The French Intervention on Film
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Hollywood in Mexico The French Intervention on Film |
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| JUAREZ (1939) Starring Paul Muni, Bette Davis and Brian Aherne is probably the most well known film on the subject of the French intervention in Mexico, Maximilian and Juarez. It is a classic piece from the Golden Age of Hollywood and much more than simply a biopic of Benito Juarez. Paul Muni is the intended star as Benito Juarez but it is Brian Aherne as Emperor Maximilian who steals the show and has the most screen time. Muni balked at this and had more scenes for himself put in but lingering on his wooden portrayal only serves to slow the film down whenever he appears. Despite bending the truth considerably to portray Juarez in a favorable light Emperor Maximilian still comes off as a sympathetic character. Also on hand are John Garfield as General Porfirio Diaz and Donald Crisp as Marshal Achille de Bazaine. Claude Rains delivers a typically brilliant and villainous portrayal as Emperor Napoleon III. The film leaves no doubt as to who the viewer is supposed to be rooting for with a succession of ham-fisted efforts to portray Juarez as a secular saint but the character is so dull and the story of Maximilian and Carlota (played by Bette Davis) is so much more interesting that the film really revolves around them. Bette Davis also offers up a brilliant portrayal of the doomed empress and her descent into madness must stand out as one of her greatest moments on film ever. Those interested in the period cannot afford to overlook this film no matter which side you are on in the republican-monarchist debate. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| VERA CRUZ (1954) Starring Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster, Denise Darcel and Cesar Romero is one of the most famous westerns of all time. It is one of the few American westerns about the French intervention in Mexico that actually features Emperor Maximilian (George Macready) and to be filmed on a truly grand and epic scale. It also includes a truly legendary list of actors from the western genre including Jack Elam, Ernest Borgnine and Charles Bronson. Filmed entirely in Mexico there are pyramids in the background, western duels and shootouts with the Imperial Guard. It also marked a new, more violent and realistically gritty era in western films. Former Confederate soldier Ben Trane (Gary Cooper) is the all-around American western hero and he goes to Mexico for mercenary work where he meets up with the gang of Joe Erin (Burt Lancaster) who is the black-hat wearing western anti-hero. Emperor Maximilian enlists the group to escort the Countess Duvarre (Denise Darcel) to Veracruz but they discover along the way that the Countess and the shifty Marquis Henri de Labordere (Cesar Romero) are harboring a secret; a French payroll in gold. As expected the outlaws, French and Juaristas end up fighting over the loot. Exciting, realistic and epic in scope Vera Cruz certainly deserves its reputation as one of the all-time great western movies. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| MAJOR DUNDEE (1965) Starring Charlton Heston and Richard Harris was directed by the legendary filmmaker Sam Peckinpah. It tells the story of a southern born Union officer, Major Dundee (Charlton Heston) who is commandant of a prison fortress on the southwest frontier. After an atrocious Indian attack he is determined to go into Mexico to hunt down the Apaches responsible and rescue the children they kidnapped. To do so he must enlist the help of his old friend-turned-enemy Captain Ben Tyreen, an Irish immigrant turned Confederate cavalier as well as a gang of frontier ruffians. During their expedition they run afoul of the French army and must fight the Apaches on one side, the French on the other and help out local Mexicans along the way. The film deals with several subjects as it tells its story from themes of friendship, betrayal, loyalty, obsession, honor and despair. Major Dundee is obsessed with restoring the luster to his military career and is leading an expedition that seems hopeless under the best of circumstances and with a command that hates each other and seems always on the verge of fighting each other as well as the Apaches and French. In the end they will have to come together to take on the pride of Europe and make it safely back across the border. Not usually considered one of Peckinpah's better films, it does seem to wander off on occasion but has alot of good stuff and a really good, rugged, realistic feel that Peckinpah was great at. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| THE UNDEFEATED (1969) Starring John Wayne and Rock Hudson is a fairly unambitious but still entertaining western that starts just as the American Civil War is ending. Union Colonel John Henry Thomas (John Wayne) resigns from the army and takes his remaining men out west to round up wild mustangs to sell to the US Cavalry. When government agents try to cheat them they accept a better offer from the representatives of Emperor Maximilian, but they must drive the herd to Mexico. On their way they cross paths south of the border with a group of Confederates and their families led by Colonel James Langdon (Rock Hudson). Unwilling to admit defeat, they are on their way to Durango to meet up with an escort from Maximilian to enter the Emperor's service. The Yankees help their former Confederate foes fight off a bandit attack only to have the Confederates taken hostage by a Juarista general who demands that Thomas hand over his herd to the republicans in exchange for the lives of his countrymen. He agrees and at that point becomes the enemy of the French who try to stop him from delivering the needed animals to their enemies. There is a couple of rather sappy romantic sub-plots and while not great it is, all in all, a fun movie. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA (1970) Starring Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine is the story of an American gun for hire who falls in with a nun during the French intervention in Mexico. Clint Eastwood is Hogan, a Civil War veteran and explosives expert who has a deal with a Juarista colonel to help destroy a French fortress at Chihuahua in return for a share of the gold in the strongbox there. He saves Sister Sara (Shirley MacLaine) from being gang-raped by four drunken outlaws. Sister Sara is also a Juarista, wanted by the French and she insists on going along with Hogan for reasons that become clear in the end. It is a good, action western as the two repeatedly save each other in scrapes with the French. The movie also has some great background music with Mexican guitars and Spanish Catholic chant. There is some comedy throughout and a surprise at the end that most will probably not see coming. On the whole a great western set in a time and place often overlooked by Hollywood. I won't give away the ending but what chance does the French Foreign Legion have against Clint Eastwood? | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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