Viva Zapata! (1952)

Kazan's rousing semi-fictional account of the key years of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata has an epic sweep and the director's characteristic macho poetry, along with a superb cast, but it's stronger in its parts than as a whole. The script reflects Kazan's desire to reconfigure his "friendly" testimony before HUAC and denunciation of his former political allies as the grand gesture of a man repelled by the machinations of politics. Zapata, who was both more barbaric and less ambitious than the film allows, was a fierce fighter for the self-determination of the peasants, but not quite the noble peasant depicted. While the film tends to bog down in rhetoric at times, the action is invariably well-choreographed and beautifully shot, reflecting the influence of Eisenstein and archival photographs from the Historia Grafica de la Revolucion. Early Brando with Kazan is always worth watching, and his scowl of indignation galvanizes the film in a way that the diffuse script never quite achieves. Quinn is ideal as a crude foil for the more mercurial star, and Joseph Wiseman has the best role of his career as the kind of apparatchik Kazan clearly despised. Of his work with Brando on the film, Kazan wrote, "Sometimes the best direction consists of reading an actor's face, and, when you see the right thing there, simply nodding. A few words, a touch, and a smile will do it. Then wait for a miracle. With Marlon, it often happened." ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide