Viva Zapata! (1952)

20th Century- Fox
Director: Elia Kazan
Starring: Marlon Brando, Jean Peters, Anthony Quinn

Honors:
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor

In a background of a politically dividing post-war America comes a motion picture about the divide between corrupt politicians the poorer class they take advantage of, and the man that fought against the exploitation. Following the success of the previous year’s A Streetcar Named Desire, director Elia Kazan and rapidly rising star actor Marlon Brando team up again with a feature equally driven by characters, despite being a challenge of their first picture shot primarily on location. Using the early century historical figure of a neighboring nation the feature was a quiet political statement film featuring some significant known names of Hollywood.

 

Viva Zapata! is a western historical drama sharing a fictionalized account of the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata. A meek farming peasant recognizing the corruption of Mexican leadership, Emiliano Zapata (Marlon Brando) helps organize part of the uprising that becomes the Mexican Revolution which overthrows the government. Displeased at how the new men of power are no less corrupt than the ones they replaced Zapata continues to fight for the freedoms and rights of his people, becoming a leader of justice for the poorer citizens. Zapata’s moral ways lead to many conflicts, including having to confront his brother and former right-hand man Eufemio (Anthony Quinn), and Zapata’s own eventual demise in a deadly ambush. Though gone Zapata’s legacy leaves a groundswell within the people to continue to fight injustice.

 

More of a revolutionary tale set in Mexico rather than a western, this picture moves rather slow considering the expectations of its setting. Focusing more on the characters than the action the picture feels as if Kazan struggles between the political statements he is known for and the filmmaking and style he is not accustomed to. The picture features a decent script by acclaimed writer John Steinbeck and the challenge of Kazan filming in the bright desert sun that contrasts his usually darker and moodier soundstage filming locations. Starring Marlon Brando under unfamiliar makeup to have him appear darker and look more ethnic, his performance is contrasted by the award winning performance of Anthony Quinn which carries much more authenticity. One can see how this film would have been a nice subtle statement film of its day, but a sharper eye can spot the behind the scenes issues with censorship and Hollywood politics that keep this feature light enough to be marketable. All these years later, though, the picture can be more problematic with a douse of Hollywood whitewashing being an issue ages poorly.

 

Emiliano Zapata as a subject for a motion picture was claimed to be an idea of Elia Kazan back in the late 1940s pitching it to author and future Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck who said he was already doing research on the figure for a possible work. The collaboration would be greenlit by 20^th Century-Fox and set Kazan on his first production that would be shot on location, or his “first real film” as he would recount it later.

 

Immediately support for the project came from Anthony Quinn, the Mexican-American actor whose father fought in the Mexican Revolution. Quinn would however be initially disappointed with the casting of the titular star in Marlon Brando. Despite a respect of the rising method actor, he found displeasure in a non-Mexican actor in a role of the significant figure of his home country. As brothers that would come to fight later in the feature Kazan manipulated Quinn to deliver the friction filled performance with Brando. Utilizing both men’s history having portrayed Stanley in the hit Broadway production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” Kazan claimed to Quinn that Brando panned his performance after replacing Brando on the stage. The result was Quinn being mostly cold towards Brando all through shooting on as well as off camera, planting the tension Kazan wanted from Quinn’s performance. It was not until years later the two men discovered how Kazan deceived them, returning their always respectful relationship into a good friendship.

 

Like any role he accepted Brando took the character of Zapata very seriously, even secretly embarking on a trip to Mexico to study dialect and gain a better understanding of the culture. He would develop an accent for the role which was considered poor by Kazan and was quickly toned way down, eliminating part of the authenticity Brando endeavored to bring to Zapata. Brando insisted on doing his own makeup, utilizing painful wire loops to widen his nose, reshaping his eyes, and darkening his skin in effort to mold himself into looking like the real life revolutionary. Both Brando and Quinn were nominated for their performances, for the second year in a row Brando came up short of the acting prize while Quinn took home Best Supporting Actor statue, the first Mexican-American to win an Oscar.

 

In a picture dominated by male conflict there is a lone major female role in the story, the wife of Zapata, Josefa, portrayed by Jean Peters. Many many actresses had vied for the role, including a young Marilyn Monroe whom the studio had little faith in, before the casting found the 24 year-old Peters. A melodramatically written role, Josefa serves little in being a true love story figure and more as a foil for Zapata in his maturation into a leader with her gentle help. Makeup was used to darken her for the part, but producers at Fox had it dialed significantly back, to the point of Brando calling producers bigoted for making it appear that a love story only works with a white woman as the point of interest.

 

For a picture of this kind consisting of such progressives as John Steinbeck penning the story, Kazan directing its narrative, and Marlon Brando as star, 20^th Century-Fox had a difficult task of wrangling the production to fit the confines of the Production Code. Not only was Hollywood along with the rest of America battling the Red Scare, but this movie would test how far it would take things with depicting political history of their neighbors to the South. Liberties were taken with the story as Zapata’s life was altered to make him a more sympathized character, depicting him as an illiterate peasant when in real life he was from money and educated. While Viva Zapata! is still watched today, there was a second version of the film produced that was meant only for the Mexican markets as to not upset America’s friendly neighbors. Of course, that version was short lived.

 

When Viva Zapata! released in mid-February of 1952 it was met with generally positive reviews focusing mostly on the acting and characters. Considering its early year release the fact it received five Academy Award nominations is quite an achievement with Steinbeck nominated for his screenplay, Alex North for the score, and a nomination for art direction. Anthony Quinn Oscar would prove to be the lone win for the picture, but the five nods would still be rather good for such a liberal feature in a still very conservative Hollywood.

 

For Elia Kazan, the film was not one of his best works having been outshined by his screenwriter and actors in reviews. The western setting was hindered by its lack of stylish vistas more commonly portrayed by the likes of John Ford or other successful Hollywood visionaries, but as mentioned before this is less a western and more a classic Kazan feature that happens to take place in a western setting.

 

Time has not been too kind to the feature with Brando in a Mexican role and the idea of whitewashing frowned upon by contemporary audiences. However, considering the time when it was made and the more respect it was given compared to other whitewashed pictures of its time, with the help from some progressive minds in the industry this film is not terrible. It is just more difficult to digest now than it was then. Zapata was a unique role for Brando and that may just be the legacy of this picture as we study it today.