And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself Page #2

Let me change all these 10s here

into 20s, okay?

Here we are. Fixed.

See, you gotta understand.

He needs the money.

With Wilson's goddamn embargo...

you gotta go the black-market route

to get guns.

It costs an arm and a leg

to kill somebody down here.

No, please.

This pen has gone to college.

It's for your son. Any of your sons.

But your Seor Hearst...

he only writes bad words about Pancho Villa

in sus peridicos.

In his newspapers.

People, I think...

they believe more what they see

on the picture screen.

When your President Wilson

sees my movie...

he will know he must support Pancho Villa.

He will see that Pancho Villa is a good guy.

That he's not like Presidente Huerta.

- That donkey f***er.

- Yeah, got it.

I hope he's not gonna be offended.

I'm not much of a drinker.

Don't worry about it.

He never touches the stuff.

You are Frank.

- That's your name?

- Frank Thayer, yes, sir.

Pancho is also Frank. Pancho is Francisco.

That's his real moniker.

Tell me, what would you like,

Francisco Two?

Lemon, vanilla.

Thank you.

I've never seen anyone like him.

There is nobody like him, sonny boy.

If there was, he would blow their brains out.

- How do we do this?

- You got a plan, Frank?

Besides praying a lot.

I think you all just fan out.

Catch whatever you can.

Other than bullets, you mean.

Those crazy bastards are not gonna last

Gentlemen, the Mutual Film Company

is about to make history.

Thanks to an exclusive arrangement

with Gen. Pancho Villa...

who joins such illustrious Mutual artists...

as Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford,

and Fatty Arbuckle...

the public will, for the very first time...

be treated to the thrills and chills

of an actual battlefield...

as seen through the lens

of the motion picture camera.

Are you worried about the physical danger

your people might be exposed to?

Gen. Villa has assigned

his crack guards, his dorados...

that's D-O-R-A-D-O-S...

to guarantee the safety of each

and every one of our camera operators.

Set up in the doorway. Hurry!

Turn around and film the gunner.

Sir, you must be really devoted

to this cause!

For $1,000 a month, there's nothing

Sam Drebben can't get devoted to.

Plus all the gold teeth I can pull.

Watch your ass, sonny boy.

Another day, another dollar.

Hearst Publications.

You don't have any qualms

about manipulating public opinion...

in favor of a man

many people consider to be...

nothing more than a socialist rabble-rouser?

Unlike your employer Mr. Hearst...

this company has no interest whatever

in meddling in politics...

foreign or domestic.

For the millions he's trying to free

of a cruel dictatorship...

Pancho Villa hardly needs Mutual's help...

to enhance his reputation

as the George Washington of Mexico.

Bloody hell!

Francisco, you're not dead yet?

Still alive, sir.

These are just civilians, aren't they?

Yeah. You make the mistake

of supporting Pancho Villa...

you wind up being a tree ornament.

Saves ammunition.

That one's mine.

Next patient.

The kid's gonna have a playmate soon.

Somebody knocked her up.

- That figures.

- What?

The Father's the father.

He's swearing to take care of the kid

and the baby however long they need it for.

Hi, Charlie.

Good work, Frank.

You didn't get in my way once.

Thank you, Hennie.

And how did it feel today, Mr. Thayer?

Being smack in the middle

of the killing ground.

It's shameful to admit

how exciting I found it.

That's strictly a survivor's sensation.

Someone else's death

serving as your own reprieve.

You're in good company, Mr. Thayer.

Shamelessness has a big following

down here.

Bank robbers, painters, poets,

soldiers of fortune.

Enough anarchists to blow up Wall Street

Healing Jews and fighting Jews.

Maurice Grossbaum,

a surgeon from Indiana.

Sam Drebben,

machine-gunner from the Bronx.

Gen. ngeles came over from the Federales.

Studied von Clausewitz,

well-read, an idealist.

He's the other side of the peso

to Gen. Fierro.

He gets really ugly unless he kills

at least one prisoner before breakfast.

From the merely curious

to the merely morbid.

All of this on Villa's order.

All of this in Villa's thrall.

You take home a nice recuerdo,

verdad, amigo? A souvenir.

But be careful...

should they give you some crawly souvenir

in your underwear.

Her husband got killed in the fighting today.

And her youngest son, too.

Get this.

He just gave her more money

than her old man saw in his entire life.

What will they think, my American friends...

when they see the movie of Pancho Villa?

I think Mr. Doheny

is gonna be very impressed indeed.

He worships the ground that is Mexico.

Doheny worships what's underneath it.

Your Seor Hearst

is also muy nervioso. Sintense.

Very nervous.

You know how much

he owns of Mexico, Francisco?

Seor Hearst. You know how many acres?

More like 8 million.

How many head of cattle

have you stolen from him? 60,000, he says.

You are loco, Juanito. 60,000.

So, Francisco, today was not too...

- Boring.

- Boring. It was not too boring?

You became more a man a little,

I think, today.

- Maybe you and your amigos...

- Yeah, I'd say we had a good start.

Today I think they found,

a little bit, their huevos.

Even though a few of them got a little wet.

Yes.

You will help.

You'll help Americans know

that hope does not stop at the border.

It's my Virgin of Guadalupe.

I'm deeply honored, sir.

He says you should be.

You've got the only virgin left around here.

Please bear in mind

that our camera operators...

had to constantly deal

with movement of men and horses...

exploding bombs, clouds of gunpowder.

But what you're looking at is,

without a doubt...

never-before-seen footage of live action

shot on an actual field of battle.

Never-before-seen footage?

You still can't see it.

They'd have bit the dust a lot better

if D.W. Griffith had directed it.

Let me assure you that every one

of these men and women, and every child...

died in the very best way that they could.

There he is, boys, on motion-picture film

for all the world to see:

Gen. Pancho Villa.

Despite its technical flaws...

clearly more people

would discover Pancho Villa...

from a few feet of this crude, historic film...

than from the reams that are written

about his struggle...

to rid Mexico of its greedy robber barons...

the only ones to profit

from their cozy marriage...

with rapacious American interests.

Unfortunately, not everyone happens to be

the socialist-lover that John Reed is.

Hearst, no surprise,

is putting our nuts through a wringer.

Pardon me.

With all he's got invested in Mexico...

Hearst stands to lose

one or two of his fortunes down there.

Speak up, Harry.

We're a whole country apart, for God's sake.

Listen to this:

"Pandering to Villa's overblown vanity...

"the perpetrators

of this clumsy excuse of a film..."

"...clearly demonstrate

they were more interested...

"in selling tickets to a gullible public...

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes