Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF
Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF
Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF
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de Francisco Villa, qui fini président du<br />
Mexique à la fin du film). Avec ce film, la<br />
Mutual réalisa son objectif, qui était de<br />
redonner la confiance du public américain à<br />
Villa, en le représentant comme un<br />
personnage affable et populaire. Ces images<br />
n’ont jamais essayé de dépeindre les<br />
motivations sociales de Villa et de ses<br />
partisans, ni de commenter ses origines et<br />
ses objectifs (John Reed s’en est chargé à<br />
travers ses articles publiés dans le<br />
Metropolitan Magazine réunis plus tard<br />
sous le titre Mexico Insurgent). La partie<br />
documentaire du film, qui prévaut bien<br />
entendu sur sa partie romancée, a servi de<br />
base pour la prise de décisions politiques<br />
nord-américaines alors que de puissants<br />
médias, comme celui de W.R. Hearst,<br />
essayaient de faire pencher leur<br />
gouvernement vers une occupation totale du<br />
Mexique.<br />
1 In 1909 Charles Pathé began the<br />
systematization <strong>of</strong> information on film<br />
with his Pathé <strong>Journal</strong>. Its American<br />
edition in turn marked the beginning <strong>of</strong><br />
film journalism in the United States in<br />
August, 1911. That same month marked<br />
the beginning <strong>of</strong> The Vitagraph Monthly <strong>of</strong><br />
Current Events.<br />
2 Friedrich Katz. The Secret War in<br />
Mexico. Europe, the United States and the<br />
Mexican Revolution. Chicago. The<br />
University <strong>of</strong> Chicago Press. 1981, p.<br />
150.<br />
3 “With Villa in Mexico”. Reel Life. May 9,<br />
1914, pp. 10-11.<br />
4 “The Battle <strong>of</strong> Torreon and The Life <strong>of</strong><br />
General Villa”. The Motion Picture News.<br />
May 23, 1914, p.58.<br />
5 “The <strong>Film</strong> <strong>of</strong> Villa-Torreon as seen by War<br />
Correspondents”. Reel Life, May 23, 1914.<br />
P.29.<br />
6 Iris Barry “Prefacio” to the work by<br />
Lewis Jacobs published in Barcelona,<br />
Lumen under the title: La azarosa historia<br />
del cine americano, 2 vols., vol.1, p.13.<br />
saying that the expedition returned to the US without having found<br />
any trace <strong>of</strong> Villa.<br />
Douglas Fairbanks, in the film His Majesty, The American (1919),<br />
expresses very clearly the extremely negative view Americans had <strong>of</strong><br />
Mexicans and especially <strong>of</strong> Francisco Villa, as well as their<br />
interventionist tendencies not only with regard to Mexico but Russia<br />
as well, at a time when radicals were well entrenched in power. In<br />
the film Fairbanks works in New York in all manner <strong>of</strong> jobs from<br />
fireman to policeman among other things, in spite <strong>of</strong> being the son <strong>of</strong><br />
a rich family with more than enough money to live on. A caption at<br />
the beginning presents him as a popular philosopher who comments<br />
humorously on life in a huge city in comparison with the romantic<br />
and athletic possibilities <strong>of</strong> life to the south <strong>of</strong> the Rio Grande. One<br />
day he arrives at the <strong>of</strong>fice <strong>of</strong> the Mayor <strong>of</strong> New York to complain<br />
about the many problems <strong>of</strong> the city, only to be told that if he wants<br />
to see real problems he should go to Mexico. He gets onto a train. As<br />
he travels the story unfolds <strong>of</strong> how the peace <strong>of</strong> Alaine, in Europe, a<br />
centuries-old monarchy, was broken by demagogues stirring up the<br />
masses, a direct allusion to Russia in 1919 in the throes <strong>of</strong> its<br />
revolution. A gunshot awakens him. Frightened, he asks: “Are we in<br />
murderous Mexico?” He is at Peace Vale, Texas, still a 100 miles from<br />
Mexico. He completes his journey by donkey. When he arrives at last<br />
in Mexico, the following caption appears:<br />
Presenting MURDEROUS MEXICO (where you can expect to find)<br />
Bullets<br />
Bandits<br />
Featuring: Francisco Villa<br />
He admires the peacefulness <strong>of</strong> the countryside. He lights a cigar on<br />
the sun burnt ground. He asks why the place is so desolate. He is<br />
told that the inhabitants are dead because Villa makes a visit every<br />
year to kill people. Fairbanks’ visit coincides with Villa’s annual<br />
arrival, who rides through the village scattering terror. Fairbanks<br />
catches up with him and with one acrobatic leap drags him from his<br />
horse. They fight and Fairbanks drowns Villa in a muddy pond. The<br />
village regains its confidence. The inhabitants feel “saved” from their<br />
nightmare. The excessive caricature <strong>of</strong> Villa and the exaggeration <strong>of</strong><br />
the situation in Alaine were examples <strong>of</strong> the new positioning <strong>of</strong> the<br />
United States as a world power emerging from the First World War,<br />
trying to expand its political and economical control, an effort in<br />
which movies were to play an important role. In reaction other<br />
countries were to initiate a process aimed at limiting the<br />
representation <strong>of</strong> their countrymen in American films, conditioned by<br />
the political and economical interests involved. A phrase by Iris Barry<br />
expresses the fact very clearly: “Although it is true that other<br />
countries have also contributed to the volume <strong>of</strong> film production<br />
since 1895, the film industry has grown to be an essentially<br />
American expression, and the history <strong>of</strong> cinema has grown to be part<br />
<strong>of</strong> the history <strong>of</strong> the United States”.6<br />
40 <strong>Journal</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Film</strong> <strong>Preservation</strong> / 63 / 2001