VIVA ZAPATA (1952) Viva Brando

Marlon Brando plays a Mexican peasant with gusto in VIVA ZAPATA, a rousing tale about the rise and fall of revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata. Among things I love in this film are when Zapata's wife begins teaching him how to read on their wedding night, and how Zapata and the Mexican peasants speak perfect English without accents, which enabled director Elia Kazan to avoid stereotype and put us en simpatico with the rebels and their cause. Brando is superb, as is Anthony Quinn, who won an Oscar for his role as Zapata's lusty bro.