And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself

Action, Biography, Drama

Antonio Banderas	Pancho Villa
Eion Bailey	Frank Thayer
Alan Arkin	Sam Drebben
Jim Broadbent	Harry Aitken
Matt Day	John Reed
Michael McKean	William Christy Cabanne
Colm Feore	D.W. Griffith
Alexa Davalos	Teddy Sampson
Anthony Head	William Benton
Kyle Chandler	Raoul Walsh

Director	Bruce Beresford
Producer	Juanita F. Diana; Lourdes Diaz
Writer	Larry Gelbart

Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa allowed a Hollywood crew to film him in battle, altering the course of film and military history in the process. The adventure gets its start when early movie giants D.W. Griffith and Harry Aiken send a junior executive, Frank Thayer, to Mexico to persuade the cash-strapped, publicity-hungry Villa to let them film his revolution. Stepping into the literal cross fire, Thayer's crew risk their lives in the mingling of fiction and reality. After a string of dangerous exploits, narrow escapes and double crosses worthy of a silent action short, Thayer and Villa make their movie, and "The Life of General Villa" is released in the U.S. to popular acclaim. The film changes the public opinion in Villa's favor and proves that "the lens is mightier than the sword."