Old Gringo

Starring:Jane Fonda, Gregory Peck, Jimmy Smits, Patricio Contreras, Jenny Gago, Gabriela Roel, Sergio CalderÃ³n, Guillermo RÃos, Jim Metzler, Samuel Valadez De La Torre, Anne Pitoniak, Pedro ArmendÃ¡riz Jr., Stanley Grover, Josefina EchÃ¡nove, Pedro DamiÃ¡n, Maya Zapata, JosÃ© Olivares, Alicia del Lago, Carlos CardÃ¡n, Evangelista Sosa Martinez
Director: Luis Puenzo
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Extraordinary!!
The Romanticization of Failure
Jane Fonda As A Spinster? You Gotta Be Kidding Me!
Engrossing, Haunting and Beautiful
Unlikely Romantic Triangle Set in Pancho Villa's Mexico

Old Gringo
Starring: Jane Fonda , Gregory Peck , Jimmy Smits , Patricio Contreras , and Jenny Gago
Director: Luis Puenzo
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

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Similar Items:

The Old Gringo: A Novel
The Bravados
Geronimo - An American Legend
MacKenna's Gold
The Professionals (Special Edition)

ASIN: B000067D25
Release Date: 2002-07-02

Customer Reviews:

Extraordinary!!.......2007-04-13

Few movies are better than the book that contains the history that inspires them. Old Gringo is an example. Carlos Fuentes wrote Gringo Viejo and in my opinion, this is his more successful work; but Fuentes is lazy and some chapters of his books are unconnected. Nevertheless, the movie has a perfect rhythm. Each personage has an extraordinary evolution during the whole film.

There cannot be the slightest doubt: Gregory Peck was the perfect actor for to be Ambrose Bierce.

The Romanticization of Failure.......2007-01-16

Gregory Peck, Jane Fonda, Jimmy Smits, are politically left of center. Their involvement in the filming of leftist novelist Carlos Fuentes' "Old Gringo" almost certainly expresses their own infatuation with radical politics. How tragic. This film is nothing more than a romanticization of a failure. Do you want to know why Mexico is today a poverty stricken nation? Why so many of its citizens desperately desire to escape to the United States? Much of this has to do with the murderous activities of Pancho Villa and other so-called revolutionaries in the early part of the twentieth Century. They left the Mexicans unable to form a viable government. The rule of law was rejected in favor of revolutionary dictators claiming to represent the wishes of the common folk. Gregory Peck portrays Ambrose Bierce who naively considered Villa to be another George Washington. What can I add concerning the infamous Ms. Fonda? She has, in real life, even praised Communism. In this particular role as Harriet Winslow, Fonda is far too old. Another reviewer correctly pointed out that she looks every bit of her fifty one years---and the part calls for a woman who is much younger. Fonda could literally be Jimmy Smits' (Gen. Tomas Arroyo) mother. I was unable to take seriously their romance.

Ambrose Bierce is trying to make sense of his long life before passing onto the great unknown. The spinster Harriet Winslow is an existential mess. She is a true believer type easily seduced by the utopian fantasies of a better world---which usually end up causing substantially more misery in the real one. Bierce is trying to get the trigger happy Arroyo to kill him. Will he succeed? Should we care? The answer: we should not.

David Thomson
Flares into Darkness.

Jane Fonda As A Spinster? You Gotta Be Kidding Me!.......2006-09-23

In this movie we have the Real Life Of Oft Married Jane Fonda looking every one of her 51 years and trying to convince the viewer that she is a "spinster" which is a euphenism for the girls in my High School Class . Then we have the Academically Jaded Gregory Peck who bids farewell to his life of books and heads to Mexico. At the time this film was released I saw an interview with Ms. Fonda who seemed to have a Mutual Admiration Society going on with Mr. Peck and she was in rapture at Jimmy Smits being the next BIG star which didn't happen.The peasant women of loose moral character in this movie discover the Joys Of A Corset through Ms. Fonda which they feel gives them lots of power in getting the Mexican Soldiers to be willing to fight, get blown up and die. They are kind of like the Mexican Version of Cheerleaders from what I can gather. I don't know where all the big bucks went in the making of this movie but the scenery is quite pretty which is why I give it 5 stars.

Engrossing, Haunting and Beautiful .......2005-10-12

This movie was a surprise to me and a pleasant one and I would actually rate it four and a half stars. While I have never read the book on which it is based, I found it a haunting and memorable work of art in itself. The figure of Ambrose Bierce, as played by Gregory Peck, is quite fascinating but unless you are familiar with the writer (and even if you are)you may find the characterization rather hard to comprehend. However, Peck's performance is strong enough to carry you along despite this and his interaction with the other two characters--the frustrated spinster, played beautifully by Fonda, and the volatile and sexy rebel general played equally well by Smits--is totally engrossing. The love triangle, which seemed more of a father-daughter-lover relationship, could have been fleshed out more but was still pretty riveting. However, the real pull of the film is the beauty of the cinematography in battle scenes, love scenes and interiors, equally; the passion and brutality of the revolutionaries and at the same time their humanity, and the connection between the rather wildly different three central characters based on that humanity and despite the brutality, all during an epic era in the history of Mexico. I have watched this film several times now and each time I find new reasons to admire it, not the least of which is that it is just a wonderful story about characters who are electric, vibrant and mesmerizing in their search for meaning in their lives. It is fast becoming one of my all-time favorites.

Unlikely Romantic Triangle Set in Pancho Villa's Mexico.......2004-11-26

Argentinean director Luis Puenzo seems like a smart choice to helm this epic drama since his specialty seems to be offering probing character studies in the face of larger sociopolitical issues. But this 1989 movie falls short of expectations, especially if you've read Carlos Fuentes' 1985 novel upon which this movie is based. All the elements for success seem present - a fascinating historical setting (the Mexican Revolution); rather flamboyant characters (both fictitious and fictionalized); explosive battle scenes; dramatic executions; and a romantic triangle with gauzy love scenes. Indeed, the problem is that the elements don't quite add up to a cohesive whole that induces any heartfelt passion. Set in 1913, the story focuses on an American spinster named Harriet Winslow, who has been hired to be a governess for a wealthy Mexican family on their grand hacienda. The beginning of the story shows great promise as the period detail is vivid, and the set-up of the characters promises some intriguing interactions. However, when the three primary characters come together on the hacienda, the plot seems to narrow in scope, and the story's initial gallop slows to a cant until the conclusion.

I was afraid that at 51, Jane Fonda would be at least a decade too old to play Harriet, but she actually looks right most of the time, slightly worn but constantly engaged with the swirl of activities around her. However, with a stellar career spanning three decades, she just doesn't surprise with this performance (unlike, say, her alcoholic has-been actress in 1986's "The Morning After"), and after one more film, she retired from the big screen for the next fifteen years. Granted she is playing an uptight woman on the verge of a political and sexual awakening, she just comes across as too mannered and frankly too wizened to draw the carnal attentions of two completely different men. On the other hand, it's a joy to see the relish with which Gregory Peck plays Ambrose Bierce, the real American journalist who disappeared into Mexico at this time. His charisma intact, he makes palatable his romantic overtures to Harriet and brings a realistic blend of gusto and frailty to his constant philosophizing and his slow march toward death. As the virulent General Arroyo, one of Pancho Villa's men, Jimmy Smits has to maintain a delicate balancing act between quick-tempered, violent revolutionary and smitten romantic hero. He succeeds up to a point, especially in expressing his obsession with past injustices through firepower, but there is little chemistry between him and Fonda, which leaves the ending scenes oddly hollow. The one exception is the firing squad scene, which is sufficiently shocking. The film is not a complete misfire, but given its interesting mix of historical fact and fiction, I wish it was much more than it is, even though in Peck's case, it is.

Average customer rating:

Mountain Men/Old Gringo
Starring: Jane Fonda , Gregory Peck , Jimmy Smits , Patricio Contreras , and Jenny Gago
Director: Luis Puenzo , and Richard Lang
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Westerns | Genres | DVD | Video

( M ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B0007QS4GY
Release Date: 2005-04-05

Average customer rating:

Extraordinary!!
The Romanticization of Failure
Jane Fonda As A Spinster? You Gotta Be Kidding Me!
Engrossing, Haunting and Beautiful
Unlikely Romantic Triangle Set in Pancho Villa's Mexico

Old Gringo [Region 2]
Starring: Jane Fonda , Gregory Peck , Jimmy Smits , Patricio Contreras , and Jenny Gago
Director: Luis Puenzo
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

( O ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

The Old Gringo: A Novel
The Bravados
Geronimo - An American Legend
MacKenna's Gold
The Professionals (Special Edition)

ASIN: B000069JEW

Customer Reviews:

Extraordinary!!.......2007-04-13

The Romanticization of Failure.......2007-01-16

Jane Fonda As A Spinster? You Gotta Be Kidding Me!.......2006-09-23

Engrossing, Haunting and Beautiful .......2005-10-12

Unlikely Romantic Triangle Set in Pancho Villa's Mexico.......2004-11-26

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