Absolutely Fantastic

A lot of fun.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Released in 1968, "Villa Rides" stars Robert Mitchum as a Texas pilot/gunrunner who is thrust into the Mexican Revolution by his own greed. After being disillusioned by the Colorados (Orozquistas), he hooks up with bandit-turned-nationalist Pancho Villa (Yul Brynner) & his hardened patriots to face off against the Colorados in Northern Mexico. Charles Bronson and Robert Viharo play Villa's grim and merry assistants respectively while Maria Grazia Buccella is on hand as a woman that strikes the pilot's fancy. Herbert Lom appears as an enemy general while Alexander Knox plays naïve President Madero. Jill Ireland has a small role at the end. Sam Peckinpah wrote the original screenplay and was slated to direct, but Brynner felt the script made Villa out to be too harsh, so Yul used his pull to get Robert Towne to rewrite it and the producers pursued another director, ending up with Buzz Kulik.While this is more historical fiction than reality, it does successfully bring you back in time to the Mexican Revolution and helps you envision what it must have been like to ride with the legendary Villa. The movie definitely has more credibility than the incongruously-toned "Pancho Villa" (1972) with Telly Savalas in the titular role (although that Western is worth catching just for Villa's "invasion" of America with his raid on Columbus, New Mexico, a town three miles from the border, on March 9, 1916). The first half of "Villa Rides" is a decent Western, but the action-packed second half starts to go off the rails, as far as sustaining the viewer's interest. The filmmakers obviously needed to take more time to work the kinks out and draw forth the film's potential. The movie runs 122 minutes and was shot in Guadalajara, Castilla-La Mancha & Madrid, Spain and Mexico (Chihuahua, Sonora & Guanajuato City). GRADE: Borderline C+/B-

I saw this movie long ago and still remember it well enough to place a comment, so its not to bad. Westerns are my favorite movies but that's doesn't mean i like them all, i like the shootist with John Wayne but think that most Wayne movies are not that good....this one with Brynner, Bronson and Mitchum is just plain and simple a Hollywood fabrication and fun to watch,especially Bronson as Fierro. He portrays the very hard merciless right-hand of villa,(and comes up with some very nice inventions). All and all i think its time they should release it on DVD so i could add it to my collection and watch it again after so many years

This Movie is Great, besides the action & adventure , there are Great performances for this B movie that most of the times just keeps teeners (boys mainly) from the street en from their homework ! its also a movie that brings the child back in the Man ! However, besides that, i love this movie Mainly for the role of Charles Bronson, who as Fiero is a Hard ("bad") man who you gonna Love ! His portrayel is marvelous and funny !! and don't forget the Magnificent Soundtrack score from Maurice Jarre !!

Rarely has such a star-studded cast and crew been so wasted as in this deeply-flawed quasi-historical account of the career of the Mexican bandit-patriot Pancho Villa. Yul Brynner is woefully miscast in the lead, Robert Mitchum sleepwalks his way through the film (as usual). Only Charles Bronson contributes any punch or power to the film (no, Herbert Lom is also fine as the corrupt and vicious General Huerta). I understand that Sam Pekinpah, who wrote the original screenplay and was replaced at the urging of star Brynner, disavowed any responsibility for what resulted, as did the writer Robert Towne, who replaced him. A sad mess.