Reviews
Viva Zapata! (1952)
MY Favorite Movie
this was Marlon Brando and Anthony Quinn at their best ---the entire supporting cast was superb.
Steinbeck hadn't written anything as powerful as this since he did his tale of the Okies during the depression. Zapata is truly one of the great heroes of the 20th century, and Brando captured this along with the frustration of trying to do the right thing and yet being hamstrung by the bureaucrats who manage to survive every change in government, no matter which way in turns.The final scene in the movie leaves Zapata as a legend --- did he die, or does he still live to help the millions of peons in Mexico.
Elia Kazan's direction was terrific.
Diarios de motocicleta (2004)
Beautiful
For a person who has never been to South America, but was always intrigued by it, this film is wonderful. The cinematography is exquisite, and if one recalls Che Guevarra, this film reveals much of what many people thought the original Cuban Revolution was all about, namely the overthrow of a dictator, Batista, but somewhere the humanity that Che showed in the leper colony of Peru must have been superseded by the reality of communism, and he died as a revolutionary in Bolivia.
The movie only covers a period of less than a year when he's 23 and with his great friend, Granada, these two grow up as we watch them make their way north from Argentina through Chile and then to Peru.
I liked it very much