Review of Villa Rides (1968) by Andy F — 04 Oct 2010

"Magnificent Seven" co-stars Yul Brynner and Charles Bronson team up again as Mexican bandits-turned-freedom fighters in veteran television director Buzz Kulik's south-of-the-border epic "Villa Rides," a quasi-historical drama about Pancho Villa and the Mexican revolution during the early 20th century.

Robert Towne of "Chinatown" fame and Sam Peckinpah wrote the cynical, bullet-riddled screenplay based on William Douglas Lansford's entertaining biography. Indeed, some scenes--such as Bronson's character lining three soldiers up in a row and shooting three of them at once--occurred in the book.

Brynner is typically charismatic as Villa, while Bronson is appropriately Neanderthal as Villa's second-in-command Rodolfo Fierro. Fierro was a trigger-happy hombre in real-life and was always prepared to shoot first and ask questions later.

Ostensibly, to give American audiences somebody with which to identify, the filmmakers cast Robert Mitchum as an aviator running guns to the villains. Later, he is captured by Villa's forced and scheduled for execution until the protagonist allows him to live to fly for them.

Kulik orchestrates several major action scenes in this sprawling shoot'em up and delivers them with sufficient gusto, helped considerably by composer Maurice Jarre's rip-snorting musical soundtrack and "Bridge on the River Kwai" cinematographer Jack Hildyard's scenic lensing with Spain substituting for Mexico.

Spaghetti western villain Frank Wolff has some memorable scenes, especially his death scene where he tries to hide in a well and the heroes lob a package of explosives into it.