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Viva Zapata!

Play trailer Poster for Viva Zapata! 1952 1h 53m Biography Play Trailer Watchlist
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53% Tomatometer 17 Reviews 75% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
Mexican rancher Emiliano Zapata becomes a revolutionary when corrupt President Porfirio Díaz ignores the needs of his people. Zapata, his brother Eufemio and northern rebel Pancho Villa band together behind Díaz's political opponent, Francisco Madero. But when Madero's administration, particularly General Victoriano Huerta, proves just as corrupt as the one it replaced, Zapata is spurred to further action.

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Viva Zapata!

Critics Reviews

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Variety Staff Variety 11/01/2007
Elia Kazan's direction strives for a personal intimacy but neither he nor the John Steinbeck scripting achieves in enough measure. Go to Full Review
Geoff Andrew Time Out 01/26/2006
The direction and John Steinbeck's script seem stranded in a no man's land between straightforward adventure and a pessimistic allegory about the corrupting nature of power. Go to Full Review
Bosley Crowther New York Times 05/20/2003
4/5
Throbs with a rare vitality, and a masterful picture of a nation in revolutionary torment has been got by Director Elia Kazan. Go to Full Review
Eve Tushnet Patheos 10/21/2022
I mostly didn’t care for Brando’s performance or the execrable, preachy script by John Steinbeck, and these actually good scenes felt like punctuation marks rather than the substance of the film. Go to Full Review
Rosa Parra Latinx Lens 07/03/2021
2/5
When a film about the Mexican revolution focuses on Zapata's illiteracy instead of his actions to confront a dictatorship goes to show how Hollywood wants to depict Mexicans. Brando as Zapata, no thank you. Quinn makes this film slightly tolerable. Go to Full Review
James Plath Movie Metropolis 05/11/2013
6/10
"Viva Zapata!" is one of those films that, while it continues to have impressive aspects, just doesn't hold up as well as it did when it was first made. You find yourself wishing it were in widescreen, and that they had hired at least ONE Latino actor. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Rami A @Bunt101 Jun 15 While not accurate, this is still an entertaining movie. Even though, the role of Zapata should've been given to a Mexican actor, I still thought Marlon Brando did a decent job. It's not his best role, but still decent enough. See more Liam D @Mediawatcher2003 06/07/2024 While an very engaging and well made film but the casting of Marlon Brando over the time it’s questionable See more Cameron M @Cameron11 01/08/2022 An entertaining film about of history I didn't know anything about. However, though Brando tries his best, he is woefully miscast as Zapata. I enjoyed the story of the film where Zapata fights for his people's land but then becomes part of the government that ignores the people's pleas. Zapata's confrontation with his brother was well-written and well-acted by Anthony Quinn. However, the shoot-out was confusingly shot, which was odd as most of the shot-outs in the film had good cinematography. The film is notable for being one of the few films scripted by John Steinbeck, but, although the story has similarities with Steinbeck's literary works (i.e. poor working class people looking for a better life), the writing was nothing of note. Brando was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar but lost to Gary Cooper. Out of the other nominees, I've only seen Kirk Douglas in The Bad and the Beautiful and his performance was leagues better than Brando's. Quinn won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar but, although Quinn's performance was better than Hunnicutt's acting in The Big Sky, I thought Richard Burton's performance was better in My Cousin Rachel. Steinbeck was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar which I don't think was deserved, but I haven't seen the other nominated films in that category. Overall, Viva Zapata! was an entertaining film with some good acting and some beautiful cinematography but some pacing issues and a bland screenplay did hurt the film's overall quality. See more Ru S @Runes 07/09/2021 Miscast, overacted specially Brando with too his too emotional act. Somehow I find this film a bad representation of its story. The fighting was ok and the cinematography was delightful, still not enough to make it a honourable. See more steve d @RT35616104 07/21/2020 The weak script dooms it. See more S R @ScottR 02/23/2018 I was interested in this one, but it ultimately left me a little confused and wondering why it wasn't better made. There was a story here, but it struggled to come out in a coherent way. I saw it since it was on the NYT 1000 movies list. SLC DVD. See more Read all reviews
Viva Zapata!

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Movie Info

Synopsis Mexican rancher Emiliano Zapata becomes a revolutionary when corrupt President Porfirio Díaz ignores the needs of his people. Zapata, his brother Eufemio and northern rebel Pancho Villa band together behind Díaz's political opponent, Francisco Madero. But when Madero's administration, particularly General Victoriano Huerta, proves just as corrupt as the one it replaced, Zapata is spurred to further action.
Director
Elia Kazan
Producer
Darryl F Zanuck
Screenwriter
John Steinbeck
Distributor
20th Century Fox, Key Video
Production Co
Twentieth Century Fox
Genre
Biography
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Feb 7, 1952, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Sep 18, 2012
Runtime
1h 53m
Aspect Ratio
Flat (1.37:1)
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