Zapata: El sueño de un héroe
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Zapata: The Dream of a Hero, also titled simply Zapata, is a Mexican motion picture first released in 2004.
This fictionalized portrayal of Emiliano Zapata as an Indigenous Mexican shaman, directed by Alfonso Arau, was reportedly the most expensive Mexican movie ever produced, with a massive ad campaign, and the largest ever opening in the nation's history. Unusual in the Mexican film industry, Zapata was financed independently. A controversial movie to say the least.
The main character was played by Alejandro Fernandez (singer, and casual actor) son of Vicente Fernandez (mostly known for his "charro" music and "humorous-macho" movie roles in the late 60s). Infested with non-sense script lines such as, "Un soldado sin rifle, es como un taco sin tortilla" or "A soldier without a rifle is like a taco without a tortilla", this movie is one of Mexico's newer worst. Against all expectations, Alejandro Fernandez didn't sing during the movie while mounting a horse (a family icon for the Fernandez's) or even in the soundtrack although he had plenty of opportunities to do both. Also starring telenovela actress and singer Lucero, and an array of Televisa (Main Mexican Pop-culture Channel in alliance with Univision) artists such as Patricia Velázquez and Jaime Camil , the movie was panned by critics, due to continuity issues, as well as concerns about the portrayal of Zapata, along with some rumors that he was of the homosexual persuasion plus semi-nudes of historical figures. Although many of the marketing and promotional ideas utilised in the release of the film are "revolutionary" in Mexico, after its opening day, the movie performed poorly in movie theatres, far below expectations, and, as of 28 May 2004, had yet to find any distributors outside of Latin America. Ironcally, Alfonso Arau's expectations were to receive the Oscar and publicly stated, "If filmakers didn't think about the Academy Awards, we wouldn't know what we're doing".
Zapata made its U.S. debut at the Santa Fe Film Festival on December 3, 2004 at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. There were some rumors that Zapata's set design and some of its props were also used for "Amor Real", a major Mexican soap opera project (since they are both in the same style), however these rumors were proved false, since a lot of the props from "Amor Real" were actually recycled in another project (this time in a kid-soap style) called: "Amy, La Niña De La Mochila Azul", in which these sets were merely painted in bright colors to mimic a beach-side village, which couldn't have been done since the props from Zapata were ruins and computer generated graphics.
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[edit] Cast (in credits order)
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