'Villa' presents a revolutionary use of spin

By Matthew Gilbert, Globe Staff, 9/6/2003

You can't flip through cable or a newspaper without finding commentary on the uses of the media -- on why President Bush gave his end-of-operations-in-Iraq speech aboard an aircraft carrier, for instance, or on whether accused murderer Robert Blake truly benefited by sharing with Barbara Walters. Metamedia has become a way of life, and our culture has developed an acute awareness of how convicts, candidates, and celebrities can bend coverage to suit their own purposes.

So it makes sense that we're looking back at historical figures and marveling at how they, too, played the spin game. The new HBO movie "And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself" is the based-on-truth story of how Villa, the Mexican revolutionary, tried to improve his image in the States by selling the film rights to his battles to Mutual Films. Thinking he'd be edited into a noble big-screen hero liberating his country from the federales, Villa let filmmakers plant their cameras at strategic points along his bloody path -- and even altered his path so their cameras wouldn't face into the sun. Instead of remaining the press's notorious "Robin Hoodlum," Villa (played here by Antonio Banderas) hoped to re-spin himself as a sensitive Robin Hood.

The movie (which premieres tomorrow at 9:30 p.m.) presents Villa as an uneducated but very shrewd player who probably could have served as Madonna's publicist. Although movies were in their infancy in 1914, he seems to have been prescient in his understanding of their power to change minds -- and political stances. Even the Mutual Films honchos who buy into Villa's scheme -- director D. W. Griffith (Colm Feore) and Harry Aitken (Jim Broadbent) -- don't appear to realize that they'll be serving Villa's purposes in any way except financially. When Griffith and Aitken send their film crew to Mexico, they boast in the US press that they'll be bringing home exclusive footage of "the George Washington of his country."

As the narrative of "And Starring Pancho Villa" moves into the filming of the battlefield carnage and then the altering of that carnage into entertainment, it raises even juicier contemporary parallels. War as entertainment? Editing and choreographing footage and then presenting it as reality? The script -- by Larry Gelbart, most famous for TV's "M*A*S*H" -- invites us to think about the war in Iraq and its portrayal on TV, as well as the falsities of reality TV.

Unfortunately, Gelbart and director Bruce Beresford drop the ball. They set up the opportunity for rich satire, then turn away from it to focus on a bland buddy story between Villa and film producer Frank Thayer (Eion Bailey). When the Harvard-educated Thayer meets Villa, he's frightened by the rebel's dangerous presence. And Villa is turned off by the intellectual Thayer, insulted that his movie is being supervised by such a newbie. Gradually, the two men form a bond, and Thayer becomes a sort of honorary Mexican and wholehearted Villa supporter. In a twist straight out of Movie Plots 101, the opposites attract.

Banderas is an excellent Villa -- dusty, sweaty, and morally slippery. He brings physical prowess and enough charismatic complexity to merge Villa's violent streak with his bouts of poetry. He seems to be having a great time in the role, and when he's on-screen, the movie wants to be more than just average.

Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com.

And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself

Starring: Antonio Banderas, Eion Bailey, Alan Arkin

Directed by: Bruce Beresford

Written by: Larry Gelbart

On: HBO

Time: Tomorrow at 9:30 p.m.

Rating: TVMA