Old Gringo
| Old Gringo | |
|---|---|
Theatrical Poster
|
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| Directed by | Luis Puenzo |
| Produced by | Lois Bonfiglio |
| Screenplay by |
Aída Bortnik Luis Puenzo |
| Story by | Carlos Fuentes |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Lee Holdridge |
| Cinematography | Félix Monti |
| Edited by |
William M. Anderson Glenn Farr Juan Carlos Macías |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
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Release date
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October 6, 1989 |
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Running time
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119 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $27 million |
| Box office | $3,574,256 |
Old Gringo is a 1989 American romantic adventure film starring Jane Fonda, Gregory Peck and Jimmy Smits. It was directed by Luis Puenzo and co-written with Aída Bortnik, based on the novel Gringo Viejo by Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes.
The film was screened out of competition at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.
American schoolteacher Harriet Winslow (Jane Fonda) goes to Mexico to work as a governess for the Miranda family, and becomes caught up in the Mexican revolution. Mexicans transporting her from Chihuahua, secretly soldiers of Pancho Villa's army, use her luggage to smuggle weapons to the servants at the Miranda hacienda. The servants in turn aid the attacking revolutionary army of General Tomas Arroyo (Jimmy Smits). During the attack, a sardonic "Old Gringo", American author Ambrose Bierce (Gregory Peck), joins the fighting on the side of the revolutionaries; he operates a railway switch that sends a railroad flatcar laden with explosives to its target.
After the Miranda hacienda is taken, Winslow becomes romantically attracted alternately to Bierce and then Arroyo. Bierce has come to Mexico to die in anonymity; he feels that his fifty years as a writer have won him praise only for his style, not for the truth that he's tried to tell. Arroyo, by contrast, has returned to the hacienda where he was born. His father was a Miranda who had raped his peasant mother. Later in his youth, Arroyo murdered his father.
While his army enjoys previously unknown luxuries on the war-damaged palatial estate, Arroyo becomes obsessed with his past. Transfixed by childhood memories of his family buried there, he fails to move his army when ordered by Villa. To bring Arroyo to his senses and avert a mutiny of his officers, Bierce burns papers that the illiterate Arroyo considers sacred—papers that supposedly entitle the peasants to the hacienda land. Arroyo responds by shooting Bierce in the back, killing him. Bierce dies in Winslow's arms.
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Wikipedia