Emiliano Zapata (Marlon Brando) leads. He allies with President Madero (Harold Gordon), but becomes an outlaw again when General Huerta (Frank Silvera) overthrows Madero. Zapata fights Huerta's government, along with internal dissidents: his brother Eufemio (Anthony Quinn) and shifty subordinate (Joseph Wiseman) have their own ideas on waging revolution. Zapata joins with Pancho Villa (Alan Reed) to capture Mexico City, but immediately recuses himself of power. Villa's successor Carranza enlists Aguirre in a devious plot to bring Zapata to heel.
Working off a screenplay by John Steinbeck (!), Viva Zapata! intends. Beyond genre-mandated thrills and scenery, Kazan tries to mix political drama and character study. The story unfolds in clipped yet sentimental prose that seems more Hemingway than Steinbeck. Zapata's solidness contrasts well with Mexico's round robin of hapless leaders: offered the Presidency by Pancho Villa, he immediately refuses. A Mexican Cincinnatus, Zapata remains pure by returning to his hacienda.
But Kazan's message feels compromised. Much of Zapata has an agreeable roughness, highlighting themes of class conflict and cyclical revolution. Zapata's followers have grants dating back to Spanish rule, which doesn't remotely faze Diaz: legality's followed only when convenient. Certainly Madero's adherence to legal strictures allows Huerta to checkmate him. And the violence is shockingly blunt, culminating in a gun-down double cross presaging Bonnie & Clyde. Yet Zapata's politics seem curiously formless and desultory, beyond wanting to save peasants from evil landowners. That's something both Che Guevara and the Three Stooges have no trouble getting behind.
For the most part, Zapata makes a disappointingly conventional hero. There's some edginess in his subversive rhetoric and sexual charisma, but he's a generically apolitical rebel doing the right thing. His conflict between middle class comfort and rural background, and his testy wooing of wife Josefa (Jean Peters) prove less compelling. He's even less successful as a symbol. Kazan assures us that Zapata's less important than his followers, but this undercuts the Great Man grandstanding. We're reminded of The Magnificent Seven assuring us that "only the farmers have won."
Viva Zapata! scores thanks to Kazan's assured direction. Stylish yet less showy than other "great directors," Kazan matches Steinbeck's terse prose with almost elliptical stylization. Joseph McDonald employs deep focus photography not only in darkened interiors but expansive battle scenes, with Christ imagery and revolutionary tableaux resembling Eisenstein. There are impressive set pieces when Zapata "summons" peasants to rescue him, and Madero meets a pathetic fate. There's also facile elements, like Zapata's white horse that lives on as an obnoxious symbol. It's artistic yet (mostly) subdued, a solid combination.
Zapata! inspired a whole sub-genre of Westerns, projecting contemporary concerns onto Revolutionary Mexico. Indeed, they're informally known as Zapata Westerns (more flattering than Jenni Calder's "Chili con carnage" label). This genre reached its apex in the '60s, where The Professionals and The Wild Bunch largely channeled Vietnam-era cynicism into violent mayhem. In contrast, Spaghetti Westerns wholeheartedly embraced politics: A Bullet for the General turns Kazan's ambivalent cynicism into crude Marxist agitprop, while Sergio Leone's Duck You Sucker! swipes several key images, including Huerta watching Madero's execution through a rainy windshield.
Marlon Brando does surprisingly well as a hardened idealist. Brando brings his usual method tricks to the part, but it's less obviously affected than many of his turns. Anthony Quinn won an Oscar playing Eufemio, boisterous and larger-than-life in agreeable fashion. Joseph Wiseman does more subtle work, conveying villainy through a chilling sneer. Jean Peters is less successful changing from haughty bourgeois to devoted peasant wife. Zapata's rivals are represented in a gallery of impressive character turns: condescending Fay Roope, meek Harold Gordon, ruthless Frank Silvera and boorish Alan Reed.
Viva Zapata! presents some interesting ideas indifferently. As an exploration of revolutionary politics, it might have done better to flesh out Zapata's beliefs beyond do-gooderism.
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