More. More Mr. Walsh! You've got to kill them all!
Last thing in the world...
you want is to be captured by those heathen redskins!
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!
Good, that's a cut everybody!
- Next set-up, Charlie. - Yes, Mr. Griffith.
Let's have the tent in Duffy.
Fly in Geronimo, boys!
Get into the copper molding, now.
Ready, go get those horses.
I know you're freezing.
We're all freezing.
There he is, Frank.
Ask him over, gently.
The sooner we do this, the sooner we're finished.
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.
Duffy, how're we getting along with Mr. Walsh?
- Hello. - A little bit higher than usual.
Up 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's filming...
nothing is of greater importance to Griffith?
Mr. Hotshot.
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.
- Villa. - The Pancho Villa?
Right. Well, according to Eli, Villa, is offering exclusive rights...
to any motion picture company interested in filming...
his revolutionary army, with Division del Nortee.
Del Nortay.
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...
21% of the profits. And he wants the money in gold.
Quite the horse trader.
Isn't he supposed to be some kind of Indian or something?
He's mestizo. 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'd get sick to their stomachs with 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...
You're in charge of gloves, are you?
Harry.
Thousands of words might be devoted to an individual and...
his achievements. But the historian's pen, over time...
will be no match for the image the moviemaker captures...
in the eye of his camera.
Twenty percent of the profits for some guy who's never...
done a movie before?
There's not a day that passes, my dear Harry, when 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 box office.
You wouldn't consider going down there and try getting us...
a better deal? A 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? You think he's ready to...
do something useful?
Who?
Who we talking about?
Your nephew.
Frank?
Anyone else bidding on the rights, Mr. Morton?
- Here, let me get that. - Thanks.
Any other movie companies showing an interest, that you know of?
We got the inside track. Money does a whole lotta...
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'll wake up deader'n 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.
Gotta work out our slip over the border.
Find out wherever he's hidin' 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.
That's not gunfire, is it?
Step right in here, Mr. Thayer.
Let's get you boys a ringside seat at the Revolution.
C'mon up. Chester, you with us? Let's get a look.
Go up to the front. Come on.
Let's go right up here. Excuse us for a sec.
Colonel, how you doin', do you mind? Thank you very much, these guys're...
from back east, they've never seen... Thank you very much.
Come on, step right up.
- Here we go. - Thank you.
Feels almost like watching a show from up here, doesn't it?
Well it's a bit more than play acting, Sir.
Fight 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.
- 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.
Shows you what Pancho Villa thinks of Americans owning Mexican oil.
Bastard doesn't care his property burns.
There he is, there's your bloody Robin Hood of Mexico.
Throw it, There it goes. Throw it!
There!
Where?
There!
What's he doing? He's only taken half the town.
D.W. Griffith!
- Good night fellas. - Good night, Frank.
- Get some sleep. - Get out of here.
Wait. I've never been on a horse.
You will like it.
Come on.
Why did the studios send this clown?
Was Charlie Chaplin too busy to come see Pancho Villa?
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?
Where is Mr. Griffith?
- He wants to know... - Yeah, Griffith, he wanted to come.
He truly did, only, he's kind of involved right now.
And this guy's just fuckin' around down here, right?
Pancho Villa doesn't trust someone who won't look him straight...
in the eyes.
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 tellin' stories about this guy.
What's that you have on your tie?
What's that, all over your tie?
It's my school emblem.
It's from his school.
My college's.
Yes.
College.
To which college do you go?
Did, sir. Harvard in Boston.
Yes. That's the school where you make presidents. Yes?
A few have attended. Yes sir.
One day, Pancho Villa will send his son to Boston, Harvard.
Pancho Villa has enough sons to fill all the universities
of the United States.
He says he's knocked out enough sons to fill every college in America.
Come on.
Is that the gold?
Cash, would have been a whole lot lighter I can assure you.
Last person tried to give him cash, Pancho cleaned off his glasses...
with a bullet.
- And the contract? - Yes, sir. It's right here, sir.
Those are the glasses.
One for you, one for me.
Angel.
Look.
Do you understand this?
The important stuff.
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 jazzin' your brains out, are ya?
Fucking white-boys.
What is this trick about the percentage of the profits?
- What? - It says here ten percent.
- It is supposed to be twenty. - What?
What's this 10% of the profits bullshit?
- His cut's supposed to be twenty. - Ten?
- That's a mistake. I'll fix that. - You lie to Pancho Villa
You 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, la plume.
El plumo. Whatever you call it.
Let me change all these tens here into twenties here, okay?
Here we are, fixed.
Twenty.
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 Senior Hearst. He only writes bad words about
Pancho Villa, in his newspapers.
In his newspapers.
- Right. - But, people...
I think, they believe more what they see
on the picture screen. When your president...
Wilson sees my movie, he will know he must support Pancho Villa.
He will see a Pancho Villa is a good guy. That he's not like...
Presidente Huerta. Son of a bitch. That donkey fucker!
That donkey fucker.
- Got it. - Good.
Well...
We will celebrate, boys.
Sweetie where is the ice cream?
Sure.
I hope he's not gonna be offended. I'm not much of a drinker.
Don't worry about it. He never touches the stuff.
So, you are a Frank.
- That's 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?
Thank you.
White boy.
Hello, young lady.
Thank you.
You've been driving me crazy lately.
Oh, you are...
I've never seen anyone like him.
There is nobody like him, sonny boy.
If there was, he would blow their brains out.
How do we do this?
You got a plan, Frank?
Besides praying a lot?
I think you all just, fan out. Catch whatever you can.
Other than bullets, you mean?
Those crazy bastards are not gonna last ten minutes out there.
Get an angle right here.
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.
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.
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.
Another day, another dollar.
Now!
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 meddling in politics, foreign or domestic.
To 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.
Bloody hell.
Francisco, you're not dead yet?
Still alive, sir.
Let's go!
To the battle, my general!
Get him.
Fire!
Hurry. Look, there is candy.
These are just civilians, aren't they?
Yeah. You make a mistake in supportin' Pancho Villa...
you wind up being a tree ornament.
Ortega!
So it will be, my General.
Now, boys.
Ah, what a General.
Saves ammunition.
Keep Straight! Captain's mine.
Next patient.
Let's see, hold the kids. Come on, pick them up.
We're lucky. Oh, here then, go on.
Go on and play. Go on, let's go.
The priest here...
Father, father, little father.
General Villa.
Well, thank you very much.
Come.
Let's see what confession you will give me today.
Do you know the girl?
She's one of my followers.
You know how old she is? She is 14 years old.
- Kid's gonna have a playmate soon. - Speak to me about the Virgin.
- Somebody knocked her up. - Elle should be a virgin
like the Virgin. Why is she not a virgin today?
Get on your knees, man!
Now we will confess. Mary the purest...
Conceived without sin...
No, conceived without sin, Little Father.
- That figures. - What?
Come on!
The Father's the father.
I didn't hear you. No one heard you! Apologize to her publicly!
- I will take charge of the family. - You will take charge of the family.
He's swearing to take care of the kid and the baby
however long they need it for.
Open your mouth.
You disgrace.
Satisfied, Father? Come on.
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.
Well, 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 Wall Street ten times over.
Healing Jews and fighting Jews.
Morris Raschbaum, surgeon from Indiana.
Sam Drebben, machine gunner from the Bronx.
General Angeles 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 us in Villa's orbit. All of us in Villa's thrall.
"If Adelita would go to the wake"
"I would follow through land and ocean"
"If she prepared my drink for the battle"
"If she returns, my faith in the war"
You take home a nice souvenir. Right, friend?
A souvenir. But be careful.
Rosita give you some crawly souvenir in your underwear.
My General, I come to ask for help. My husband and...
sons have been killed.
Don't worry.
Her husband got killed in the fighting today.
Help me.
And their younger son too.
Charlie.
Get this.
I appreciate it.
Just go.
He just gave her more money than her old man saw...
in his entire life.
Frank.
What will they think, Juanito, my American friends...
when they see the movie of Pancho Villa?
I think Mr. Doheny is going to be very impressed, indeed.
For Pancho Villa, Mexican ground is sacred.
For Doheny, it's what's underground.
He worships the ground that is Mexico.
Doheny worships what's underneath it.
Your Senior Hearst is also very nervous. Sit down.
Very nervous.
You know how much he owns of Mexico
Francisco? Senior Hearst, how many acres?
Seven million.
More like eight.
Eight million acres?
How many head of cattle have you stolen from him?
Sixty thousand he says.
You are loco, Juanito, 60,000.
50,000 maybe. Maybe 50,000, the most.
So, Francisco, today was not too...
How do you say boring?
- 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 balls.
Even though a few of them got a little wet.
Yes. Good, well, a little medal.
You will help.
Because of you, Americans will know there is hope...
south of the border.
You will help Americans know that hope does not stop at the border.
It's my Virgin of Guadalupe.
I'm deeply honored, sir.
You should be.
He says you should be.
Because you have the only virgin left around here.
You've got the only virgin left around here.
Come on.
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.
They'd a bit the dust a lot better if D.W. Griffith had directed it.
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.
Despite its technical flaws, clearly more people will discover
Pancho Villa from a few feet of the crude historic film...
than from the reams that have been written about his struggle to rid...
Mexico of its greedy robber-barrens. 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 ringer.
Pardon me.
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.
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...
Frank. I'll take the pastrami on rye.
than in telling the real truth about...
the self-styled General Villa and his rag-tag 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 simple star-struck cowboy.
Gimme 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 twenty.
Frank, it's midnight.
Before he was twelve, he was already being hunted by the law.
Now there are places in Mexico where he is the law.
Don't make me fire you twice in one week, Frank.
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? 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 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 the funny stuff down in Mexico, Frank?
Who in their right minds is gonna wanna 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.
And 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 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.
If only they didn't all look so crumby down there.
For ten cents people are gonna wanna see a hell of a lot more than...
a bunch of barefoot buggers jumping around on a cactus.
We can help 'em 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.
- Over here. - Over there.
Hey, bring the safe that is over there in the top rooms.
Almost?
Take it, it's yours.
He doesn't want it.
Okay.
Good.
Don Luis.
Sign it now, man!
Let's go, move.
- Pancho. - Yes?
Here.
Francisco.
Hello, sir.
Francisco Two, do I know you were coming?
I sent a telegram.
When I see it, then I will know you are here.
I miss you many times my friend. Many times.
I've missed you.
Yeah, good. Good. The virgin, does she answer your prayers?
Not with my Spanish, she doesn't.
Yes, no Spanish. Never, Spanish. Mexicano.
Two things Spain give to my people...
the church and the whip.
You should write a book.
Maybe I have to read one or two first.
A copy of your film.
This is the battle of Ojinaga.
- 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 problem. I am very well.
House of great wealth? No one drop of ice cream.
Yes.
If my father saw us here, me and my brother, he would say...
before your head grows a boot.
A room like this, such a room, could be only for a Don.
Or for a foreigner.
Into a room like this my father could only crawl to beg for...
some food for himself, for his family.
There are books here that weighed more than he did...
when he died.
Welcome back...
to Mexico.
- Are you alright, Francisco? - Yes, thanks.
Is the horse riding you well?
Tell me...
You did not come all this way
only to bring me my film?
It would be an honor for Mr. Aitken, if you would make another film for...
The Mutual Company.
Another movie? You want to make another movie with Pancho Villa?
Yes, sir. Same deal as last time, same money.
The 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.
Not one movie of Don Quixote.
And Senior 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.
That's the best place for enemies. High up where you can see them.
You'd be doing me a very, very big favor.
No, remember Don Quixote, my friend. A man mustn't fight windmills.
A man must not fight windmills.
Villa, positively not interested.
Returning New York immediately. Awfully sorry. Did my level best.
Frank N. Thayer.
N, for nephew.
Villa!
Mr. Benton, what's the story, my friend?
Don't gimme that happy peon lark. You're on my land.
You and your bloody banditos think you could just...
ride off here, with my horses and...
my guns, aye amigo?
No.
Soldiers of Pancho Villa...
are no bandits.
You've been robbing me blind and you bloody well know it.
50,000 head of my cattle.
And not so much as one bloody fucking peso. Thank you very much.
Now these, tinhorn beanocrats down here may put up with the crap...
- you dish out. - But you've finished...
shitting on this white man.
Understand?
Yes.
I understand.
Fierro.
Yes, my General?
Move that thing over here!
Where is over there? Where does it go?
He's sending corn.
Poor baby.
Heavenly.
David, did you read Hearst today?
I've got it right here.
"The cold-blooded murder in Mexico of English ranch owner
William Benton, was the latest example of the socialist Villa's...
rabid hatred of foreigners..."
"reinforces the Hearst Corporations' demand that the civilized nations
of the world act with all haste, to introduce the self-styled general...
to the business end of the rope."
Upon this so-called General.
Mr. Aitken.
No introductions. It's the way I like it.
Does the General have any questions?
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 a.m. and 5 p.m.
- Agreed. - 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.
Si. Cut, print, iris in, iris out, pan... It's very simple.
- Si. - It's very simple.
Very good, sir.
In the event that a major exchange cannot be filmed, you'll 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.
Yes, okay.
You stay here. Because without you, this won't fly.
I will be with you, every second of the day.
Problem?
He wants to make sure Frank's gonna be workin' on this one too.
Oh, good.
No Francisco, no Francisco.
I promise you, General, this fine young man is gonna be...
with you every damn momentum of the day.
- Momento. - Whatever you need.
Whatever you want. This is gonna be your man.
Every bit as he's gonna be mine.
Very good. Come on.
It's right here, sir.
Twenty-five thousand.
Twenty-five thousand, as before.
I take it we have a deal, sir?
- One moment. - One moment.
The soldiers of Pancho Villa have left behind many
orphans and widows.
Lots of widows and orphans.
He's up to his ass in them.
They are very sad. They are very poor.
The General is most sensitive.
Yes. Know what?
A leader must be very...
sensitive. Very sensitive.
You must give to Pancho Villa, went into Mexico City.
After the Revolucion.
How do you say, a copy of the movie?
- A print? - A print.
For an important evening.
He wants his own print.
I think he wants to have his own premiere, down here.
Exactly.
Pancho Villa too, needs nickels.
Many nickels for the ghosts who lost so much, and for...
the ghosts who lost so many.
I will be very happy to write that into the agreement...
this very minute, sir.
It's not necessary.
My good sir. For Pancho Villa, your hand is your word.
Certainly.
Of course.
It's my pleasure, sir.
It's time to wash the clothes.
Fucker.
I'm hungry.
Hiya Duffy.
Hey, Frank.
Hope your trip was okay. Nice to see you...
At least we made it.
Hiya Charlie, how are ya?
Where's the Scotch, Frank?
Didn't you bring it?
See you've got gloves this time.
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.
Welcome to Mexico.
And this is Miss Teddy Sampson, who will play...
the role of your sister.
Very pretty.
My dear, very pretty.
And this is Miss Irene Hunt, who will be your mother.
Hello mother.
And Charlie Rosher, of course, you know from Ojinaga.
Are your balls all dry now, Charlie?
For the moment.
And this, sir, is Mr. Raoul Walsh.
General.
He'll be playing the young Pancho Villa.
Tell me Rall-Walsh.
You know which end of the horse shits?
Let's go, come on!
Good.
Over there. More.
This is better.
Good, American.
You can be me.
[Spanish]
Okay, call camera, and action.
And say goodbye, mom. Very nice, yes, sis...
go get you a little of that.
And lovely. Okay, yeah.
It's farewell Pancho, let's go.
And he goes...
and...
cut! Okay.
- Very nice... - Duffy could I have some water?
Get a more of a routine goodbye, Raoul.
Listen, your character has no way of knowing what tragic events
the day is gonna bring.
- So, keep it big, make it small. - Christy, I wanna suggest...
Okay? Adrienne, give me a wee bit less, just hearts...
- no flowers. Okay? - Yes sir.
One more, people.
As fast as possible, please. Make-up, okay. Let's go people.
I was just thinking, that maybe...
No, don't think, darling!
Just act, okay? Let's just make a movie here.
That's enough, okay?
Look, he's a Mexican. Mexicans sweat, he's fine.
Leave him alone.
- Carl, crank 'em. - Okay.
And, from the kiss, please. And, action.
Much better.
And sis, lovely.
Okay, and farewell Pancho.
Off he goes.
Goodbye, Pancho. That's good. Okay, one last look.
At mom and sis, fond look. Fond, you love 'em, good.
Wham, bam, out the door. And, perfect!
Cut, print, beautiful.
Next set-up, McBeth?
Unquestionably the most expensive and longestmotion picture ever...
contemplated. So reads the Mutual Film Company Publicity.
An unprecedented, seven, fifteen-minute reels. Two of which...
will be filmed in the upcoming battle of Torreon, for which Villa's...
forces are now preparing.
Don't point it first.
The Mutual Company promises an additional five reels devoted to...
a specially written photoplay.
The factual story, of the heroic life of Pancho Villa.
Fake!
It's all fake!
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 Marianna, 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! - Okay, alright.
Presidente Villa.
From where does this fantasy come?
You have learned nothing from Juan Reed!
There will never be a Presidente Villa!
- Never! - But there could be.
The Revolution is to feed the hungry bellies of the people...
not the ambition of Pancho Villa.
It's a wonderful scene.
They're lies!
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, yes?
Pancho Villa is a professor of horses and soldiers.
See, that's exactly what General Grant was.
And he became pesident.
- Grant? - Yeah.
That drunk, dogface.
He killed Mexicanos like he killed his whisky bottles.
I had no idea.
No, in 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 their sugar! It's an insult!
You want to shoot the battle of Torreon?
You bring your cameras to Torreon!
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.
SeÃ±or Aitkin, he tells to the world, he will tell the truth
about Pancho Villa!
This?
This trash? This is fake garbage.
May I ask you, sir.
Did you murder William Benton?
I don't believe you did.
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 fortieth 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 testicle Francisco.
And, dismount Raoul.
Everyone, dismount.
And run to greet them.
Welcome your hubbies home.
Ladies.
Ladies, come on.
- Ladies, let's go ladies! - Ladies.
Greet them, ladies.
Come on.
- Up. - Let's go
Let's go, come.
Hurry.
Mr. Cabanne.
Can I get some hugs and kisses, here?
Hugs, kisses.
Arms!
Come on. Let's go. Come.
Ladies, come on.
Oh, sweet Jesus. Cut!
Cut!
- That's a cut everybody! - Hate it Charlie.
That'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. Gimme five minutes.
Come on, let's go.
And, dismount, Raoul.
And cue the ladies.
Ladies.
Good.
He has his own train.
Yeah, it's just one more thing he's liberated from the government.
Fitted out a few hospital cars, take care of the wounded.
Made one for the press.
Like a city on wheels. I walked it the other day. It was two miles long.
- Oh, hi fellas. - Oh, hey, Frank.
- Hello there. - Hey, look.
Hi, Charlie.
These are the Sanchez brothers. Abraham, Anastasio.
Good afternoon, boys.
Ever paralyze anybody in Spanish before?
So, this'll be the lab.
We'll be able to develop our own film.
This is the editing room.
We're going to be able to watch our own dailies, which I think...
will make a real difference in our work.
Going on and on aren't I?
- You've changed down here. - 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.
Guess I was fairly obvious.
Girls don't mind that one bit.
He's back there. Brother, over here.
What do we got here boss?
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?
I think we'll keep that our little secret.
Pretty impressive.
French, 75 millimeters. Perfect for the job.
I mean really.
Mary Pickford doesn't take this long in make-up.
Mary Pickford isn't running a revolution on the side.
Don't think she couldn't.
Here we go!
How do I look?
[Spanish]
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.
Lawrence!
And return to your desk, General.
And pick up the pen.
And sign the document.
Good.
Lawrence get the paper and leave. Bow and go.
And now the weariness returns.
Can you give me a sigh, General?
A sigh.
Good. Beautiful.
And now your speech.
Into the camera.
Into the lens that is the eye that sees for all the world.
Chapeau to you, sir! One take!
May Villa live!
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 bridles.
Pancho Villa, his hands are good with leather.
Pancho Villa's hands are leather.
And you would settle for just doing that?
Yes.
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, many tears and many flowers.
And for the children to miss his candy.
A funeral
many poets and singing.
And at the end, a tomb.
A big tomb.
They can come.
The people can come and see, Pancho Villa.
Will be always there, for them.
Always.
Come on.
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.
I'm sure not.
Onward and upward's the ticket. That's what mom always taught me.
Friends...
Tomorrow we leave...
to begin the last chapter of the Revolucion.
Repeat!
I put Lucinda under your care.
- Bravo, General. Bravo. - Let's see what's in here.
Come on!
You have much to film, in the battle, my friend.
The battle, sir?
The battle of Torreon.
Oh, I won't be going with you.
No, I finished my part in this film.
I'm going to New Jersey.
New Jersey?
Start a new one.
Really. Y'can call my agent.
Excuse me, General Villa.
[Hausa]
Me... I don't go, sir.
[Foreign language]
Good.
Duffy
you too?
You're not going?
No, sir. My, my work's through here, sir.
Only the camera operators are going.
Good.
Attention!
Tell me my commander.
What's happening?
I'm not sure.
Get up. Up!
A mock firing squad.
Come on, fucker! Take that one, and the other!
Oh, my God.
Calling for a firing squad.
Him too. Bring him!
Go with God.
Here, Pancho Villa is the director.
And Pancho Villa says who is finished and who is not finished.
Attention, jokester!
Ready!
Aim!
General!
Fire!
Now you know what you will miss at Torreon.
Christy, will you take this?
Too bad them actresses don't do no jazzin', huh?
There go three!
Fierro!
The hell they are.
What's come over you, fucker?
- Put the gun away. - Move it!
General, these boys have been such a help to the movie, and now...
you're gonna turn them into soldiers?
- Let's go. - No. No, you can't
Is this what you want for the children on Mexico?
Schools for only some?
Harvard, just for yours? Death for the rest?
Very well.
One boy for you. One boy, for Villa.
How can anyone possibly make that choice?
Come on!
That one for you.
I'll take the winner.
Get that bony one on the train. Let's go.
Here.
Now we find the end of the shots.
Cut?
In the middle.
Right here.
It's ten kilometers, from here, to this other side.
Anastasio.
Thank you.
Close your stinking mouth. Fucking Huerta, son of a bitch.
Villa.
Take cover!
- Let's go! - Follow me.
You remember our agreement?
Pancho Villa forgets nothing. Go get your men.
Be a little slower.
All right fellas, which is the cam...
Come on, guys!
- Get down! - Abraham, get out.
Alright, got your cameras?
Let's go!
Ready! Shoot!
Hurry with the cannons!
Everyone ready!
Start cranking!
And...
Action!
Fire!
Keep firing.
Bastards!
That point!
Don't leave!
Yeah!
Wooo!
Give me more dough.
Francisco!
Come look.
Come, come here.
Come here. Look. Here, in the center.
In the belly, of Torreon is the armory of Huerta.
Enough guns for Pancho Villa to make a hundred revolutions.
At Torreon, Pancho Villa will give to his General Angeles, and
to your SeÃ±or Aitken. Del mucho, mucho, boom-boom, fucking boom-boom.
Excuse me, sir.
You're attacking from here.
- This is the East? - Yes.
You're firing at the Federales from the East?
Yes.
Is there any special reason for that plan, sir?
Yes. Because it's mine.
What?
Your cameras cannot shoot into the sun?
Your lenses are not strong enough.
Nowhere near enough, no sir.
Maybe you can move the cameras to the sides.
This way the sun can come across.
Or...
Or what? Come on, man, talk!
Could you, possibly change your attack so that you fire...
from the west, instead of the east?
That would give us so much better a picture.
True?
It will be difficult, my General.
Yes, it's really fucking difficult, Villa.
Well, it will be difficult but we can do it.
Huerta has a lot of men there.
How much time?
Two hours, my General, to destroy their arsenal.
Good.
We kill them all your way.
We have a plan! Let's move our asses! I'm hungry.
I'll be there.
Come down.
Like this, look.
We have everything ready here.
Here comes, the General.
Here he comes!
Long live Mexico!
Action, Mr. Griffith?
Action.
Let's go dance!
It's for the PAN!
Let's go!
Fight!
Roll cameras!
Fire!
Careful guys!
Down horse!
Remember the General!
Shoot for the windows!
Leave it! Let's go!
Pancho Villa! Pancho Villa!
No!
Careful with the Major!
Whoever arrives!
The thing is, it's always easier for an army to defend
a position, than it is for one to take it.
Suppose you're right. It took the Turks 500 years
to capture Constantinople.
Here comes the American.
Give him a wake-up call.
General.
What's this?
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.
Let's go.
But you always must have known that.
In the dark I can smell the Federales' fear.
Fear comes defeat.
You never really intended to honor our contract, did you?
No. My only contract is always with Mexico.
Yeah, is no choice. Is better for Pancho Villa...
to lose the movie than to lose the Revolucion.
You heard him guys. Fire!
Come on.
Look. Bull's eye.
- Bring me the cavalry! - Yes sir.
What the hell was in there?
The Federales hide their ammunition in the church.
This way, they go to heaven faster.
Plenty of light now, Francisco? Let's go over there!
Put salt on it, there.
Hello sonny boy.
Hi.
Get some rest.
Thanks.
There, you got it?
Freakin' rain water.
It's all there is.
If you ask me, God's been pissin' in it.
Hell of a show the boss put on last night, huh?
I didn't get one foot of it.
There are those days, kid. There are those days.
Sorry, Sam.
Don't worry about it. You can take a Jew apart, but you
can never kill 'em all together.
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 gonna bother somebody in the next grave. Right?
Well I can't tell you how happy this is gonna...
make my mother.
My General!
I beg you!
What happened? Leave her, leave her alone. Leave her...
leave her alone. Tell me.
Calm down.
Luis. Luis Madrigal.
Es usted...
- No. - Thank you.
It's okay.
Charlie, is that a fast?
This is the scene we missed at Ojinaga.
I have to deal with this.
He was killed ten minutes ago.
I'm sorry lady. I'm sorry, war is that way, I didn't invent it.
Alright, hold on.
Assassin!
Calm down lady.
Assassin, criminal, criminal! Assassin.
Look at this. She's crazy, this one.
[Spanish]
Got it.
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.
Go home Frank.
All of you!
Go, where, to be born, is to be equal.
The children of Mexico...
are not yet so lucky.
Take her away.
Mr. Walsh!
One more!
Very still now, very still!
I went with a... Two reel films are a thing of the past?
I could imagine a time when, five reels, six reels...
It's not gonna be an easy thing to see, for us because we...
That's what he said.
Mr. Griffith.
Mr. Duncan, Mr. Griffith is here.
Nice to see you again.
Good evening.
Onward and upward, that's the ticket.
Good evening.
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.
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 bare-foot 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?
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 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.
You'll find a way to live with yourself.
You'll find a way to live with Pancho too.
You used each other, Frank.
Mutual and Villa.
Together you proved that the lens...
is a hell of a lot mightier than the sword.
One more. Thank you. Thank you very much. Congratulations.
Hey, sonny boy!
Sam Drebben.
My God.
Sit a minute. Park it.
Yeah. Careful sweetheart. She got a bladder like a faucet.
Watch what you say, she thinks I'm a paint salesman.
Yeah. Right, mom.
- Ice cream. - Okay, ma.
Shades of Pancho Villa.
She's tougher, believe me.
Got too good a look at a Federale bayonet.
You don't still work for him, do you?
No. Not since after the revolution.
Quite a guy, Pancho. Gave me a letter of reference.
He said Moses should have used me for machinegun.
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 welched on him, kid. I was...
there when you promised him a print for the widows.
Remember? And the orphans. Remember?
Problem. Aitken was mad at him, for breaking the contract.
Yeah, like Aitken needed an excuse to be full of shit.
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.
Plus the Revolution's gone sour.
Want my two cents, for what they're worth?
Mexico would be a hell of a lot better off...
if God had taken his Goddamn oil...
and shoved it under Brooklyn.
I wish very much that you had been in Parral for...
the christening of my first born...
Anastasio Francisco.
Named for my brother and for you.
I hope he will be proud to say one day...
that he's the Godson of Pancho Villa.
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 premonition.
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 big hacienda
with his secretary and two guards.
And then, in the center of Parral...
Up with Villa!
Long live Villa!
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 are afraid of him.
He's without a grave. He has no tomb.
How will they remember him, Senor Frank?
How will the sons of Mexico remember our Pancho Villa?
Long live Villa!
Pancho Villa!
Long live Villa!
Villa!
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'd been given the funeral he'd 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 a footnote to a legend.