Revolution Trilogy


The Revolution Trilogy is a series of 1930s movies about the Mexican Revolution by Fernando de Fuentes: El prisionero trece, El compadre Mendoza and Vámonos con Pancho Villa. All three share a disenchanted view of the conflict, in opposition to the more common romantic, folk, and heroic viewpoints present in more well-known productions.

Three portraits of the same conflict

According to Mraz, De Fuentes dedicates each film to one theme of conflict and loss:
The three movies were not well received by audiences. Particularly ill-met was the 1936 Vámonos con Pancho Villa, which only lasted one week in theatres and ultimately led to the production company's bankruptcy. Nevertheless, thanks to critics and cineclubs, the trilogy was rediscovered and reevaluated during the 1960s as a milestone in Mexican cinema.
In 2010, to commemorate the war's centenary, Filmoteca de la UNAM released a DVD edition of the restored version of the trilogy, the first attempt to popularize these films since their initial release in the 1930s.