Product Details

• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: A&E Home Video
• DVD Release Date: December 27, 2005
• Run Time: 50 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000BF0CL6
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #59,102 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Studio: A&e Home Video Release Date: 12/27/2005

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Like Water for Chocolate Background Video, June 24, 2009

By 

Kathleen M. RUSSELLHARDIN (Santa Barbara, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Biography - Pancho Villa: Outlaw Hero (DVD)

I teach remedial reading and writing at the local community college and use this video when I assign Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate so that students can place the novel in time and see actual footage and stills of life surrounding the de la Garza's ranch. Since the book discusses the revolution both inside the family and the one going on around them nationally I think that the video is an excellent tool for understanding the macrocosm.
(I used a progressively forlorn VHS tape until I broke down and ordered this spiffy DVD.)

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Applies to Today in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, July 9, 2010

By 

Alan D. Cranford (Salt Lake City, Utah USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Biography - Pancho Villa: Outlaw Hero (DVD)

This video covers the life of Pancho Villa, one of the leaders in the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920. Few Americans remember who Pancho Villa is, and those who do remember the Left's image of a dashing hero. This DVD covers both sides of Pancho Villa, both the heroic and the villian side. If Pancho Villa was a current US citizen or even a US general, our political Left would be howling to lynch the man.

The story of Pancho Villa applies to today because of events in the New Mexican town of Columbus during the morning of March 9, 1916. Pancho Villa plundered the town of Columbus and left 18 dead US citizens and soldiers and 8 wounded. The raid proved to be a disaster for Villa, with 5 of his men captured and a further 890 killed--and something like 100 wounded. Worse was the 10,000 man force led by Blackjack Pershing into Mexico. Villa was able to evade Pershing's troops and the Pershing Expedition failed to bring Pancho Villa to "justice." Today's political Left aligns with Villa and not with Woodrow Wilson and Pershing. Times change.

Today a cross-border raid by factions in the on-going low-intensity civil war in Mexico are possible. Raiding a border town and leaving a large number of American corpses behind would embarrass the Obama adminstration. Taking a few dozen hostages would force President Obama to "do something."

But the Columbus Raid didn't just happen. This History Channel DVD gives enough background of Pancho Villa and the situation in Mexico and the southwestern USA to put the raid in context. History is really a messy subject. Why did Pancho Villa raid a sleepy little New Mexico town? What were the long-term results of this raid? This DVD is a good start and will help you understand the danger of today's border situation.

6 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars famous Mexican dude, June 2, 2006

By 

Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Biography - Pancho Villa: Outlaw Hero (DVD)

This documentary covers a Mexican figure that led a raid on U.S. soil. I don't recall reading about this in American history class. I guess tensions between the two nations cannot be summed up by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

This documentary had diverse interviewees: men and women; white Americans, Mexican Americans and Mexican nationals; English speakers and Spanish speakers. There were so many photographs and footage from Villa's time that this work did not depend upon cheesy reenactments.

The work states that Pancho Villa is rapped in myths. He was one part anti-classist equalizer and another part murderous polygamist. Still, it was hard to distill the myth from the facts in this work. He may have "robbed the rich to give to the poor," but his class consciousness did not seem influenced by Marxism. Though Mexican leftists like Rivera and Kahlo may have been book-oriented, Villa was not.

This documentary was made at least five years before Antonio Banderas' film on Villa was released. This work says nothing about Villa collaborating with America's Hollywood. Did the film lie or does the documentary purposely exclude facts that Americans would have found interesting? This work discusses American war tactics that American battle enthusiasts may love to hear.

There is one photo of Villa and Emiliano Zapata. However, the narrator just states that the latter was a southern version of the former. Seeing the two men together reminded me of seeing Malcolm X with Dr. King or Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. This was an important pair that was not discussed enough.

Unlike other Biographies, I knew nothing on this subject. I have to admit it bored me at times. However, if I knew more about Mexican history, maybe it would have been more appealing.