Old Gringo

many have described the movie very well, good actors & authentic scenery.i enjoyed watching, gregory peck is such a superb actor, every movie heacts in is usually very good.

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.

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 ThomsonFlares into Darkness.

You can't go wrong with Gregory Peck, Jimmy Smits, and Jane Fonda. A wonderfully romantic story, and each played a perfect part. It is one of my all-time favorites, and I watch it over and over!

Once in a rare while you find a film in which the entire project utilized EVERY possible element to make it exceptional. Jane Fondanot only acted but thought so much of this project, she actively Produced it. The great Gregory Peck grasped a totally reversenegative role from his usual upright character, but gave it merit and total effort. Jimmy Smits seemed to BE his character: a betterchoice does not seem possible. Every action scene seemed authentic. There is one gracious scene of Peck telling Jane a trulygracious memory about a girl in his youth that is, of itself, worthy of true value.

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.

Have no Idea of a review. Was sent in Spanish and for a different Zone that what would play here in the US> Very disappointed with this sale.

I've always loved this movie, and happy that I now have my own copy!