hearst Corporation's demand
that the civilized nations of the world act in all haste
to introduce the self-styled general
to the business end of a rope."
( reading in Spanish )
( music playing )
( telegraph tapping )
( sighs )
Mr. Aitken.
Aitken: Does the general have any questions?
Pancho: The general has no questions.
"Whenever engaging the enemy, you guarantee"--
- That's you, sir. - I know, I am "you."
"You guarantee that any fighting
by the forces under your command
will occur only between the daylight hours
of 9:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M."
- ( speaks in Spanish ) - Agreed.
"There is to be no night combat whatsoever,
and the Mutual Company"-- that's us--
"is to be informed and consulted
as to the nature of any and all military engagements."
Sí, sí, sí.
Cut, print, iris in, iris out.
Es muy simple.
Sí, sí.
Very good, sir.
"In the event that a major exchange cannot be filmed,
you will agree to restage such battles or stage new ones
as may be necessary for the benefit of the Mutual Company's cameras.
For its part, the Mutual Company agrees to furnish wardrobe"--
( clears throat )
( speaking Spanish )
( speaks Spanish )
Problem?
He wants to make sure Frank's gonna be working on this one, too.
No Francisco, no Francisco, eh?
I promise you, General,
this fine young man is gonna be with you
every damn "momentum" of the day.
"Momentum."
Aitken: Whatever you need, whatever you want,
this is gonna be your man
every bit as he's gonna be mine.
Muy bien. Psst. Andale.
It's right here, sir.
Veinticinco mil.
25,000, as before.
I take it we have a deal, sir.
Un momento, un momento.
The soldiers of Pancho Villa have left behind many...
( speaks Spanish )
Uh, lots of widows and orphans.
He's up to his ass in 'em!
They are very sad, they are very poor.
The general is most sensitive.
Sí, sensitive.
A leader must be muy, muy sensitive.
Muy sensitive.
You must give to Pancho Villa, when into Mexico City,
after the revolución...
( speaks Spanish )
A print?
A print, a print!
( speaks Spanish )
- He wants his own print. - ( urinating )
I think he wants to have his own premiere down here.
Pancho: Exactamente.
Pancho Villa, too, needs nickels.
Many nickels, for those who lost so much
and for those who lost... so many, yeah.
I will be very happy to write that
into the agreement this very minute, sir.
No es necesario, my good sir.
For Pancho Villa, your hand is your word.
Certainly.
Of course.
It's my pleasure, sir.
( cows mooing )
( chattering in Spanish )
( townspeople whistling )
( car horn honking )
Hiya, Duffy.
Hey, Frank!
Hope the trip was okay. Nice to see you, Carl.
Carl: At least we made it.
Frank: Hi, Charlie, how are ya?
Where's the scotch, Frank?
Didn't you bring it?
I see you've got gloves this time.
Mm-hmm.
Welcome to Mexico.
Thank you.
General Villa?
Please allow me to introduce our director.
This is Mr. William Christy Cabanne.
I am so looking forward, sir.
Bienvenido a Mexico.
Frank: And this is Miss Teddy Sampson,
who will play the role of your sister.
( speaks Spanish )
Frank: And this is Miss Irene Hunt, who will be your mother.
Hola, madre.
( laughter )
And Charlie Rosher, of course, you know from Ojinaga.
Are your huevos all dry now, Charlie?
- For the moment. - ( laughing )
And this, sir, is Mr. Raoul Walsh.
General.
He'll be playing the young Pancho Villa.
Tell me, Raoul Walsh,
do you know even which end of the horse shits?
Vámonos, andale!
( cheering )
Bueno.
Bueno... americano.
You can be me. Andale.
Christy: Okay, Carl, camera.
And... action!
( playing music )
And say good-bye, Mom.
Very nice. Yes, Sis.
Go get you a little of that, mm-hmm.
And... lovely.
Okay, yeah, and it's farewell, Pancho.
Let's go.
And he goes, and...
cut!
Okay, very nice.
Um, maybe more of a routine good-bye.
Uh, Raoul? Oh. ( laughs )
Listen, your character has no way of knowing
what tragic events the day is gonna bring.
So keep it big, make it small, okay?
Christy, I have a sugges--
Adrian, give me wee bit less.
Just hearts, no flowers, okay?
- Uh-huh, yes, sir. - Uno mas, people.
Oh, as pronto as possible, por favor.
Makeup, okay? Let's go, people.
I was just thinking that maybe--
Oh, don't think, darling.
Just act, okay?
Let's just make a movie here.
That's enough, that's enough.
Okay, look, he's a Mexican, Mexicans sweat.
He's fine, leave him alone.
Carl, crank 'em.
- Okay. - Uh-huh.
And from the kiss, por favor.
And action.
Much better, much better.
And, Sis, lovely.
Okay, and farewell, Pancho.
Off he goes.
Good-bye, Pancho, that's good.
Okay, one last look at Mom and Sis, a fond look, fond.
Fond! Fond!
You love 'em, you love 'em, you love 'em, good.
Wham, bam, out the door.
And... perfect!
Cut, print, beautiful!
Next setup. McDuff?
Reed: "Unquestionably the most expensive
and longest motion picture ever contemplated--
so reads the Mutual Film Company publicity.
An unprecedented seven 15-minute reels,
two of which will be filmed
during the upcoming Battle of Torreón,
for which Villa's forces are now preparing."
( gunfire )
Reed: "The Mutual Company promises an additional five reels
devoted to a specially written photoplay,
the factual story of the heroic life of Pancho Villa."
Pancho: Pancho! Todo es falso.
Every page is a page of lies!
I don't understand.
Mierda means shit.
I know that, I just don't know why you say that.
"Pancho Villa becomes an outlaw
when the Federales take away his father's land"?
The land of Pancho Villa's father was his grave!
You see, Mr. Aitken just feels that that's more colorful.
That's only dramatic license.
It is a license to lie!
- You don't understand. - Oh, yes, I understand.
I understand that never, never does Pancho Villa
want the world to see his sister Mariana
raped by Federales.
But that's what turned you into a rebel!
I know why I became what I became!
Pancho Villa does not have to see a movie
to find out who is Pancho Villa!
Presidente Villa--
from where does this fantasía come?
You have learned nothing from Juan Reed.
There will never be a Presidente Villa!
- Never! - But there could be.
My revolución is to feed the hungry bellies of the people,
not the ambition of Pancho Villa!
All right, but it's a wonderful scene!
( shouts in Spanish )
Okay.
We can make it a dream sequence.
Pancho Villa's dream is for a man of education
to be presidente of Mexico.
Your Presidente Wilson, he was a professor, sí?
Pancho Villa is a professor of horses and soldiers!
See, that's exactly what General Grant was.
And he became president.
Grant? That drunken dog face!
He killed mexicanos like he killed his whiskey bottles!
I had no idea.
No, your history books, there are no bad americanos.
Grant, he came before there was oil to steal.
He came for the gold! He came for the silver!
He came for the azúcar! Es un insulto.
You wanna shoot the Battle of Torreón?
You bring your cameras to Torreón!
You don't shoot the life of Pancho Villa!
That Pancho Villa has never lived!
Mutual has a fortune sunk into this.
Lies are expensive, Francisco.
Señor Aitken, he tells to the world
he will tell the truth about Pancho Villa!
But this... esta basura...
this is fake garbage!
May I ask you, sir?
Did you murder William Benton?
I don't believe you did,
but a hell of a lot of your enemies
are trying to convince a hell of a lot of other folks that you did.
If you can believe Jack Reed,
there are plans in the works in Washington right now,
plans to invade Mexico
and make Chihuahua our 49th state.
Plans to finish you off, knock you off
any way they can!
You have to understand
that this is the kind of story the public expects--
that they demand.
When they go to the movies, you give them what they want.
They give you what you want.
And what you want is something
you have never needed more in your life--
their approval.
I think every time you see me,
you grow one more huevo, Francisco.
( music playing )
And... dismount, Raoul.
Everyone dismount.
Desmonten todos.
And run and greet them, welcome your hubbies home.
Ladies...
Ladies, come on!
Ladies... let's go, ladies!
Saluden, los señores.
Come on, come on, arriba.
Come on, vamos, vamos, venga, hurry.
Mr. Cabanne?
Can I get some hugs and kisses here?
Ah, abrasos, besos.
Abrasos.
Frank: Come on, vamos, vamos, venga.
Man: Ladies, come on, come on.
Oh, sweet Jesus, cut, cut, cut!
- Charlie: That's a cut, everybody. - Christy: Save it, Charlie.
It's just not in their nature, Christy.
These women are shy.
Shy, they're as wooden as fucking Indians!
Most of them are fucking Indians.
Give me five minutes.
( merry laughter and music )
Come on, let's go!
( music playing )
Christy: And dismount, Raoul.
And cue the ladies.
Man: Ladies!
( screaming )
Bueno!
He has his own train?
Yeah, that's just one more thing
he's liberated from the government,
fitted out a few hospital cars
to take care of the wounded, made one for the press.
It's like a city on wheels.
I walked it the other day, it was two miles long.
Oh, hiya, fellas.
Oh, hey, Frank.
- Charlie: Hello there. - Teddy: Hi, Charlie.
These are the Sanchez brothers,
Abraham, Anastacio.
Buenas tardes, muchachos.
Ever paralyzed anybody in Spanish before?
So this will be the lab.
We'll be able to develop our own film.
This is the editing room.
Going to be able to watch our own dailies,
which I think will make a real difference in our work.
I'm going on and on, aren't I?
- Teddy: You've changed down here. - Frank: Have I?
When I first met you, it was hard to know you were even around.
I never once had that problem with you.
I gathered.
Oh, guess I was fairly obvious.
Girls don't mind that one bit.
What do we got here, boss?
Ah, new wardrobe.
Civil war surplus?
Yeah, Aitken got a good deal on it.
You don't think these guys are gonna mind?
Dressing up like the losing side.
Ah, I think we'll keep that our little secret.
( gunshots, cheering )
Pretty impressive-- French?
75 millimeters, perfect for the job.
( fly buzzes )
( scissors snip )
I mean, really,
Mary Pickford doesn't take this long in makeup.
Mary Pickford isn't running a revolution on the side.
( chuckles ) Don't think she couldn't.
Man: Here we go.
How do I look?
( grumbles )
Christy: You're weary, General.
Trappings of power mean nothing to you.
Your every goal has been achieved.
You've avenged your family.
You've righted the wrongs against your people.
Many lives have been sacrificed,
but in the end you have saved the life
of your beloved Mexico.
But the work of a president is never done.
( echoes ) Lawrence.
And return to your desk, General.
And pick up the pen and sign the document...
good!
Lawrence, take the paper and leave.
Bow and go.
And now the weariness returns.
Can you give me a sigh, General?
Un suspiro.
( echoes ) Un suspiro.
( sighs )
Bueno, beautiful, and now your speech.
Into the camera,
into the lens that is the eye
that sees for all the world.
( speaking Spanish )
( cheering )
Chapeau to you, sir.
One take!
Viva, Villa!
Is there anything the man cannot do?
It is easy to be president in a movie.
In a movie, Pancho Villa could be the pope.
In the end, there will be other, better men
who will sit in Mexico City.
And you'll do what, surely not retire?
I think the government would open a factory
to make good saddles and bridle.
Pancho Villa, his hands are good with leather.
Pancho Villa's hands are leather.
And you would settle for just doing that?
Sí, that, and watch
that Mexico does not become
another star on the flag of your country.
And what about you?
What Pancho Villa wants? For himself?
Yeah.
A parade when he dies.
A parade of many tears and many flowers.
And for the children to miss his candy.
A funeral
with many poets and singing.
And at the end, a tomb...
a big tomb,
so they can come.
The people can come and see
that Pancho Villa will be always there for them.
Always.
( music playing )
( laughing, cheering )
( both grunting )
( shouting encouragement )
( both continue grunting )
You know I wrote this scene in my head
the very first time I laid eyes on you.
Was I okay?
You wanna try one more take?
Is it too soon?
I don't know, maybe not.
Oh, I'm sure not.
"Onward and upward," is the ticket,
that's what Mama always taught me.
Amigos...
tomorrow we leave
to begin the last chapter of the revolución.
( crowd cheering )
( cheering )
( music playing )
( speaks Spanish )
Hey!
Christy: Bravo, General, bravo.
( children speaking Spanish )
Andale, andale.
You have much to film in the battle, my friend.
The battle, sir?
The Battle of Torreón.
Oh, I won't be going with you.
No, I finished my part in this film.
I'm going to New Jersey.
- New Jersey. - To start a new one.
Really, you can call my agent.
Man: Uh, excuse me, General Villa.
( speaking foreign language )
Me, I don't go, sir.
( man speaking foreign language )
Bueno.
Ralphie, you, too, are not going?
No, sir, my work's through here, sir.
Only the camera operators are going.
Bueno, attención!
Oigan al comandante!
What's happening?
I'm not sure.
Levantarse, up!
( screaming in Spanish )
Oh!
Oh, my God, they're calling for a firing squad.
( furious shouting )
Vaya con Dios!
( sobbing )
Here, Pancho Villa is the director!
Here, Pancho Villa says who is finished
and who is not finished!
Attencion, peloteros!
Preparen!
Apuntale!
- General! - Fuego!
( rifles firing )
( all laughing )
Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay!
Ahora, now you know what you will miss at Torreón!
( laughing )
Christy, will you take this?
Too bad them actresses don't do no jazzing, huh?
Fierro! Fierro!
Oh, the hell they are!
Que pasa, cabrón, eh?!
- Órale! Órale! - Put the gun away!
Pancho: Hey!
General, these boys have been such a help to the movie,
and now you're gonna turn them into soldiers?!
No, no, no, you can't!
Is this what you want for the children of Mexico?
Schools for only some, Harvard just for yours,
death for the rest?
Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay.
Muy bien, muy bien.
One boy for you, one boy for Villa.
How could anyone possibly make that choice?
- Vamos! - Órale!
( panting )
That one for you, I'll take the winner.
( speaks Spanish )
( cheering )
( train whistle blows )
Now, we find the end of the shot.
Corte?
En miedo.
Muy bien.
( speaking Spanish )
Muchacho!
Gracias.
Toma.
Quieres?
( gunshot )
Close your stinking mouth,
pinche Huerta hijo de la chingada.
( cheering )
Ah, Villa, Villa, Villa.
( explosion )
( gunfire )
Cubrete!
( shouting )
( speaking Spanish )
You remember our agreement.
Pancho Villa forgets nothing, vaya por sus hombres.
All right, fellas... vengan, muchachos!
Abraham, get down!
All right, got your cameras?
Vamos!
( shouting, gunfire )
Ready, adelante!
Man: Apurenle, muchachos.
Everyone ready?
Start cranking!
And action!
He-yah!
Fuego!
Keep firing.
( yelling in Spanish )
Yeah! Ahoo!
( cheering )
Whoo!
( cheering continues )
( speaking Spanish )
Pancho: Oh, Francisco.
Ven, mira, ven, ven aqui, come here.
Mira, mira, mira. Aqui en El Centro,
in the belly of Torreón is the armory of Huerta.
Enough guns for Pancho Villa
to make a hundred revolutions.
At Torreón, Pancho Villa will give
to his General Ángeles and to your Señor Aitken
their mucho, mucho boom-boom, fucking boom-boom!
Excuse me, sir.
Hmm?
You're attacking from here, this is the east?
Sí.
You're firing at the Federales from the east?
Sí.
Is there any special reason for that plan, sir?
Sí, because it's mine.
What?
Your camera is gonna shoot into the sun, huh?
Your lenses are not strong enough.
Nowhere near enough, no, sir.
Maybe you can move the cameras to the side,
this way the sun can come across, huh?
Or...
Or what? Vamos, hombre, habla!
Could you possibly change your attack
so that you fire from the west instead of the east?
That would give us a much better picture.
( mumbling in Spanish )
We kill them all your way.
Tenemos un plan,
vamos a mover el culo, tengo hambre.
( speaking Spanish )
( crowd shouting )
Action, Señor Griffith?
Action.
( speaking Spanish )
Pancho: Es la libertad!
( people roaring )
Fuego!
( shouting )
( yelling in Spanish )
( machine guns firing )
( yelling in Spanish )
( groaning, screaming )
Man: Pancho Villa! Pancho Villa!
( yelling in Spanish )
( music playing )
The thing is it's always easier for an army
to defend a position than it is for one to take it.
I suppose you're right.
It took the Turks 500 years to capture Constantinople.
( distant artillery fire )
( chattering in Spanish )
General, what's this?
Ah, Francisco, if we fight the Federales
for a thousand years, we cannot beat them
unless we fight them this way.
By day we can win the battle, by night we will win the war.
Vámonos.
But you always must have known that.
Well, in the dark I can smell the Federales' fear,
with fear comes defeat.
You never really intended to honor our contract, did you?
My only contract is always with Mexico.
Yeah, it's no choice.
It's better for Pancho Villa to lose the movie
than to lose the revolución.
Echale, dinamita!
Oyeron muchachos, fuego!
( explosions )
Andale.
( revolutionaries cheering )
Mira, one take.
- ( yells in Spanish ) - Sí, señor.
What the hell was in there?
The Federales hide the ammunition in the church.
This way they go to heaven faster.
Plenty of light now, Francisco?
- ( yells in Spanish ) - ( all yelling in Spanish )
( harmonica playing )
( gunshot )
( man singing in Spanish )
Hello, sonny boy.
Hi, take some of this.
Thanks.
Got it?
Mm.
Freakin' rainwater.
That's all there is.
If you ask me, God's been pissing in it.
Hell of a show the boss put on last night, huh?
I didn't get one foot of it.
Well, there are those days, kid,
there are those days.
Sorry, Sam.
Ah, don't worry about it, you can take a Jew apart.
You can never kill him altogether.
Used to aggravate the hell out of my mother.
There's a law, you know, anybody with a tattoo,
no Jewish cemetery will let you get buried there.
As if it's going to bother somebody
in the next grave, right?
Well, I can't tell you how happy this is gonna make my mother.
( speaking Spanish )
Luis Madriegal.
Charlie, set up fast.
This is the scene we missed at Ojinaga.
Asesino, asesino, criminal!
Criminal, asesino!
Asesino!
( spitting )
( gunshot )
My God.
How could you?
Don't speak to me of God.
God has never been to Mexico!
If He has been, He has a heart of stone!
( cocks )
Go home, Frank.
All of you!
Go where to be born is to be equal.
The children of Mexico are not yet so lucky!
Llevensela!
- ( chatter ) - ( horses hooves clopping )
Photographer: Mr. Walsh.
Photographer #2: One more.
Photographer #3: Very still now. Very still.
( flash powder popping )
As far as I'm concerned, two-reel films are a thing of the past.
I can imagine a time when five reels, six reels...
Frank: It's not gonna be an easy thing
to see for us because we, uh...
Woman: Oh, Mr. Griffith...
It's D.W. Griffith, look.
Griffith: Good evening.
Nice to see you again.
Good evening. Good evening.
Onward and upward, that's the ticket.
Good evening.
( orchestra playing )
( applause )
( light music playing )
( somber music playing )
( tense music playing )
( audience applauding )
( music continues )
( audience gasping )
( gasping )
( audience murmuring )
( murmuring )
( applause )
( crowd cheering )
Jack.
I want you to know I fought against editing
that shot that way.
It means a lot to me for you to understand that.
Well, I understand the difficulty
in selling tickets to see a hero
who mows down widows in cold blood.
I even understand the commercial need
to transform an outlaw into an aristocrat...
or passing off whores as loving wives.
And barefoot peasants are entitled to freedom
only after they've been properly dressed
for the occasion.
It's a process of evolution.
It's the movies' turn
to make truth the first casualty of war.
Is there a second?
Well, if that's the first, who cares?
Why'd he kill her, Jack?
So coldly, so brutally.
It's as though he killed the whole revolution.
You know what it is to say to a whole country,
"Let me make everything that's wrong, right for you.
Let me carry you all on my shoulders"?
Eventually, you begin to resent the weight.
You'd never know that from the movie I let it become.
Well, you'll find a way to live with yourself.
You'll find a way to live with Pancho, too.
You used each other, Frank...
you two and Villa.
Together you proved that the lens
is a hell of a lot mightier than the sword.
Congratulations! Congratulations!
Wonderful film!
Hey, sonny boy!
Sam Drebben.
My God.
Sit a minute, park it.
( speaking foreign language )
Yeah, yeah, careful, sweetheart.
She's got a bladder like a faucet.
Watch what you say,
she thinks I'm a paint salesman.
Yeah, yeah, right, Ma.
Ice cream.
Okay, Ma.
Shades of Pancho Villa.
Oh, she's tougher, believe me.
Got too good a look at a Federale bayonet.
You don't still work for him, do ya?
No, no, no, not since after the revolution.
Funny guy, Pancho, gave me a letter of reference.
He said Moses should've used me for a machine gunner.
( laughs )
Wrote it with your pen, too.
Yeah, he was pretty browned off with you guys, you know?
He never did get to see that movie.
Jack Reed said that we made him look so good
that Washington held off the idea of invading Mexico.
Be that as it may, you welshed on him, kid.
I was there when you promised him a print for the widows.
Remember, and the orphans, remember?
Aitken is mad at him for breaking the contract.
Yeah, like Aitken needed an excuse to be full of shit.
Oh, some revolution.
The new fuckers are the same as the old fuckers.
Big guys up here still control everything
that's going on down there.
Both sides of the border still scared shitless
Pancho's gonna come out and start shooting again
because the revolution's turned sour.
Want my two cents, for what they're worth?
Mexico would be a hell of lot better off
if God had taken His goddamn oil
and shoved it under Brooklyn.
Abraham: "I wish very much that you had been in Parral
for the christening of my firstborn.
Anastacio Francisco,
named for my brother and for you.
I hope he will be proud to say one day
that he's a godson of Pancho Villa."
( baby crying )
( music playing )
Abraham: "At the christening party,
the general was very much as the general always was,
though some said later he was more quiet,
more thoughtful.
They say he had a premonición.
After giving my son his medal
of the Virgin of Guadalupe,
which many times over he would say really belonged to you,
he started to drive back to his hacienda grande
with his secretary and two guards.
And then in the center of Parral"...
Viva, Villa, viva, Villa.
Viva, Villa.
( gunshot )
Abraham: "Some say the government killed Pancho Villa,
some say it was the gringos,
some say it was both.
The general was dragged away like an animal.
Even in death, they're afraid of him.
He's without a grave, he has no tomb.
How will they remember him, Señor Frank?
How will the sons of Mexico remember our Pancho Villa?"
Man: Viva, Villa!
( crowd cheering )
Villa, viva!
( cheering )
Frank: Following his assassination,
the name of Pancho Villa was stricken
from all official records, statues, monuments,
even children's books.
When the government decided it was safe
to disinter his body,
it was discovered that someone had stolen his head.
In 1976, after half a century,
the remains of his remains were laid to rest in Mexico City
alongside other heroes of the revolution.
Finally, he had been given the funeral
he had always dreamed of.
As in the case of his head,
the film, "The Life of General Villa"
has been lost to posterity.
If anything at all,
Frank Thayer remains just a footnote in history.
No complaints,
it's not too bad being the footnote to a legend.
( music playing )