Media Type: Film Year: 1972 Who wrote / made it : Gonzalo Martínez Ortega Plot summary: El principio, as the title suggests, examines the lead up to the Revolution in a series of flashbacks from the perspective of David Domínguez Solís (Fernando Balzaretti) a member of a wealthy local family. He has recently returned home…
Category: Conflict in Mexican Film
Mexican Films centred on conflict and violence
Las fuerzas vivas
Media Type: Film Year: 1975 Who wrote / made it : Luis Alcoriza Plot summary: Las fuerzas vivas suggests that randomness was integral to the Revolution. It is a satirical film where serious themes are mixed with farce and absurd humour. Shot in colour, it is set in a peripheral village at the onset of…
Reed, México insurgente/Reed, Insurgent Mexico
Media Type: Film Year: 1971 Who wrote / made it : Paul Leduc Plot summary: Reed, México insurgente is based on the book, Insurgent Mexico (1914), by the US journalist John Reed, who was a war correspondent and committed socialist until his early death at the age of 33. His most famous book, Ten Days…
El infierno/El Narco
Media Type: Film Year: 2010 Who wrote / made it : Luis Estrada Plot summary: Since the notorious temporary ban that was put on his 1999 film, La ley de Herodes/Herod’s Law, Luis Estrada has become well known in Mexico for making films that mix broad humour, graphic violence and political commentary. El infierno/El Narco…
Como agua para chocolate / Like Water for Chocolate
Media Type: Film Year: 1992 Who wrote / made it : Alfonso Arau Plot summary: Como agua para chocolate signaled a turning point in Mexican cinema, when the film industry changed dramatically for multiple reasons, covered elsewhere by writers such as Deborah Shaw and Stephen M. Hart. It broke box office records and brought Mexican…
Cuartelazo / Military Coup
Media Type: Film Year: 1976 Who wrote / made it : Alberto Isaac Plot summary: “Lo unico que nos enseña la historia es que el hombre no aprende nada de la historia…” [the only thing history teaches us is that man learns nothing from history…] appears before the opening credits and sets the tone of…
Las mujeres de mi general
Media Type: Film Year: 1950 Who wrote / made it : Ismael Rodríguez Plot summary: Las mujeres de mi General (Ismael Rodríguez, 1950) has class struggle as a central defining theme, embodying this in two female characters. Emilio García Riera identifies the character Juan Zepeda (Pedro Infante) in Las mujeres de mi General as a…
Café Colón
Media Type: Film Year: 1958 Who wrote / made it : Benito Alzaraki Plot summary: Released in 1958, Café Colón tells the story of Monica (María Félix), a nightclub singer working in the eponymous café in México City under siege. Again, she is a woman who “[n]unca jamás nadie puede dominarte”, when General Sebastián Robles…
Las coronelas
Media Type: Film Year: 1953 Who wrote / made it : Rafael Baledon Plot summary: Cross-dressing is a source of absurd fun in Las Coronelas (Rafael Baledon, 1959). The film tells the story of twin daughters whose father’s life is saved through them being promised as soldiers to the ridiculous General Nicolas Rosas (Andrés Soler)…
La Valentina
Media Type: Film Year: 1965 Who wrote / made it : Rogelio A. González Plot summary: La Valentina (Rogelio A. González, 1965) stars María Félix as the eponymous heroine. By the mid-sixties, the subject of the Revolution has become tired. Instead of being the great heroine of the battlefield, La Valentina becomes a typical ‘raptada’…