Jane FondaOld Gringo [DVD]

I saw this movie when it first came out, and it received modest reviews. I remember really enjoying it. I watched again yesterday, and enjoyed it even more. I am not a great fan of movies that rely on steamy sex every 10 minutes, massive fireball explosions, and a violent fight or murder every 20 minutes; perhaps that is why movies that some reviews call slow moving are not such to me. This movie fictionalizes the end of the life of the famous writer Ambrose Bierce. Bierce is thought to have gone to Mexico near the end of his life when he was ill, and to have met and even travelled with Pancho Villa, and that he was last seen in Chihuahua Mexico on December 26, 1913. This has become quite accepted popularly, but biographer Walter Neale, also a close friend of Bierce, claims the writer was too old and ill with asthma to have ridden to Mexico, and that he had been critical of Villa. Regardless, the book written by Carlos Fuentes, the basis for this movie, uses the unknown end of Bierce to create a fictional end to Bierce’ life. Jane Fonda plays the American woman hired to tutor the children of a wealthy ranch owner (Miranda). Gregory Peck plays Bierce, known only as “The Old Gringo”. Jimmy Smits plays the idealistic young General Arroyo. I have not studied Villa’s life in detail, but General Arroyo appears also to be a fictional character. Here he is the biological son of the Miranda patriarch, created from the rape of his mother in Fuentes' novel. Harriet Winslow – Fonda’s character becomes attracted to the temperamental General and sleeps with him. In Fuentes book, the sex is actually forced initially. The Old Gringo has a wish to die, the Winslow character wishes to “civilize” Mexican children, and the young General seems torn between his revolutionary ideals and keeping the land for himself through some titles granted to Mexican natives before the Miranda’s occupied the property. These are the papers he has and that the Old Gringo burns in his attempts to get the General to come out of his indecision and do his duty. Winslow also has finally come to terms with the fact that her own father did not die a hero in Cuba, but rather deserted her and her mother for a woman he found there. The movie plays the tension between these three characters very well. The cinematography is excellent. The scenes of festivities and village life are very well done. I actually liked the plot – the old Gringo befriending the young General, developing his own romantic fantasies for the much younger woman, and the young woman being a willing sex partner for the sullen, handsome, idealistic young general. The Young General is probably the weakest character in terms of credibility– his confusion between taking his army to Villa as he is supposed to do, and staying in the grand hacienda of his biological father seems awkward and at times, even contorted. But it plays well into the plot. The ending is tragic of course, but what can be expected of this trio of characters? It would certainly be a soppy and unbelievable ending if the Old Gringo died at peace with himself and the world, and the woman and the general rode off in romantic bliss to live happily ever after! The acting throughout was excellent, but the ending scenes may have been the best. I give it 5 stars without hesitation.

This movie was a surprise to me and a pleasant one and I would actually rate it four and a half stars. While I have never read the book on which it is based, I found it a haunting and memorable work of art in itself. The figure of Ambrose Bierce, as played by Gregory Peck, is quite fascinating but unless you are familiar with the writer (and even if you are)you may find the characterization rather hard to comprehend. However, Peck's performance is strong enough to carry you along despite this and his interaction with the other two characters--the frustrated spinster, played beautifully by Fonda, and the volatile and sexy rebel general played equally well by Smits--is totally engrossing. The love triangle, which seemed more of a father-daughter-lover relationship, could have been fleshed out more but was still pretty riveting. However, the real pull of the film is the beauty of the cinematography in battle scenes, love scenes and interiors, equally; the passion and brutality of the revolutionaries and at the same time their humanity, and the connection between the rather wildly different three central characters based on that humanity and despite the brutality, all during an epic era in the history of Mexico. I have watched this film several times now and each time I find new reasons to admire it, not the least of which is that it is just a wonderful story about characters who are electric, vibrant and mesmerizing in their search for meaning in their lives. It is fast becoming one of my all-time favorites.

Gregory Peck, Jane Fonda, Jimmy Smits, are politically left of center. Their involvement in the filming of leftist novelist Carlos Fuentes' "Old Gringo" almost certainly expresses their own infatuation with radical politics. How tragic. This film is nothing more than a romanticization of a failure. Do you want to know why Mexico is today a poverty stricken nation? Why so many of its citizens desperately desire to escape to the United States? Much of this has to do with the murderous activities of Pancho Villa and other so-called revolutionaries in the early part of the twentieth Century. They left the Mexicans unable to form a viable government. The rule of law was rejected in favor of revolutionary dictators claiming to represent the wishes of the common folk. Gregory Peck portrays Ambrose Bierce who naively considered Villa to be another George Washington. What can I add concerning the infamous Ms. Fonda? She has, in real life, even praised Communism. In this particular role as Harriet Winslow, Fonda is far too old. Another reviewer correctly pointed out that she looks every bit of her fifty one years---and the part calls for a woman who is much younger. Fonda could literally be Jimmy Smits' (Gen. Tomas Arroyo) mother. I was unable to take seriously their romance.Ambrose Bierce is trying to make sense of his long life before passing onto the great unknown. The spinster Harriet Winslow is an existential mess. She is a true believer type easily seduced by the utopian fantasies of a better world---which usually end up causing substantially more misery in the real one. Bierce is trying to get the trigger happy Arroyo to kill him. Will he succeed? Should we care? The answer: we should not.David ThomsonFlares into Darkness.

In spite of reading the other scathing review on this site of this dvd, I still went ahead in purchasing it, if only to add to my Gregory Peck collection. And I'm glad I did! Granted, it's not Mr Peck's best movie but, for me, it was enjoyable enough, and his performance as a tired old writer suffering from the effects of advanced emphacemia was in my view a good, believable one. More could have been done to liven up the proceedings overall, but this was the whole point of the story - these band of men wanting to fight their cause but being prevented from doing so by their leader not willing to move from their comfortable camp, and this spirit of enforced boredom on them was captured well enough. The scene where the voluptuous young 'lady' offering her services to the ageing Gregory Peck brought a smile to my face, as did the kiss between Jane Fonda and Mr Peck, which Ms Fonda apparently insisted on many re-takes to get it right. Overall, I would recommend this to any Gregory Peck fan and for that, together with the wonderful theme music at the end, I am giving it 5 stars!

While set during the Mexican revolution this is not a film with violence at it's core (most of the action sequences occur in the first third). I felt that it was about individuals trying to find themselves; the old writer trying to find a way to die with honour, the middle aged spinster breaking out of the civilised and suffocating norms of polite society, and the young revolutionary beguiled by the world he is supposed to be rebelling against.It's a far from perfect film; the director seemed to lose control at some point during the attack on the hacienda, and it was not altogether clear what was going on for a while. Jane Fonda was 52 at the time and the role seemed more suited to someone 10 years younger. But there are positives too; Peck is good, I think, as the old embittered writer, and the story -in setting and content- is different enough to be intriguing.It's a 25 year old film but I found it worth watching.

not a bad film ,set in the early 1900`s in mexico , i believe this was gregory peck`s last film ,

DVD arrived with plastic sleeve completely smashed to bits

Una zitella americana, stanca delle ipocrisie della propria famiglia decide di cambiare vita e si reca in Messico come insegnante dei figli di una ricca famiglia locale.Ma quando vi giunge, è già scoppiata la rivoluzione guidata da Pancho Villa.Il destino la porta a conoscere un generale dell'esercito di Villa ed un vecchio e frustrato scrittore americano chiamato "Old Gringo".I destini dei tre personaggi si incontrano in mezzo alla rivoluzione ed alle battaglie.E sarà una storia che segnerà per sempre la vita della donna.Ottime le interpretazioni di Jane Fonda, Gregory Peck ed un bravo Jimmy Smits nei panni del generale messicano.Buona la qualità del DVD.