ThrillMessage There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

pifas Arau is crazy. If just based on the cast was enough to cause goose bumps out of fright, to the cavalcade of so called actors adds an insane plot that goes nowhere. This film tries to enhance the patriot feeling the caudillo from Morelos wore proudly, but in the end is pretentious, with bad structure and an even worst labor from the actors. The plot is incoherent even to its "magixc realism" standards, with nahuales (beings half animal half human from the ancient cultures), prehispanic references, some nuts theories and even a Zapata with more care for "fashion" than revolution itself (he's played by a popular Mexican singer); if at least this movie was entertaining all those things won't even matter, but is not, and to make it worse it has a rush feeling, as if Arau was in a hurry to end it. You can tell by the people involved that it has a doom fate, but you just can't imagine how much.

insomniac_rod Screw you Alfonso Arau. Really, screw you. This is one of the most horrible, pretentious, boring, mediocre, movie from the new Mexican cinema.How the hell could they destroy Zapata's image in a poor taste movie?! What do a fairy has to do? What is Lucerito doing? The fact that Alejandro Fernandez plays the leading role is an insult to Emiliano Zapata.This is a big budget mess that once again demonstrates that money does not means quality. This is pure trash and a story that will leave people insulted. People who have studied Zapata will really feel angry. Zapata a shaman? Really? Get your facts straight. The fact that fantasy and sci-fi were added to the movie is plain pathetic. The sci-fi elements are uncalled for for a supposedly biographical movie. Ugh. I truly hate this movie and I recommend to everyone to avoid it all costs. Seems that Arau, Fernandez, and Camil spent the budget on prostitutes and cheap booze because the f/x, art direction, and production values overall are nowhere to be seen.Mr. Arau, if you made this movie just to impress audiences from USA, and Europe well you failed miserably and now the joke's on you. Many people make jokes at your cost for making this crap.

egodinez The movie "Zapata, El Sueno del Heroe" is the second collaboration of the director Alfonso Arau with the Director of Photography Vittorio Storaro AIC,ASC.The story of the Mexican revolutionary is expressed with different colors, and each one represents a different stage of the evolution of his life and his role in the Mexican history.The different colors refers to the Aristotelian elements:fire, water, earth and air. According to the Aristotle's theory, these are the basic elements from which all the substances are generated. These four elements are forms of energy that Zapata assumes and delivers for completing his mission: the son of a simple mestizo peasant that leads the revolt of the poor farmers to the fall of the dictator Porfidio Diaz, at the cost of his life. The colors that wrap the whole lenght of the movie are astounding, with elegant and sophisticated tones, offering a color dichotomy between the terrorizing coldness of the battle scenes and a comforting warmness of the peacetime scenes.The first image of Zapata shows him dressed in black, and at the end he is dressed in white: the transition from the lightes color (black), to the heaviest color (white), is associated with the evolution of the man and the his spiritual maturity, and this dynamic develops an energy, like the one that Zapata transfers in the Mexican's people, that heartily remains even after his death. The movie hinges on a multitude of Emiliano Zapata's close-ups where initially his eyes are covered from the shadow cast by the sombrero's brim, and slowly disclosing, until the face is fully lit. Shadows hides the one that light shows: the inner man is represented in the shadow, the dark and unrevealed side of the human being, where anxieties and fears lie, but also where courage and ideas are from.The artificial light has been regulated through a dimmer console, in order to carefully adjust in real time luminosity and color, harmonizing it with a subject in a given scene. The subtler sentiments have a photographic transposition in which certain states of soul are associated to particular tonalities of light. Emiliano Zapata is a chaser and a chased, escorted by nightmares and dreams. A very intense experience in the representation of the dream/magic/nightmare lived between light and shadows, darkness and dazzle.The majority of the shots have been shot with a "normal" lens, only battle scenes have been shot with a wider-angle lens in order to amplify the tension. Elegant and smooth camera movements become much more rapid associated to unconventional camera angle during combats, following the frenetic battle pace. It's impressive the frequentness of camera movements: from the elegant dolly shots gliding around a dialog to the crane shots showing the gourgeness of the Mexican landscape or the tragedy of the battlefield, all encomiastically contributing to enhance the film's poetry.In some ways this is a movie about movement: the restless journey that Emiliano Zapata covers to live his dream, and nothing will stop him about pursing it. Zapata has a premonition,he sees himself killed in a cornfield. That moment of perturbation captures the emotion that comes for everyone: you can either choose to live in a imperturbable situation or follow your dreams, even if this will mean to face an undesired destiny.The shooting has been delegated at two cameras: one mostly set at eye-level and the other set on the crane in order to offer a different perspective of a given scene. The visual structure of the shots is irreproachable, with perfect balance, dynamics, alternation of dark and bright tonality. The Director of Photograpy has a fond love for Zapata's close-ups, which has intensely portrayed during punchy speeches or ponderous looks. Using the "Univisium" format (2:1 aspect ratio), that Vittorio Storaro developed a decade ago, which is wider than the "Wide Screen U.S."(1.85 aspect ratio) commonly used, the character is never really alone on the screen, but always surrounded by composite elements. The wider format is very effective, showing a big country like Mexico and a big person like Zapata has been, the first for territorial dimension and the second for the exceptionally of his actions that signed the course of the Mexican history.The movie indulges the love of the director Alfonso Arau, (who also wrote the movie), for the Mexican culture which finds its origins in the Aztec culture, with its natural magic, with alchemical and esoterical foundations. These cultures and disciplines, that influenced Arau's style, seems to be the point of reference that Vittorio Storaro had to keep in consideration to filtrate his vision in order to convey the director's achievements.The marvel about the movie is the way that Arau shows the temper of the different characters playing, and the meticulousness in illustrating the less-known aspects of Mexican folklore.With a distinctive cinematography, Vittorio Storaro captures both Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros artworks: an epoch that comes to life again through the light and colors of the painters of the period, showing a big picture of the early twenty century Mexican history. Every sequence is based on a specific selection of tonality, the different elements are molded in a fantastic scenery, where things are shining in the unreal light of the dream: the dream of the hero.By Andrea Giachi, Florence, Italy

juguetemalo Were to start? first of all you cant justify Arau's attempt to make a movie saying that it was about a myth and a legend, since wen the words "myth and legend" means "STUPID and RIDICULOUS"? The worst part about this is that its the first (and only movie) that makes me feel so bad, so ashamed, so... bored, disgraceful, and offended, that i walked out the theater before it makes a permanent damage on my brain.(contains spoilers)To the point i resisted seeing this "film" there was a lot of stupid historical mistakes on it, the biggest of them i can remember is the scene were the "hero", Zapata, gets hes feet burned like the emperor Moctezuma, a thing that never happened in real history.Another thing that was annoying was the old "shaman" woman, that appeared in front of Zapata from time to time, wit an special effect worthy of an old kids show called "odisea burbujas" it just made me feel like... I CANT FIND WORDS FOR IT!!!Bad acting, bad script, shameful directing, and a really sad example of what an idiot can do if they give him money to waste.