General Santa Anna: Su Alteza Serenisima

Starring:General Santa Ana
Studio: Desert Mountain
Product Type: DVD

Description

From acclaimed director Felipe Cazals, a highly praised portrait of the generally despised General Antonio López de Santa Anna, who fought his way to the presidency of Mexico in 1833 but quickly revealed his true intentions by becoming dictator of that rich and storied land. In 1836, despite personally leading the army against the Texas rebellion and destroying the defenders of the Alamo, he lost the war of Texas Independence. Nonetheless, he held the reins of government four more times through connivance and temporary heroism. Finally exiled from his homeland, he was allowed to return a few years before dying in 1876. Cazal's film examines the final three days of Santa Anna as he remembers his past.

Customer Reviews:

A story too long for a movie.......2006-10-02

One would not learn much Mexican history from this movie; one would have to know it already. For those who do know, or subsequently learn, some Mexican history, this movie could be interesting. Americans generally know of only one part of Santa Anna's life, his failed Texas campaign. In fact, however, Sam Houston and a few other other influential Texians, with some difficulty, kept Santa Anna from being lynched and sent him overland under guard to Washington, D.C., and an interview with Andrew Jackson, who sent him back to Mexico by sea. Santa Anna participated in the later, and quite distinct, war with the United States, in the war against European invaders, and in many intrigues in the shifting politics of nineteenth-century Mexico. He lived a long life and was president of Mexico on eleven occasions. At least, eleven is the count offered by the note at the end of this movie. The whole story is far too long to tell in a movie.

Except for one short segment, appropriately in blank and white, the movie is set in the last three days of Santa Anna's life, when he has various visitors. The short segment is about the funeral, with full military and religious honors, for his leg, lost in battle. Lest viewers think this a bit of overdone drama, they may need to be told that such a funeral actually took place.

The DVD has English subtitles, but not English voice-overs.

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