Historical event or fictional war?
does anyone know if the revolution depicted in this film is based on a actual revolution or a fictional one? if it is set during an actual revolution which one is it?
share[deleted]
MovieChat Forums > Giù la testa (1972) Discussion > Historical event or fictional war?
If you get the chance to view the extras on the Special Edition DVD you'll find Leone based this film at a very specific time and place, similar to his use of the Sibley/Canby 1862 Rio Grande campaign in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
This film takes place in 1913 and 1914. In the stagecoach scene we hear Madero has given the land to the peasants, who have "almost" won a revolution, but now Huerta is bringing order back the country. Madero was overthrown in February 1913 and Huerta resigned in July 1914, so the film takes place within this timescale.
Yes, but the real reality og the film is History of Modern Italy.
The film is Leone settling accounts with the Italian Left, its empty phrases of revolution, its worshipping of idols (each faction its own idol - Marx, Mao, Bakunin etc. - of course meaning that those people who worship the 'wrong' idol are heretics, traitors and so on). Just listen Juan Miranda's talking-to Sean/John in the camp - so don't talk to me of revolution.
But most of all it is Leone settling accounts with the Italian Right - the Fascists:
The young deserter who gets hauled down from the train and instntly executed looks like young Mussolini.
So does Governor Jaime (B.M. around WWI).
The massacre in the pits of Mesa Verde, the execution of the partisans - with Judas/Villega lookning on - and the massacre in the cave (where all of Miranda's family gets killed) are reminders of that 'maybe the revolutionaires are criminals, but there is a brutal reason to why'.
Actual. Pancho Villa is a real person.
The Mexican Constitution of 1920 came out of that war.
- The Truth is Out There, and I found it in Christ!
[deleted]
All real, except for the Governor character in the movie. People tend to believe that he is Huerta but he's a totally unrelated character. The screenplay refers to him as Don Jaime.
share"This film takes place in 1913 and 1914. In the stagecoach scene we hear Madero has given the land to the peasants, who have "almost" won a revolution, but now Huerta is bringing order back the country. Madero was overthrown in February 1913 and Huerta resigned in July 1914, so the film takes place within this timescale."
But there is a problem with this. This time periodization is not consisent with the past of John Mallory as presented in the film. He is fleeing the "Irish Revolution" but the event that precipitated this was the 1916 uprising in Dublin and most of the events of the Irish Revolution or "the Troubles" took place between 1919 and 1921. So at it's earliest the event depicted could only have taken place in 1916.
"I have an appointment with eternity and I don't want to be late"
[deleted]
There are a few Irish anachronisms as well...
---
It's not "sci-fi", it's SF!
As mentioned in my thread about references to Italian history and WWII, Don Jaime looks exactly like young Mussolini from about 1915.
See the movie another time in that light: Leone's reference is to another war - the civil war that ravaged Italy for at least twenty-five years (and maybe still goes on?). This movie is filled with such references, probably references I don't see; you'll have to be a real expert on Italian Fascism to see those!
The Mexican revolutionaries (and counter-revolutionaries) and Sean Mallory as an out-of-time IRA man are just the characters that takes the story 'down the road'. It says that you can't go through life keeping your head down (contrary to the Italian title Giù la testa) - you sometimes have to stick your neck out for somebody else!
[deleted]
Loosely based on the Mexican revolution early in the last century but has an ever lasting truth to it: The intelligent ones read the books and tell the poor change needs to happen and the poor do it and die. The smart ones left behind remake the country and nothing ever really changed.
share