Viva Zapata!

:"For the 7 Year Bitch album, please see ¡Viva Zapata!."

Infobox Film | name = Viva Zapata!

|thumb
caption = Marlon Brando as Emiliano Zapata.
director = Elia Kazan
producer = Darryl F. Zanuck
writer = John Steinbeck Edgecumb Pinchon (uncredited)
starring = Marlon Brando Jean Peters Anthony Quinn
music = Alex North
cinematography = Joseph MacDonald
editing = Barbara McLean
distributor = Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
released = February 7, 1952
runtime = 113 minutes
language = English Spanish
budget =
imdb_id = 0045296

"Viva Zapata!" is a 1952 biographical film directed by Elia Kazan. The screenplay was written by John Steinbeck and Edgecumb Pinchon. It is a fictionalized account of the life of Mexican Revolutionary Emiliano Zapata from his peasant upbringing, through his rise to power in the early 1900s, to his death.

Plot

Zapata (Marlon Brando) is part of a delegation sent to complain about injustices to corrupt longtime President Porfirio Díaz (Fay Roope), but Díaz condescendingly dismisses their concerns. As a result, Zapata is driven to open rebellion, along with his brother Eufemio (Anthony Quinn). He in the south and Pancho Villa (Alan Reed) in the north unite under the leadership of naive reformer Francisco Madero (Harold Gordon).

Díaz is finally toppled and Madero takes his place, but Zapata is dismayed to find that nothing is changed. The new regime is no less corrupt and self-serving than the one it replaced. His own brother sets himself up as a petty dictator, taking what he wants without regard for the law. The ineffectual but well-meaning Madero puts his trust in treacherous General Victoriano Huerta (Frank Silvera). Huerta first takes Madero captive and then has him murdered. Zapata himself is lured into an ambush and killed.

Cast

*Marlon Brando as Emiliano Zapata
*Jean Peters as Josefa Zapata, his wife
*Anthony Quinn as Eufemio Zapata
*Joseph Wiseman as Fernando Aguirre
*Arnold Moss as Don Nacio
*Alan Reed as Pancho Villa
*Margo as Soldadera
*Harold Gordon as Francisco Indalecio Madero
*Lou Gilbert as Pablo
*Frank Silvera as Victoriano Huerta
*Florenz Ames as Señor Espejo
*Richard Garrick as Old General
*Fay Roope as Porfirio Díaz
*Mildred Dunnock as Señora Espejo

Awards

Anthony Quinn won the 1952 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

The film was also nominated for:
*Best Actor in a Leading Role - Marlon Brando
*Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - John Steinbeck
*Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White - Lyle R. Wheeler, Leland Fuller, Thomas Little, Claude E. Carpenter
*Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture - Alex North

At the 1952 Cannes Film Festival, Brando won for Best Actor, while Elia Kazan was nominated for the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film.

Production

Filming took place in Durango, Colorado, Roma, Texas, and New Mexico.

Trivia

*The film tends to romanticize Zapata and in doing so distorts the true nature of the Mexican Revolution. Zapata fought to free the land for the peasants of Morelos and the other southern Mexican states.
*Barbara Leaming writes in her biography of Marilyn Monroe that the actress tried and failed to obtain a part in this picture, presumably due to Darryl F. Zanuck's lack of faith in her ability, both as an actress and as a box office draw.
*John Steinbeck wrote a book titled "Zapata". The original screenplay was written by the author and the book contains a newly found introduction by Steinbeck, the original proposed screenplay, and the official movie script.
*This movie was the inspiration for the name of the Zapata Corporation, founded by George H. W. Bush.
*U.S. Senator John McCain has said this is his favorite movie. [http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/2007/02/08ers-weigh-in-on-their-favorite.html]

External links

*imdb title|id=0045296|title=Viva Zapata!
* [http://movies2.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?_r=1&oref=login&title1=&title2=VIVA%20ZAPATA%21%20%28MOVIE%29&reviewer=Thomas%20M.%20Pryor&v_id=52942&oref=slogin "New York Times" Review]
* [https://www.msu.edu/~puhek/classes/iss325/Viva-Zapata.html https://www.msu.edu/~puhek/classes/iss325/Viva-Zapata.html] A detailed description of the plot of the movie