Villa Rides

The Mexican revolution according to Hollywood. Scripted by Robert Towne and Sam Peckinpah, it makes some gestures towards indicating the political and personal complexities behind the career of Pancho Villa (played by Brynner with hair for once). Unfortunately, these are rather nullified by the need to centre the whole thing on an American identification figure - Mitchum as a freebooting pilot - who can serve as a focus for the statutory clichés about simple peasant loyalties and not killing people when you don't hate them. Bronson steals the picture as Villa's brutal lieutenant, who likes to shoot prisoners personally, then have his trigger-finger gently massaged by a pretty wench. Filmed in Panavision in Spain.