SPAN 3302
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Freud y Horacio Kilbang
Nicolas Pereira y Francisco Cardenas
Dr. Conway
05/22/07
Analisis de “Specters of the Repressed the Return of the Repressed” de Saul Newman y de "Freud Hoffmann and the Death Work" de John Fletcher y Horacio Kalibang de Holmberg.
“Specters of the Repressed the Return of the Repressed”
1- Freud considera lo siniestro como algo “espantoso, que produce horror y temor”. Este miedo es algo producido por lo “familiar (heimliche) o por una cosa familiar que se vuelve nofamiliar y extraño” (unheimliche). En Horacio Kilbang, Fritz es alguien familiar para el burgomestre Hipknock, pero en el fin el se pone a dudar, preguntandose “Sera Fritz un automata?”. Fritz tiene sus dudas tambien, preguntandose si su tio es un simple humano o un verdadero automata (165). En este caso, lo unheimliche viene despues de que existe la duda de que su familia sea de automatas eso se parece mucho a lo que dice Freud cuando se refiere a algo de familiar que se vuelve no-familiar.
El párrafo de la pagina 164 nos aprende, que según Fritz (el creador de los autómatas), que hay muchos autómatas “rodeando por el mundo” (164) y que hay mucho autómatas que han “llenado el mundo” (166). Eso crea un aspecto muy siniestro porque la forma familiar de los seres humanos deja a los otros en duda, no son lo que parecen ser. El párrafo que empieza por “cuando vez un poeta…” nos aprende que los autómatas pueden ser reconocidos y que son: “un poeta que te pinta lo que no siente”, “un orador que adula el pueblo”, “un medico que mata”, “un abogado que miente”, “un guerrero que huye”, “un patriota que engaña..” (166). Esos ejemplos son tan familiares que el lector puede relacionar su vida a estos ejemplos. Así, como lo dice Freud, lo que es familiar, heimliche, se torna en su contrario volviéndose siniestro. Este cuento se identifica con la teoría de Freud que dice que “lo siniestro se relaciona con algo familiar” y es “lo que aparece en forma de lo familiar” llegando a ser extraño.
2- La ansiedad es una parte esencial de la teoria de Freud. En el cuento de Hoffman del arenero, Nataniel se llena de ansiedad. Encontramos, en el cuento de Holmberg, un burgomaestre muy materialista y racional que empieza a dudar de los que se encuentran en su casa, como si fueran fantasmas o demonios. Queriendo saber si Fritz su nieto es una automata (165) pregunta a sus amigos: “Amigos mios! Permitidme una pregunta: hay entre vosotros algun automata? Decidmelo por favor!” (165). La ansiedad de encontrarse en medio de autómatas es una ansiedad casi metafisica para el burgmaestro que es ordinariamente muy materialista.
El final del cuento tambien se enfoca en el concepto Freudiano del “doble” con Fritz que hizo una replica de Luisa (165) para compartir su amor con ella. Hoy en dia, los clones reemplazaron este miedo Freudiano de los autómatas: pero sigue siendo el mismo tipo de miedo del doble. En “el hombre de arena” Nataniel, según Freud, “falla en el amor con la muneca siniestra de Olympia” (117) y eso crea una sensación de incertidumbre para saber si la muneca, Olympia es viva o animada. Luisa susituye a Olympia, pero es siempre el mismo concepto del doble. Freud considera que hay algo de siniestro en el concepto del doble. Expresa que la creación del doble es una forma de defensa del ego concebido en las primeras etapas de la infancia. Para Freud, lo siniestro es algo familiar, al igual algo establecido, establecido en la mente) que fue engendrado por su represion. Lo siniestro en este caso es la reaparicion de algo reprimido en la infancia.
Lo siniestro es la reaparicion del reprimido. Por ejemplo, cuando alguien se enamora de un automata, entonces es una forma de amor que no es aceptable en la sociedad y que se relaciona con el concepto de Edipo que es la referencia infantil por lo que es un amor prohibido. Edipo es la norma, para determinar el prohibido el el amor.
3- a) Como lo vimos, para Freud lo siniestro es como una brecha dentro de la representación social. Ahí, los autómatas, son una aberración de la naturaleza.
La repetición de lo siniestro es tambien algo de fundamental en Freud. El concepto del siniestro trata del concepto del doble y de la repetición; los autómatas que llenan el mundo, que pueden reproducirse y que son identicos a los humanos (166). Asi, lo que es familiar es tambien extranjero y amenaza el ego. Freud dice en “Freud Hoffmann and the death work” (126) que lo siniestro es el resurgimiento de algo de familiar que no es reconocido en si mismo. Luisa seria, para Freud, una creación narcisista y egoísta planeada para salvar el ego. Los sentimientos de amor de Fritz para Luisa son preservados mientras conserva su relacion con la automata, pero el no tiene esperanza, o cabe en la duda, de que pueda o quiera vivir su amor con la verdadera Luisa.
b) Para Freud, el doble es un “rechazo energico del poder de la muerte” (126). El miedo de morir es una cosa comun para todos los ninos pero que llega a ser reprimido. La invención de autómatas perpetuando dobles y aparencias fisicas es un tema relacionado con este miedo infantil. El automata que es un doble, o una replica de una persona existante, es como una negacion a la muerte. Los autómatas pueden relacionarse con la nocion de la muerte reprimida, el miedo de morir y la voluntad de vivir eternamente. Pero estos automatas son un peligro para la humanidad; llegan a amenazar al burgomaestre (166).
El hecho de que Oscar Baum, quien tambien es Fritz, sigue creando autómatas nos revela como el intenta tratar con el miedo reprimido infantil, pero que volvio de nuevo en su pasatiempo. Es decir se le despierta el ego interno, o como dice Kasper, su alma latente.
"Freud Hoffmann and the Death Work"
4- Las ideas delineadas son bastantes interesantes y sumergen en la ideoligia de Freud con bastante relevancia. La muerte en esencial en crear una identidad que llevamos con nosotros desde la infancia. El sentido del doble y nuestro “alma latente” causa en nosotros una sensacion euforica y narcisista que en cambio vuelve a ese alma el poderoso aspecto de nuestra persona; una que hasta pueda vencer a la muerte. La muerte tiene bastante que ver con el surgimiento del alma latente. La muerte es lo que sobrelleva al doble a tomar acciones que puedan ser hasta peligrosas para la humanidad. El doble se convierte en el ejemplo de la muerte de la humanidad. Los automatas se vuelven en el ejemplo perfecto de la muerte de la humanidad y el respaldo de la deshumanizacion de la civilizacion como la conocemos hoy en dia.
Dr. Conway
05/22/07
Analisis de “Specters of the Repressed the Return of the Repressed” de Saul Newman y de "Freud Hoffmann and the Death Work" de John Fletcher y Horacio Kalibang de Holmberg.
“Specters of the Repressed the Return of the Repressed”
1- Freud considera lo siniestro como algo “espantoso, que produce horror y temor”. Este miedo es algo producido por lo “familiar (heimliche) o por una cosa familiar que se vuelve nofamiliar y extraño” (unheimliche). En Horacio Kilbang, Fritz es alguien familiar para el burgomestre Hipknock, pero en el fin el se pone a dudar, preguntandose “Sera Fritz un automata?”. Fritz tiene sus dudas tambien, preguntandose si su tio es un simple humano o un verdadero automata (165). En este caso, lo unheimliche viene despues de que existe la duda de que su familia sea de automatas eso se parece mucho a lo que dice Freud cuando se refiere a algo de familiar que se vuelve no-familiar.
El párrafo de la pagina 164 nos aprende, que según Fritz (el creador de los autómatas), que hay muchos autómatas “rodeando por el mundo” (164) y que hay mucho autómatas que han “llenado el mundo” (166). Eso crea un aspecto muy siniestro porque la forma familiar de los seres humanos deja a los otros en duda, no son lo que parecen ser. El párrafo que empieza por “cuando vez un poeta…” nos aprende que los autómatas pueden ser reconocidos y que son: “un poeta que te pinta lo que no siente”, “un orador que adula el pueblo”, “un medico que mata”, “un abogado que miente”, “un guerrero que huye”, “un patriota que engaña..” (166). Esos ejemplos son tan familiares que el lector puede relacionar su vida a estos ejemplos. Así, como lo dice Freud, lo que es familiar, heimliche, se torna en su contrario volviéndose siniestro. Este cuento se identifica con la teoría de Freud que dice que “lo siniestro se relaciona con algo familiar” y es “lo que aparece en forma de lo familiar” llegando a ser extraño.
2- La ansiedad es una parte esencial de la teoria de Freud. En el cuento de Hoffman del arenero, Nataniel se llena de ansiedad. Encontramos, en el cuento de Holmberg, un burgomaestre muy materialista y racional que empieza a dudar de los que se encuentran en su casa, como si fueran fantasmas o demonios. Queriendo saber si Fritz su nieto es una automata (165) pregunta a sus amigos: “Amigos mios! Permitidme una pregunta: hay entre vosotros algun automata? Decidmelo por favor!” (165). La ansiedad de encontrarse en medio de autómatas es una ansiedad casi metafisica para el burgmaestro que es ordinariamente muy materialista.
El final del cuento tambien se enfoca en el concepto Freudiano del “doble” con Fritz que hizo una replica de Luisa (165) para compartir su amor con ella. Hoy en dia, los clones reemplazaron este miedo Freudiano de los autómatas: pero sigue siendo el mismo tipo de miedo del doble. En “el hombre de arena” Nataniel, según Freud, “falla en el amor con la muneca siniestra de Olympia” (117) y eso crea una sensación de incertidumbre para saber si la muneca, Olympia es viva o animada. Luisa susituye a Olympia, pero es siempre el mismo concepto del doble. Freud considera que hay algo de siniestro en el concepto del doble. Expresa que la creación del doble es una forma de defensa del ego concebido en las primeras etapas de la infancia. Para Freud, lo siniestro es algo familiar, al igual algo establecido, establecido en la mente) que fue engendrado por su represion. Lo siniestro en este caso es la reaparicion de algo reprimido en la infancia.
Lo siniestro es la reaparicion del reprimido. Por ejemplo, cuando alguien se enamora de un automata, entonces es una forma de amor que no es aceptable en la sociedad y que se relaciona con el concepto de Edipo que es la referencia infantil por lo que es un amor prohibido. Edipo es la norma, para determinar el prohibido el el amor.
3- a) Como lo vimos, para Freud lo siniestro es como una brecha dentro de la representación social. Ahí, los autómatas, son una aberración de la naturaleza.
La repetición de lo siniestro es tambien algo de fundamental en Freud. El concepto del siniestro trata del concepto del doble y de la repetición; los autómatas que llenan el mundo, que pueden reproducirse y que son identicos a los humanos (166). Asi, lo que es familiar es tambien extranjero y amenaza el ego. Freud dice en “Freud Hoffmann and the death work” (126) que lo siniestro es el resurgimiento de algo de familiar que no es reconocido en si mismo. Luisa seria, para Freud, una creación narcisista y egoísta planeada para salvar el ego. Los sentimientos de amor de Fritz para Luisa son preservados mientras conserva su relacion con la automata, pero el no tiene esperanza, o cabe en la duda, de que pueda o quiera vivir su amor con la verdadera Luisa.
b) Para Freud, el doble es un “rechazo energico del poder de la muerte” (126). El miedo de morir es una cosa comun para todos los ninos pero que llega a ser reprimido. La invención de autómatas perpetuando dobles y aparencias fisicas es un tema relacionado con este miedo infantil. El automata que es un doble, o una replica de una persona existante, es como una negacion a la muerte. Los autómatas pueden relacionarse con la nocion de la muerte reprimida, el miedo de morir y la voluntad de vivir eternamente. Pero estos automatas son un peligro para la humanidad; llegan a amenazar al burgomaestre (166).
El hecho de que Oscar Baum, quien tambien es Fritz, sigue creando autómatas nos revela como el intenta tratar con el miedo reprimido infantil, pero que volvio de nuevo en su pasatiempo. Es decir se le despierta el ego interno, o como dice Kasper, su alma latente.
"Freud Hoffmann and the Death Work"
4- Las ideas delineadas son bastantes interesantes y sumergen en la ideoligia de Freud con bastante relevancia. La muerte en esencial en crear una identidad que llevamos con nosotros desde la infancia. El sentido del doble y nuestro “alma latente” causa en nosotros una sensacion euforica y narcisista que en cambio vuelve a ese alma el poderoso aspecto de nuestra persona; una que hasta pueda vencer a la muerte. La muerte tiene bastante que ver con el surgimiento del alma latente. La muerte es lo que sobrelleva al doble a tomar acciones que puedan ser hasta peligrosas para la humanidad. El doble se convierte en el ejemplo de la muerte de la humanidad. Los automatas se vuelven en el ejemplo perfecto de la muerte de la humanidad y el respaldo de la deshumanizacion de la civilizacion como la conocemos hoy en dia.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
The Purple House of Sandra Cisneros
In 1997, Sandra Cisneros bought a house on East Guenther Street, in the historic district of San Antonio.
She decided to repaint the house in "periwinkle purple” and originated a fight in the community. The community protested about her will of having a purple house in this historic neighborhood considering her choice of color to be “inappropriate”.
Cisneros argued in the local newspaper :
"The issue is bigger than my house. The issue is about historical inclusion. I want to paint my house a traditional color, but please give me a broader palette than surrey beige, sevres blue, hawthorn green, frontier days brown, and Plymouth Rock grey. . . . I thought I had painted my house a historic color. Purple is historic to us. It only goes back a thousand years or so to the pyramids. It is present in the Nahua codices, book of the Aztecs, as is turquoise, the color I used for my house trim; the former color signifying royalty, the latter, water and rain.
She finally won in court and kept her house painted in purple.
Cisneros appear as a rebel, either in her own writings but also in her real life. I don’t think she is really concern about that Aztec stuff, but I really think that she enjoys challenging the cultural bigotry of traditions and role models.
She decided to repaint the house in "periwinkle purple” and originated a fight in the community. The community protested about her will of having a purple house in this historic neighborhood considering her choice of color to be “inappropriate”.
Cisneros argued in the local newspaper :
"The issue is bigger than my house. The issue is about historical inclusion. I want to paint my house a traditional color, but please give me a broader palette than surrey beige, sevres blue, hawthorn green, frontier days brown, and Plymouth Rock grey. . . . I thought I had painted my house a historic color. Purple is historic to us. It only goes back a thousand years or so to the pyramids. It is present in the Nahua codices, book of the Aztecs, as is turquoise, the color I used for my house trim; the former color signifying royalty, the latter, water and rain.
She finally won in court and kept her house painted in purple.
Cisneros appear as a rebel, either in her own writings but also in her real life. I don’t think she is really concern about that Aztec stuff, but I really think that she enjoys challenging the cultural bigotry of traditions and role models.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
“He did not take his eyes from her” (78)
Billy’s quest for capturing a wolf is a quest of identity through somebody else (a she wolf). He needs to foreknow the wolves’ instincts in order to trap them. Hunting a wolf is thinking like a wolf. It is also becoming as savage as the one who’s being tracked. The savagery of the wolf being trapped in his trap is horrible, especially the details of his leg. That’s the turning point that makes Billy as savage as the wolf itself by starring at the scene.
This story does not depict good, but how evil needs to be a part of good. The evil and savagery of trapping a wolf is required in order to prevent them from killing cows. It’s like the ancient yin and yang concept. You need to internalize in someway the evil in order to makes good coming out of it. Billy does not want to kill the wolf and he knows he must make her believe that he wants to (81). That interaction is interesting. He needs to adopt and maintain violence and coercion in order to maintain his relationship with her.
This story does not depict good, but how evil needs to be a part of good. The evil and savagery of trapping a wolf is required in order to prevent them from killing cows. It’s like the ancient yin and yang concept. You need to internalize in someway the evil in order to makes good coming out of it. Billy does not want to kill the wolf and he knows he must make her believe that he wants to (81). That interaction is interesting. He needs to adopt and maintain violence and coercion in order to maintain his relationship with her.
Dance with the Wolves
The fascination and the fear of wolves are central in this book. The book begins with the same ongoing life: pasture, traps, cows, and wolves. But the wolves are what make Billy’s life unusual. They are the salt and the danger that makes the Billy’s life relevant. Wolves in this story are a constant challenge and myth to deal with. Myth exaggerates or idealizes the truth. Actually, men and wolves are complementary and different (p45). Men believe that the blood of the slain is innocent and with no consequences when wolves believe the opposite. The wolf knows what men do know. They are like supernatural creatures. Snow in the story tends to magnify everything. There is no scenery, just wolves, that Billy makes part of his world. Billy knows that trapping this wolf will make him become a man. But he knows also that in order to capture a wolf you also need to become, in some way, one of them. That is what creates the bond between the two.
Monday, April 9, 2007
Avant Garde
Eisenstein’s Avant Garde:
In an interview that I recently read, David Linx said that there was no avant garde in Cuba among the artists. David Linx is one of the major Jazz singers in Europe. Born in Belgium, he recorded a CD at the age of 20 with lyrics written by the famous writer James Baldwin. Cuba trapped his art into social realism, just as Stalin trapped Eisenstein’s innovative techniques in the box of propaganda. In his movie about Zapata, the end exemplifies the most unusual things put together in one shot: the mourning dance to mock death in front of a gigantic Ferris wheel!!!
To expand what I said in class, I would say that Spaghetti Westerns exemplified the same things. In Sergio Leone’s trilogy with Clint Eastwood or in the Sabata series the final duel between the hero and the villain is the place of avant-gardism. There is always an old man (with no teeth) laughing like crazy in the midst of the most solemn silence.
There can be a man with a mandolin, playing the same happy notes over and over again just before the duel: just as if music was necessary. In some cases the guitar is also a gun.
That contrast is directly inspired by Eisenstein.
Flies are flying on the screen with a horrible sound; sweat is a detail that is magnified, just as the look of watcher’s eyes at a close range. Everything is magnified. These magnified shots aim at giving more impact to ordinary scenes by putting the viewer in the place of a child that sees everything too large.
In an interview that I recently read, David Linx said that there was no avant garde in Cuba among the artists. David Linx is one of the major Jazz singers in Europe. Born in Belgium, he recorded a CD at the age of 20 with lyrics written by the famous writer James Baldwin. Cuba trapped his art into social realism, just as Stalin trapped Eisenstein’s innovative techniques in the box of propaganda. In his movie about Zapata, the end exemplifies the most unusual things put together in one shot: the mourning dance to mock death in front of a gigantic Ferris wheel!!!
To expand what I said in class, I would say that Spaghetti Westerns exemplified the same things. In Sergio Leone’s trilogy with Clint Eastwood or in the Sabata series the final duel between the hero and the villain is the place of avant-gardism. There is always an old man (with no teeth) laughing like crazy in the midst of the most solemn silence.
There can be a man with a mandolin, playing the same happy notes over and over again just before the duel: just as if music was necessary. In some cases the guitar is also a gun.
That contrast is directly inspired by Eisenstein.
Flies are flying on the screen with a horrible sound; sweat is a detail that is magnified, just as the look of watcher’s eyes at a close range. Everything is magnified. These magnified shots aim at giving more impact to ordinary scenes by putting the viewer in the place of a child that sees everything too large.
The Marlboro Lungs :
The Marlboro man on the tops of the Minnesotan hills typifies a classic American stereotype. The Marlboro Man typifies the cowboy from the west: very masculine and virile with that lonesome temperament that makes him smoke while ridding on his horse.
The end and real life of the Marlboro men impersonators are quite interesting and seem to be a defiance of the Marlboro cowboy cliché: cancer and homosexuality. According to Cisneros’ friend, the Marlboro man is no longer a myth; he was even in some pornographic films before Marlboro discovered him.
In Cisneros’ story, we see the lover entering the American dream with a lover who seems to typify a role model that makes her being accepted as a Chicano in the American west.
The best way of being part of the American identity is probably to embrace its myths, its role models like the Marlboro man. The cowboy in this story is not merely a cowboy, but is all the Marlboro billboards. Just as Cisnero fantasizes (fantasme) and add lies about her lover, her quest of identity defines her through the American myth of the Marlboro man.
The end and real life of the Marlboro men impersonators are quite interesting and seem to be a defiance of the Marlboro cowboy cliché: cancer and homosexuality. According to Cisneros’ friend, the Marlboro man is no longer a myth; he was even in some pornographic films before Marlboro discovered him.
In Cisneros’ story, we see the lover entering the American dream with a lover who seems to typify a role model that makes her being accepted as a Chicano in the American west.
The best way of being part of the American identity is probably to embrace its myths, its role models like the Marlboro man. The cowboy in this story is not merely a cowboy, but is all the Marlboro billboards. Just as Cisnero fantasizes (fantasme) and add lies about her lover, her quest of identity defines her through the American myth of the Marlboro man.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Pancho Villa asked D W Griffith to make a movie about his Revolution
Villa goes Hollywood
In the 1910’s someone approached D W Griffiths (“The Martyrs of the Alamo”) in Fort Lee New Jersey, the Hollywood of the time, to submit to him a new project never seen before. Pancho Villa was the one who originated the project. At that time, he seriously needed cash, and the US embargo on arms was compromising his Revolution. Pancho Villa decided to reverse his public image in the US by asking the most famous director of the time (D W Griffith) to make a movie of his Revolution against Huerta. Villa asked to the studios for $25,000 dollars, plus 20% of all the movie’s earnings.
The first documentary ever
D W Griffith never filmed directly. It was too risky for the main US director of that time. One of his assistants did: Frank N Thayer. Frank N. Thayer is the one who filmed the scenes of this first war documentary ever!!!! The “Dorados,” the personal guards of Villa, protected each member of the production while they were filming real fights. In the midst of such savagery, Thayer lost the control of his bladder during one of the first battles, but he kept filming. John Reed, the socialist journalist became part of the project.
The Revolution is staged and becomes Mutual Film Corporation’s Revolution
The movie and the chaotic footage melted with dust and gun powder was a fiasco. So Mutual Films decided to stage the Revolution of Pancho Villa, resulting in $25,000 more in costs. Villa was required to fight only during daylight hours because the light was better for the production crew. Villa was now the puppet of the studios, like they were at the beginning of the movie.
The documentary goes/becomes a screenplay
Finally, the studios wrote an entire screenplay based on Pancho Villa’s life and they decided to adapt that biography on screen. Raoul Walsh (one of the best directors and actors of his time) directed the movie and played the young Pancho Villa. The real Villa appeared as the President of Mexico in the last scene with a moving speech about the many who died, but the one who continue to lives: Mexico. The movie “Life of General Villa” released in 1914 became the world's first full-length feature film. This movie changed the whole perception Americans had of Pancho Villa. President Wilson soon lifted the embargo on arms.
Aftermath
Fort Lee, New Jersey was no longer the center of the movie industry, and the main studio companies relocated in Hollywood. Even so, the CNN-isation of wars became part of our everyday life because of Pancho Villa. His Revolution was not merely a revolution against a dictatorial regime, but also a complete revolution of the movie industry. The concept of war correspondents originated with Pancho Villa who asked the Hollywood of his time to direct it. Finally, Mutual Films ended up staging of Pancho Villa’s fights.
We don’t have the footage of the 1914 original “Life of Pancho Villa” movie directed by Raoul Walsh, but we have some footage of the the Battle of Ojinaga in a museum in Mexico City. We also have in a museum the actual contract signed by Pancho Villa along with Frank N. Thayer and the Mutual Film Company.
In 2003, HBO invested 30 million dollars in the movie “And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself,” which tells the whole story of that Revolution that became staged by the Hollywood of his time.
According to Larry Gelbart, the screenwriter of this 2003 HBO movie:
“This was a totally uneducated man, and yet he was compared to Napoleon in terms of his battle tactics."
Mutual Films Corporation President Harry Aitken (who produced the 1912-1914 movie) said: "I found him to be a very different man from the uncouth bandit he has been painted. He is a serious dignified man who conducts the affairs of his army in a systematic and orderly manner, which would do credit to a much older and experienced military man. It was his idea to have the battles filmed. He wanted to raise some money to buy arms, but he was [aware] of the fact that more people would probably see him in a film than could read about him in the newspaper. He was that bright."
In this 2003 HBO movie, Huerta refers to Villa as a “movie star.” This is the most expensive television/cable movie ever made. The budget of this HBO movie is worth $30 million.
How can an uneducated man revolutionize the whole movie industry to that point? Is Villa the one who initiated the whole CNN concept with its war correspondents? Is Villa the very first one to use the movie industry as a propaganda tool? What kind of impact did this propaganda movie have on the Marxist director Eisenstein in his filming of “Que Viva Zapata”?
This whole concept continues today with the Sub-Commandant Marcos who keeps staging his Revolution from the Chiapas.
In the 1910’s someone approached D W Griffiths (“The Martyrs of the Alamo”) in Fort Lee New Jersey, the Hollywood of the time, to submit to him a new project never seen before. Pancho Villa was the one who originated the project. At that time, he seriously needed cash, and the US embargo on arms was compromising his Revolution. Pancho Villa decided to reverse his public image in the US by asking the most famous director of the time (D W Griffith) to make a movie of his Revolution against Huerta. Villa asked to the studios for $25,000 dollars, plus 20% of all the movie’s earnings.
The first documentary ever
D W Griffith never filmed directly. It was too risky for the main US director of that time. One of his assistants did: Frank N Thayer. Frank N. Thayer is the one who filmed the scenes of this first war documentary ever!!!! The “Dorados,” the personal guards of Villa, protected each member of the production while they were filming real fights. In the midst of such savagery, Thayer lost the control of his bladder during one of the first battles, but he kept filming. John Reed, the socialist journalist became part of the project.
The Revolution is staged and becomes Mutual Film Corporation’s Revolution
The movie and the chaotic footage melted with dust and gun powder was a fiasco. So Mutual Films decided to stage the Revolution of Pancho Villa, resulting in $25,000 more in costs. Villa was required to fight only during daylight hours because the light was better for the production crew. Villa was now the puppet of the studios, like they were at the beginning of the movie.
The documentary goes/becomes a screenplay
Finally, the studios wrote an entire screenplay based on Pancho Villa’s life and they decided to adapt that biography on screen. Raoul Walsh (one of the best directors and actors of his time) directed the movie and played the young Pancho Villa. The real Villa appeared as the President of Mexico in the last scene with a moving speech about the many who died, but the one who continue to lives: Mexico. The movie “Life of General Villa” released in 1914 became the world's first full-length feature film. This movie changed the whole perception Americans had of Pancho Villa. President Wilson soon lifted the embargo on arms.
Aftermath
Fort Lee, New Jersey was no longer the center of the movie industry, and the main studio companies relocated in Hollywood. Even so, the CNN-isation of wars became part of our everyday life because of Pancho Villa. His Revolution was not merely a revolution against a dictatorial regime, but also a complete revolution of the movie industry. The concept of war correspondents originated with Pancho Villa who asked the Hollywood of his time to direct it. Finally, Mutual Films ended up staging of Pancho Villa’s fights.
We don’t have the footage of the 1914 original “Life of Pancho Villa” movie directed by Raoul Walsh, but we have some footage of the the Battle of Ojinaga in a museum in Mexico City. We also have in a museum the actual contract signed by Pancho Villa along with Frank N. Thayer and the Mutual Film Company.
In 2003, HBO invested 30 million dollars in the movie “And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself,” which tells the whole story of that Revolution that became staged by the Hollywood of his time.
According to Larry Gelbart, the screenwriter of this 2003 HBO movie:
“This was a totally uneducated man, and yet he was compared to Napoleon in terms of his battle tactics."
Mutual Films Corporation President Harry Aitken (who produced the 1912-1914 movie) said: "I found him to be a very different man from the uncouth bandit he has been painted. He is a serious dignified man who conducts the affairs of his army in a systematic and orderly manner, which would do credit to a much older and experienced military man. It was his idea to have the battles filmed. He wanted to raise some money to buy arms, but he was [aware] of the fact that more people would probably see him in a film than could read about him in the newspaper. He was that bright."
In this 2003 HBO movie, Huerta refers to Villa as a “movie star.” This is the most expensive television/cable movie ever made. The budget of this HBO movie is worth $30 million.
How can an uneducated man revolutionize the whole movie industry to that point? Is Villa the one who initiated the whole CNN concept with its war correspondents? Is Villa the very first one to use the movie industry as a propaganda tool? What kind of impact did this propaganda movie have on the Marxist director Eisenstein in his filming of “Que Viva Zapata”?
This whole concept continues today with the Sub-Commandant Marcos who keeps staging his Revolution from the Chiapas.
