Watch Viva Zapata! (1952)

Viva Zapata! (1952)
American Film, Biography, Drama, Western, History

Winner: Prix d'interprétation masculine

Viva Zapata! is a 1952 American biographical Western film directed by Elia Kazan, dramatizing the life of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata from his peasant upbringing through his rise to power in the early 1900s and his death in 1919. It stars Marlon Brando as the title character, and features Jean Peters as his wife Josefa and Anthony Quinn as his brother Eufemio. The screenplay was written by John Steinbeck, using Edgcumb Pinchon's 1941 book Zapata the Unconquerable as a guide.

To make the film as authentic as possible, Kazan and producer Darryl F. Zanuck studied the numerous photographs that were taken during the revolutionary years, the period between 1909 and 1919, when Zapata led the fight to restore land taken from common people during the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. Kazan was especially impressed with the Agustín Casasola collection of photographs, and he attempted to duplicate their visual style in the film. Kazan also acknowledged the influence of Roberto Rossellini's Paisan (1946).

The film was released by 20th Century Fox on February 13, 1952. It received generally positive reviews from critics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, with Anthony Quinn winning for Best Supporting Actor.

This is a pretty good 1950s action/drama, considering Elia Kazan had never before or never would again direct an action movie. It's almost like a Western, except the setting is the second decade of the 20th century between the years of 1910-1919. Marlon Brando is Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata in a role that earned him an Academy Award nomination. Brando is paired once again with Kazan, who directed him the year before in A Streetcar Named Desire and would pair with him a couple of years later in Brando's Oscar winning performance in On the Waterfront. This film is well photographed by Mexican-born cinematographer Joe Macdonald, who should have been nominated for an Oscar but wasn't. In a rare role for Mexican-born Anthony Quinn to be actually playing a Mexican as Eugenio Zapata, for which he won the Academy Award for Best supporting Actor for 1952. Quinn's first nomination of four in his career and his first win of two. The film received three other nominations for Art Direction, Music and for it's John Steinbeck written Screenplay. This film is pure Hollywood however and is largely a fictional portrayal of actual events in it's romanticizing tale of one of Mexico's most beloved heroes, Zapata. Despite the story by Steinbeck, the dialog is weak. It's a good movie, but Kazan is out of his element here, Brando is miscast and Steinbeck is lazy. More on Wikipedia or Mubi

Cannes Film Festival, 1952-  Winner: Prix d'interprétation masculine
Berlin International Film Festival, 1996- Official Selection
Academy Awards, 1953- Winner: Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Nominee: Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Writing, Story and Screenplay, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
BAFTA Awards, 1953- Winner: Best Foreign Actor

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