Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Coventry "Villa Rides" is what happens when you allow Hollywood people to reproduce the Mexican Revolution! I can still tolerate the humor that white-faced heroes like Yul Brunner and Charles Bronson are depicting full-blooded Mexican gunslingers, but one thing we cannot possibly accept is that Yul Brunner - genuine tough guy and symbol of manliness – plays a character with a head full of hair! What a disgrace! It's the end of the world as we know it! It's … basically a very entertaining western, even though the almighty Brunner is slightly miscast. I'm also not an expert regarding the life and work of Francisco "Pancho" Villa (and too lazy to read the entire Wikipedia page) but the film draws an admirable picture of his political as well as his personal convictions during the earlier stages of La Revolución. However, cinematic mastodons Robert Towne and Sam Peckinpah also decided it would be a good idea to throw an all-American action figure into the battle (presumably to help the audience identify with the story a little bit) in the shape of Robert Mitchum. He portrays a sly pilot providing the Mexican army with weapons, but following a crash and a crush he is gradually forced to join the rebellious side. "Villa Rides" is worth recommending to fans of the action & western genre for only two reasons already. The battle sequences are impressively shot, with hundreds of extras, imaginative camera angles and brutal violence. And then most of all: Charles Bronson! Charlie clearly enjoys what is probably one of the most amusing roles of his career; Villa's loyal right hand lieutenant and unscrupulous executioner Rodolfo Fierro. He makes the process of shooting prisoners entertaining (by giving five people at once a slim chance to escape over a wall) as well as money-saving (by killing three prisoners in a row with just one bullet). If you're still not convinced just yet, Herbert Lom and Fernando Rey shine in masterful supportive roles and "La Cucaracha'" is on the soundtrack, too!

zardoz-13 "Magnificent Seven" co-stars Yul Brynner and Charles Bronson team up again as Mexican bandits-turned-freedom fighters in veteran television director Buzz Kulik's south-of-the-border epic "Villa Rides," a quasi-historical drama about Pancho Villa and the Mexican revolution during the early 20th century. Robert Towne of "Chinatown" fame and Sam Peckinpah wrote the cynical, bullet-riddled screenplay based on William Douglas Lansford's entertaining biography. Indeed, some scenes--such as Bronson's character lining three soldiers up in a row and shooting three of them at once--occurred in the book. Brynner is typically charismatic as Villa, while Bronson is appropriately Neanderthal as Villa's second-in-command Rodolfo Fierro. Fierro was a trigger-happy hombre in real-life and was always prepared to shoot first and ask questions later. Ostensibly, to give American audiences somebody with which to identify, the filmmakers cast Robert Mitchum as an aviator running guns to the villains. Later, he is captured by Villa's forced and scheduled for execution until the protagonist allows him to live to fly for them. Kulik orchestrates several major action scenes in this sprawling shoot'em up and delivers them with sufficient gusto, helped considerably by composer Maurice Jarre's rip-snorting musical soundtrack and "Bridge on the River Kwai" cinematographer Jack Hildyard's scenic lensing with Spain substituting for Mexico. Spaghetti western villain Frank Wolff has some memorable scenes, especially his death scene where he tries to hide in a well and the heroes lob a package of explosives into it.

bkoganbing So far I haven't seen one film about Pancho Villa that got it right and Villa Rides is definitely one of them. Perhaps the proposed biographical film that Johnny Depp will star in might do Villa some justice.Yul Brynner and Robert Mitchum co-star in Villa Rides with Brynner in the title role. Mitchum plays your typical soldier of fortune although in his case he's a pilot of fortune. He's a pilot of one of those new fangled airplanes and it is through his eyes we see the story of the film unfold.A damaged aircraft delays Mitchum in Mexico after making a delivery and before he knows it, he's hip deep in the revolution that is going on in Mexico. At this point in his career Villa is one of several guerrilla chiefs supporting the new republic and the presidency of the idealistic Francisco Madero played here by Alexander Knox. Madero himself was a strange and fascinating character, one day he might get a biographical film study of his tragic life.The Mexican Revolution of the teen years saw the country give way to anarchy with Villa eventually becoming one of several generalissimos controlling a piece of Mexican turf. As Villa operated in the extreme north of the country it was his bad fortune to later on raid into the USA and get Woodrow Wilson to send our army after him.Here at the beginning Villa though after Mitchum talks his way into not being shot by his forces, Brynner sees the value of Mitchum's airplane as a weapon of war. He puts one of his aides Charles Bronson to ride herd on Mitchum and the two of them don't get along at all.According to Lee Server's book on Mitchum they didn't get along all that well during the filming. Another Mitchum, brother John Mitchum wrote in his memoirs that Bronson was a very reserved sort who guarded his privacy strictly. They apparently had no problem on the set of Bronson's film Breakheart Pass which John Mitchum had a small part.Mitchum and Brynner got along however which was not always the case with Brynner. Yul Brynner was a man of some mystery who liked it that way, he was and could be standoffish with fellow players, but apparently he and Mitchum worked well together in their only joint film.The film was shot in Spain and I have to say the battle sequences were very well staged. They are the best part of Villa Rides.A good, but not a great film. I do have to wonder that when Black Jack Pershing came into Mexico later on after the action of this film concluded, might not Mitchum be in a real jackpot fighting against the American army at that point.

jpdoherty VILLA RIDES (1968) turns out to be something of a big disappointment! And even though Sam Peckinpah had a hand in the screenplay, along with Robert Towne, it still emerges as a leadenly written movie dryly directed by the undistinguished Buzz Kulik. Firstly, top billed Yul Brynner as Pancho Villa is wrong for the part! He's not charismatic enough to play the great Mexican revolutionary! His one note performance lacks the fire and gusto Anthony Quinn or Gilbert Roland could have brought to the role. Brynner simply looks like a Russian aristocrat dressed up like a Mexican bandit who is in the middle of the Mexican revolution instead of the Russian one. Also, second billed Robert Mitchum is totally wasted in the picture! His part as a biplane flying ace lobbing home-made bombs from the air in the cause of the revolution is a poorly written meager role that could have been played by any minor star. Mitch hasn't a decent line in the entire movie and brings to one's mind his other Mexican revolution picture the far superior "Bandido" (1956) which unfortunately nobody seems to have any interest in releasing on DVD. Besides lacking any kind of style "Villa Rides" also suffers badly without the presence of a female star! There is starlet Grazia Buccella as a young Mexican girl who gives Mitchum the glad eye but her casting is merely perfunctory. Someone like Claudia Cardinale or Jean Peters could have perhaps added a couple of badly needed notches to the faltering story line.There are a couple of good action scenes in the movie but a couple of good action scenes do not a movie make and the less than perfect Panavision picture quality plus the over repetitive Maurice Jarre theme tune doesn't help matters.As is Paramount's wont there are no extras - not even a trailer! Yup, a disappointing movie and DVD presentation that could have been and should have been a whole lot better.