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Executions by Firing Squad:

How Shootings Were Shot in
Films of the Mexican
Revolution
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CHAPTER EIGHT
EXECUTIONS BY FIRING SQUAD:
HOW SHOOTINGS WERE SHOT
IN FILMS OF THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION
TILMANN ALTENBERG

Introduction
Between 1910 and 1920, an estimated 1.5 million people, that is one in
every ten Mexicans of the time, lost their lives to the revolution;
revolutionary warfare had produced modern, industrialized death for the
rst time in the history of the Americas (Meade 2008, 120).1 Although
many of these war casualties occurred outside the battlegrounds and were
not the direct consequence of physical violence, ction lms that engage
with the loss of lives during the civil war tend to highlight the more spectacular ways of dying; in particular death in combat and death by
execution. This chapter establishes for the rst time a corpus of revolutionary ring-squad executions in ction lm and a framework for their
analysis. It argues that the disconnectedness of lmic executions from
specic historical events frees them to be used as a plot device without
strings attached. Highly ritualized and self-contained, executions by ring
squad have a range of functions in ction lms of the Mexican Revolution:
to draw the audience into the horror of revolutionary violence, to add suspense and drive forward the plot, or to make an indictment of authoritarianism on a national level. Everard Meade (2005) has suggested that
Against the backdrop of mass death, technological advancement and heroic
agency, the intimate, simplied and repeated image of executions, especially as remembered and mediated by photographs, gave them the quality
of a ritual, particularly an everyday ritual or mythology. (212)

See McCaa (2003) for a critical review of the principal attempts to assess the
demographic costs of the Mexican Revolution and his own proposal to account for
the missing millions.

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Chapter Eight

In this chapter the repeated image of executions on lm is understood to

have the quality of a ritual. In contrast to machine gun re or artillery in
combat, which bring random and anonymous mass death, executions presume individualized judgement and reection, even if perfunctory and /
or summary, or at absolute minimum (196). The contained, if gruesome,
ritual of an execution thus connotes relative order and reason in the midst
of otherwise chaotic and boundless bloodshed. This may account for why
so many lms of the Mexican Revolution use executions by ring squad,
not only to set the scene but also as a plot device with its own ordered
script of elements.
Fiction lm turned to the Mexican Revolution from the very beginning
of the conict.2 Whereas in the United States at least thirteen short lms
relating to the revolution were released in 1911 alone (see Filmoteca
UNAM 2009), in Mexico the revolution would only begin to leave an
imprint on ction lm in the 1930s, following a decade of
wilful amnesia on the part of lmmakers working within the institutional
structures of the nascent national industry to block out traumatic memories
of the recent past. (Noble 2005, 55)

Of the 45 lms of the Mexican Revolution examined for this chapter,

spanning 1911 to 2004, 28 contain at least one representation of an execution by ring squad, with several more referring to executions that are not
actually shown on screen.
The settings chosen for the mise-en-scne of revolutionary executions
by ring squad are remarkably similar across the lms considered here:
generally the victims are placed at a short distance in front of a plain wall
which is often in a state of decay. The relative position of the ring squad
shows little variation, although in some lms the distance to the victims is
noticeably larger than in others; this seems to correlate with the scale of
the execution. It is plausible to link these variations primarily with aesthetic considerations such as the wish to achieve a shot with a balanced
composition. However, the scale of the execution is in itself a variable that
may contribute signicantly to the effect of a given execution scene. More
specically, the number of victims and soldiers forming the ring squad,
as well as the ratio between the two groups varies considerably and merits
closer examination. Overall, the spatial arrangement and choreography of
an execution are prescribed by the ritualized nature of the event. However,
2

A lmography compiled and published by the Filmoteca (UNAM) with a cut-off

date of 2007 lists a total of 156 Mexican ction lms relating to the revolution,
with another 144 titles produced outside Mexico.

Executions by Firing Squad

125

the shooting of an execution sequence involves a number of choices with

regard to the cameras position, angle, distance and movement, all of
which contribute to the sequences specic effect.
The source for execution scenes in ction is history. Since the Mexican
War of Independence and throughout the nineteenth century executions by
hanging or ring squad, often in combination, were a frequent way of
administering justice. As Claudio Lomnitz (2008) points out,
the two forms of execution often indexed distinctions of class or military
rank, with the hanging or casual shooting (or mass ring squad) reserved
for the clases nmas and the rank and le, and the individual execution
before a ring squad generally reserved for notables and ofcers. (385)

If by the time of the Mexican Revolution executions were already a

common occurrence, in the course of the armed phase of the revolution, in
particular with Victoriano Huertas ascent to power in 1913, they became
even more widespread and increasingly random, blurring the lines
between ofcers and common soldiers, combatants and non-combatants,
criminals and political enemies (Meade 2005, 231). Countless photographs and narrative accounts, as well as some historical lm footage, bear
testimony to how generalized this mass-mediated form of killing had
become, as well as forming part of many Mexicans experience.3 Although
there is no systematic record of executions carried out during the Mexican
Revolution (see Noble 2010, 81), their number has been estimated to be in
the thousands, orders of magnitude larger than the number of executions
carried out [] in World War I (Meade 2008, 120, note 3).
Perhaps the earliest ctional dramatization of a revolutionary execution
by ring squad is a short sequence in the silent lm The Mexican Joan of
Arc (Kenean Buel, 1911), extracts of which are reproduced in Gregorio
Rochas documentary Los rollos perdidos de Pancho Villa (2003). Based
on actual events surrounding the summary execution of a father and his
3

The prime source of images relating to the Mexican Revolution is, of course, the
Casasola Archive with around 600,000 negatives (see Gutirrez Ruvalcaba 1996).
Among the thousands of images reproduced in the Anales grcos de la historia
militar de Mxico 18101991, edited by the Secretara de la Defensa Nacional,
there are a good number of photographs showing executions and their victims. See
also the Historia grca de la revolucin 19001940, editada por el Archivo
Casasola. In chapter four of his amply documented doctoral dissertation, Meade
(2005, 179266) gives a detailed overview and critical discussion of the imagescape of Revolutionary executions (179). Jorge Aguilar Mora (1990), on the other
hand, collates narrative accounts of executions by ring squad, drawing on both
literary sources and eyewitness accounts.

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two sons accused of being Mexican revolutionaries in April 1911, and the
subsequent revenge of the widow,a case widely reported in newspapers
at the time4the one-reeler juxtaposes shots showing the execution with
those of the wife and mother pleading for her relatives lives. Parallel
editing here emphasize[s] the discrepancy between audience knowledge
and character knowledge (Keil, 12122), adding suspense to the
sequence. Within the lms dramatic structure, the execution marks an
early negative climax or crisis following the initial conict, which triggers
the unfolding of the main plot.
The execution scene is composed of two clumsily choreographed shots,
each from a xed camera position at eye-level. Six federal soldiers and the
leader of the ring squad escort the three victims to the execution site,
where they are lined up side by side and executed. To lm the ring of the
shots, the camera is positioned to the side and slightly behind the victims,
capturing all ten characters involved. This viewpoint not only heightens
the dramatic effect, as the viewer is facing the ring squad from an angle
just outside the imaginary reach of the shotguns; more importantly
perhaps, it suggests that the camera is metaphorically taking sides with the
victims and, by extension, the widow. Unlike in the authentic footage from
the 1915 execution of convicted criminals included in the Mexican silent
lm El automvil gris (Enrique Rosas, 1919), where the camera sides
both literally and metaphoricallywith the authority portrayed as carrying
out a just sentence, utilizing the executions performative character to

See, for example, Angry Woman Seeks Revenge for Death Of Husband, The
Call (San Francisco), 5 May 1911, where the widow is referred to as Joan of Arc
of Mexico. The Otautau Standard (A Mexican Womans Revenge, July 25
1911) gives a detailed and colourful description of the execution of the colonel
responsible for the death of her relatives:
Just as the red rim of the sun appeared over the eastern horizon a womans
voice gave a sharp command. There was the quick roll of re from a dozen
ries and a tottering gure, standing on the edge of a newly-made grave,
crumpled up, quivered and lay motionless on the edge of the trench. One of
the men of the ring squad advanced and turned the body over with his
foot, saw that ten of the bullets had found their mark, and tumbled it into
the grave. So the widow Talamantes took revenge for the slaying of her
husband and two sons by Colonel Chiapas, of the federal army. The
pursuit, the capture and execution of Colonel Chiapas is the most dramatic
incident of the Mexican revolution.

Executions by Firing Squad

127

reinforce the ideology that underpins it (Giraud 2013, 45),5 in The Mexican Joan of Arc the perceived injustice of the execution is instrumental
in motivating the widows revenge and directing the audiences sympathy.
As early reviewer W. Stephen Bush put it:
A woman roused and determined and spurred on by the wrongs she has
suffered as a wife and mother rises at once to heroic size in the eyes of any
audience and gives the play a power and dignity, which it would otherwise
not possess. (1911, 19)

In 1911, Bush seems eager to downplay the political dimension of the

widows revenge when he decrees that the insurgency means nothing to
her. In fact, he praises the lm for decoupling the human-interest story
from its political context, thereby reducing the revolutionary uprising to a
contingent circumstance:
The widow Talamantes cared nothing about the insurrection in itself, she
uses the insurrection as a means to an end and thereby lifts the whole story
into a higher plane of dramatic force and interest. What must otherwise
have been a common tale of war and politics now becomes a tragedy in the
truest sense of that word. (1911, 19)

The widows return home after successfully avenging her husband and
sons deaths provides the nal clue to the plots depoliticized design.
Although news-reports at the time suggest that the historical Talamantes
family was of a rather afuent background,6 if we follow Bush, the lm
shows the widow to be of humble origin, A plain woman of the people,
content to be nothing more than a faithful wife and loving mother (19),
making her rise to heroism appear even more spectacular. Perhaps more
importantly, however, the supposedly modest milieu further contributes to
building up the character of the widow who suffers and responds instinctively as a wife and mother, ruling out any political agenda as a motive
5

If we follow Sofa Gonzlez de Len and Daniel Gonzlez Dueas, the lms
enormous success at the time was largely due to the authenticity of the 50-second
execution sequence; the cinema audience was less interested in understanding the
historical events than in ver morir en vivo [], con sus propios ojos the
culprits responsible for the crimes of the banda del automvil gris: a morbid
attraction similar to that emanating from public executions in the Middle Ages
(2008, 485). See De los Reyes (1996, 23661) for a detailed discussion of the lm
in relation to the historical events and its context of production.
6
See, for example, the details given in the Morning Oregonian (Portland), 15
April 1911 (Avenging Widow Leads Army).

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for her taking to arms. In Bushs view, the widows purely personal
motives elevate her above Joan of Arc, because to him,
As a motive for action, patriotism, however laudable, cannot for a moment
compare with the far deeper and more primitive and elemental emotion of
wifes and mothers love. (19)

This depoliticization of the widows revenge and, by implication, of

the preceding execution of her husband and sons, betrays a certain concept
of entertainment, which exploits the thrill of authenticity but is reluctant to
engage with any political implications of the human drama. But it also
chimes in with a widespread perceptionor rather, wishful thinking, as it
would turn out at the time, that the conict in Mexico was only a storm
in a teacup which would soon abate. In fact, by the time the lm was publicly released on 31 July 1911, Dazs recent departure into exile in May
seemed to have cleared the way for peaceful political change. In his
review, published roughly two weeks before the lms release, Bush even
credits the widow Talamantes with contributing not a little to the success
of the insurrection and the dethronement and the thinly disguised ight of
the tyrant Daz (19). Although clearly a misjudgement of the events leading to Dazs abdication, it is not surprising that, at the time, the widows
personal revenge and the dictators fall should have been seen as directly
related. While the widows motivation is cast as strictly personal, in the
context the lm was rst shown, her revenge inevitably acquired some
political dimension, as does the execution by ring squad. The key function of what must have appeared as shockingly realistic pictures of killing
is to provoke a strong emotional response in viewers, leading them to
identify with the widows plight. But what was conceived as an individual
injustice ends up representing the arbitrariness and cruelty of a corrupt
regime.
By their very nature, executions are the ultimate demonstration of
power over human life, be it institutionally sanctioned or not. Unlike in
battle, where victory and defeat are contested in the very course of the
action, the outcome of an execution is presumed inevitable from the start,
as the victim has no opportunity to change the course of events. Death
brought about by ring squad is particularly sudden and, from an
observers point of view, visually striking. The vast majority of sequences
showing revolutionary executions by ring squad cast them as spectacles
performed before an audience of non-participant observers. The lm audience is therefore observing an observed spectacle; our own gaze is once
removed from that of the diegetic audience, twice from the spectacle that
seems to unfold before our eyes. Put another way, the lm director stages

Executions by Firing Squad

129

the execution which itself is already a staged event, with an audience gathered to observe the spectacle performed: the play-within-a-play analogy
springs to mind. Furthermore, unlike in painting and photography, in lm
even the shortest execution scene somehow bridges the moment before
and after the shots are red, if nothing else. In several examples from the
corpus such a minimalistic representation of an execution is lmed as a
point-of-view shot, followed by a reaction shot. Showing the onlookers
horried reaction following the ring of the shots and death of the victim
contributes signicantly to channelling the lm audiences identication
and empathy. By showing a characters emotional response to a disturbing
scene, such reaction shots invite the audience to stay emotionally connected with the diegetic world, highlighting at the same time the mediated dimension of the imagery of violence (Pick 2010, 17).
It is not uncommon, however, for lms not to use reaction shots at all
or to show onlookers noticeably unfazed. Often the latter appear in combination with reaction shots of other observers showing a strong emotional
response. The key to understanding this seeming incongruity is to consider
the social strata of the people concerned, as well as their role in the story.
Whereas peons and other members of the lower classes who tend to
constitute the anonymous masses behind a lms plot are generally shown
to preserve a stoic attitude, middle- and upper-class civilians, marked by
their manners and attire, often display reactions of shock and horror;
chiming in with traditional gender stereotypes, the latter applies in
particular to female characters, as in Flor silvestre (Emilio Fernndez,
1943), Old Gringo (Luis Puenzo, 1989) and Zapata: el sueo del hroe
(Alfonso Arau, 2004). A third type of reaction shot focuses on individuals
who seem to derive personal satisfaction or even pleasure from observing
an execution, as is the case, for example, in Viva Villa (Jack Conway,
1934), Caballo Prieto Azabache (Ren Cardona, 1968), Tepepa (Giulio
Petroni, 1969) and Vamos a matar, compaeros (Sergio Corbucci, 1970).
These characters are villains, often high-ranking ofcials in the federal
army who may have ordered the execution, sometimes powerful caciques
who support the government troops, less frequently corrupt or brutalized
revolutionaries.
The attitude of the condemned about to be shot is also drawn to the
audiences attention in some ction lms. Where the execution is used as a
device to set the scene or create dramatic tension, no particular attention is
given to the victims state before the shots are red. In more individualized
execution scenes, however, especially in lms produced outside Mexico,
we see the convicts fear and despair when facing the ring squad. In
Mexican lms, on the other hand, the convicts often stand out for their

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unfaltering stoicism that tends to earn themat least implicitlythe

respect of the opposing party and, by extension, of the implied lm audience.

Executions and the Plot

In its conventional format, the assumption is that an execution will lead to
the death of the condemned. Some lms build on this expectation, having
one of the main characters die in front of a ring squad to drive the plot
forward or bring it to an end. This is the case, for example, in Flor silvestre (Emilio Fernndez, 1943), Vino el remolino y nos alevant (Juan
Bustillo Oro, 1950) and El prisionero 13 (Fernando de Fuentes, 1933),
where the execution sequence has a major bearing on the plot. However,
as the following analyses will show, the specic function and effect of the
ring-squad execution varies signicantly between these lms.
In Flor silvestre (Emilio Fernndez, 1943) the protagonists death at
the end of the lm wraps up the melodramatic emplotment so often found
in lms of the so-called Golden Age of Mexican cinema (c. 193555) (see
Mistron 1984). Lead character Jos Luis, the only heir of a rich estate
turned revolutionary of unfaltering principles, is executed by false revolutionaries who have kidnapped his wife Esperanza and new-born son. Jos
Luiss resignation in the face of certain death suggests that he embraces
his execution as a worthwhile sacrice, as it allows Esperanza and their
son to emerge from a situation of extreme danger to a better future, which
is aligned with the future of Mexico.
In the execution scene the viewers emotions are deected from the
complexities of the underlying social conict and channelled into an easy
sentimental identication with Esperanza. The drawn-out and exquisitely
painful (Mraz 1999, 154) execution sequence of about three minutes
duration, echoes of which can be found in the similarly melodramatic
outcome in Fernndezs later lm Un da de vida (1950), has a slow buildup until the moment the ring squad is given the orders, while the camera
focuses on Esperanza watching events take their course. In this 20-second
shot, as we hear the ring of the volley killing Jos Luis, Esperanzas
facial expression changes from fearful anticipation to horror. Rather than
showing Jos Luiss death, the lm deects the audiences attention
towards Esperanzas reaction. Her xed gaze, which seems to absorb the
traumatizing experience of witnessing her husband being shot, ends up
neutralizing the spectacles disturbing nature for viewers. By withholding
the images of the execution sequences key moment and providing a

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131

model response, the lm exonerates the audience from having to engage

directly with the visual impact of the executions climax. Jos Luiss nal
words, spoken to Esperanza in a low voice just before the shots are red,
invite an allegorical reading of her role for Mexicos future: Esperanza,
hijo mo. Beyond being a nal and denitive declaration of love, these
words, uttered with extreme tranquility, attain the quality of a prophecy:
hope (Esperanza) lies in the next generation (hijo mo) that is the
product of the union of two different social classes and a symbol of the
new Mexican society (Mistron 1984, 52). The main plot is framed by
Esperanza telling her young adult son, who is wearing the uniform of a
Mexican cadet, the life-story of his father. The point driven home is that
the ultimate sacrice, that of Jos Luiss life, was not in vain, as Mexico
has emerged from the turmoil of the revolution a new nation. At the closing of the narrative frame following Jos Luiss execution, Esperanza
spells this out in unambiguous terms:
La sangre derramada en tantos aos de lucha por miles de hombres que,
como tu padre, creyeron en el bien y en la justicia no fue estril. Sobre ella
se levanta el Mxico de hoy en que palpita una nueva vida.

The lm plays down the scale and death toll of the Mexican Revolution
and suggests that the revolution effectively harmonized social conict,
bridging the divide between rich and poor. This ction delivers the political agenda of total harmony between classes, as decreed at the time by
former president Lzaro Crdenas and others (see Franco 2010, 365). As
OMalley points out, such use of the revolution as a symbol to unify the
nation contradicted one of the most obvious characteristics of the revolutionits disunity (126). In the lm, Jos Luiss death is instrumental in
delivering that message insofar as it provides the simple and denitive
solution to a seemingly irresolvable conict; that between the loyalty owed
to his (rich) family, the love for (poor) Esperanza and the call of the just
cause of the revolution. Although Jos Luiss decision to side with the
revolution and marry Esperanza seems to be in sync with the course history is taking, the lm does not allow him this triumph. In a radical
gesture, Flor silvestre links change to the new generation, bypassing the
slow and complex process of negotiating social change in post-revolutionary Mexico, which many claim has never come to fruition: a biological
solution triumphs over a social one.
The fact that Jos Luis dies an innocent man elevates his sacrice from
what at the time might have seemed petty considerations of transgression,

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guilt and punishment. 7 The low camera angle from which these nal
images of the victim moments before his death are taken underscores this
aggrandizement visually. More generally, the photography of the execution sequence highlights the clear lines and symmetrical arrangement of
the mise-en-scne, with a preference for high-angle long shots capturing
the victim, the ring squad, additional soldiers lined up and the crowd of
bystanders (Fig. 8-1). At different points the camera frames the ring
squad and false revolutionaries from a low angle, emphasizing their position of power over Jos Luiss life (Fig. 8-2). Although an aestheticizing
approach to lming executions by ring squad is not uncommon in lms
of the Mexican Revolution, the visually stunning, crisp black and white
photography by Gabriel Figueroa in Flor silvestre takes this to extreme
lengths. 8 In his Memorias, cinematographer Figueroa names Mexican
illustrator and caricaturist Jos Guadalupe Posada as the chief inspiration
for the ring squad sequence in Flor silvestre (Flores Villela 2010, 80; see
also Ramrez Berg 1994, 15). Posadas graphic work contains several
engravings showing hangings and ring-squad executions, which were
widely disseminated in the early twentieth century (see, for example, Fig.
8-3 and 8-4).9 Following this lead, it would seem that Posadas work is at
the root of a Mexican iconographic tradition of lming executions by
ring squad, which is established in lms of the Golden Age of Mexican
cinema.
For the understanding of the revolutionary process as projected by the
lm, it is signicant that Jos Luis is not executed by revolutionaries ghting against a corrupt dictatorship and for a more equitable society, like
those supporting Madero during the initial phase of the revolution, but by
false revolutionaries who are shown to have abandoned the ideals of the
revolutionary struggle, if indeed they ever were more than mere bandits.
Far from casting the true revolution in a bad light, Jos Luiss execution
therefore reinforces the suggested continuity between the Maderista move7

Podalsky detects a contrast between the lms frame and the accumulated effect
of the narrative (1993, 63). This interpretation is, in part, based on the erroneous
assumption that Jos Luis killed his fathers murderer.
8
See Ramrez Berg (1994) for a detailed analysis of the visual style of FernndezFigueroa lms and some suggestions regarding its ideological implications. For an
overview of the most salient features of Fernndez-Figueroa lms, see also chapter
eleven of this volume.
9
As Meade points out, unlike in Posadas execution broadsheets of the Porrian
era, his treatments of Revolutionary executions [] identify the condemned
almost exclusively by type rather than by name, and contain many fewer markers
of individuality, and many more signs of group identity (2008, 130).

Executions by Firing Squad

133

ment and post-revolutionary Mexico. Equally important is the lms

exclusive focus on the initial phase of the revolution, prior to the conicts
escalation into full-blown civil war following Maderos assassination. By
refusing to even acknowledge, let alone engage with, the most divisive and
devastating period of revolutionary upheaval, the lm not only trivializes
the disruption caused by the civil war but also grossly reduces the struggles complexity to a seemingly clean-cut clash of interests between
hacendados and peasants. In this respect, Flor silvestres simplication of
historical complexity surpasses that of other lms made in the same
period, which, in the words of John Mraz, were
set in either the absolutely unproblematic period of 19131914, when the
Revolutionary forces were united against the evil usurpation of Victoriano
Huerta, or in an abstracted, ahistorical situation, where the exact allegiances of the protagonists remain unclear. (1999, 149)

In view of the lms insistence upon branding the false revolutionaries

as ruthless bandits, it is surprising, if not inconsistent, that these should
stage an orderly public execution by ring squad to have Jos Luis killed,
rather than murdering him cold-bloodedly. Although it could be argued
that from the lmmakers perspective the clear and scalable structure of an
execution provides the ideal occasion for the protagonists nal sacrice,
on a deeper level the inconsistency remains. However hard the lm
attempts to suppress the imagery of violence and suffering, the nal
sequence draws on what, in the Mexican context, is arguably the most
emblematic situation of revolutionary killing, the highly ritualized execution by ring squad. Meade sees Mexican revolutionary executions as
symbolic loci for the everyday savagery [] of Revolutionary violence,
rather than its epic, modern, or even tragic qualities, which would loom
large in the collective memory of the Revolution (2008, 123). He further
argues that
Because similar kinds of executions continued long after the military
victory of the nominally Revolutionary regime, images of Revolutionary
executions undermined its triumphal chronology and called into question
other pretenses to the creation of a new order. (123)

Although Meades primary focus is on photographic records of real-life

executions, the subversive potential of visual representations of revolutionary executions applies equally, if not more, to ctional dramatizations in
early lms of the Mexican Revolution. Thus Jos Luiss execution by
ring squad at the same time facilitates and undermines the lms harmo-

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nizing and reductive vision of the revolutionary process and the

corresponding citizen- and nation-building agenda (Pick 2010, 126). To
dismiss the revolution in Flor silvestre as narrative backdrop, as does
Zuzana M. Pick (2010, 126) amongst others, is therefore to ignore that the
lm is haunted by the spectres of what its plot and visual aesthetics
attempt to disown most: the disturbing notion that lethal violence against
defenseless individuals (Meade 2008, 123) on the part of all factions is
the revolutions hallmark and its poisonous legacy.
In Vino el remolino y nos alevant (Juan Bustillo Oro, 1950) the death
by ring squad of one of the lead characters is the tragic consequence of
an irresolvable conict between the obedience owed to his superiors and
the ties of blood that command him to spare his brothers life. Unlike Jos
Luiss death in Flor silvestre, however, Estebans decision to give his life
for that of his brother Alejandro, despite being played out as a heroic
gesture, does not transcend the private sphere, as Alejandro later ends up
dying a pointless death. In fact, none of the family members is part of the
new Mexico that has allegedly emerged from the revolution. Ideologically,
this lm can be considered as the urban counterpart to Flor silvestre. It
explores the devastation caused by the revolution through the story of a
middle-class family from Mexico City that is torn apart by the revolution.
The intended overall message of Vino el remolino is spelt out in a brief
framing sequence, which shows a military parade in front of the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City. After the opening credits, an unidentied male voice in off, that makes the implausible claim to be speaking on the day of the monuments inauguration,10 praises the sacrices
made in the revolution to bring about a new, better Mexico: Mxico []
rinde homenaje a quienes se sacricaron por dar un sentido nuevo, ms
humano y generoso a su historia. This introduction invites the audience to
view the lm as a homage to those who sacriced their lives in the revolution, just as the Monument to the Revolution honours their memory.
Similarly to the set-up in Flor silvestre, in Vino el remolino the initial
conict between Porristas and Maderistas is mapped onto the generation
gap between the patriarch Patricio Ramrez and his children. After the fall
of Huerta, two of the brothers end up on different sides. When Villista
lieutenant Alejandro falls prisoner to Constitutionalist lieutenant Esteban,
the latter allows his brother to escape to save him from certain death. As a
consequence, Esteban is himself sentenced to be executed by ring squad.
10

The voice refers to the monument as esta obra de piedra que hoy se inaugura.
In reality, the monument was nished in 1938 but not ofcially inaugurated at the
time. I have been unable to ascertain which, if any, of the yearly commemorative
events the footage of the military parade corresponds to (see Ruiz Ham n.d.).

Executions by Firing Squad

135

The execution sequence, whose mise-en-scne and photography are again

reminiscent of Posadas representations, is framed by two musicians
performing on-screen the title song Vino el remolino y nos alevant,
which provides the cue for Estebans reections on the violent frictions
caused by the revolutionary struggle. As a traitor, Esteban is shot in the
back, a rare variation from the predominant model of ring-squad executions in lms of the Mexican Revolution (Fig. 8-5), also seen in Emiliano
Zapata (Felipe Cazals, 1970). Ironically, as Alejandro returns triumphantly
to Mexico City we learn that he has now joined the Constitutionalist army
and the story ends with his death.
While in Flor silvestre hope arises from Jos Luiss ultimate sacrice,
no hope issues from the execution in Vino el remolino. As revolutionary
soldiers both dead brothers may be seen as having contributed to bringing
about the new order. The idea of personal sacrice for a better Mexico,
however, which the narrative frame evokes so eagerly, does not follow
from the familys suffering and painof which the execution is the key
example. Ultimately this lms frame reects the political agenda of the
state-sponsored lm industry, which was striving to consolidate the nationbuilding project drawing on revolutionary rhetoric, whilst the story that
unfolds from the execution contradicts that interpretation of the revolution
(see Mistron 1984, 54).
El prisionero 13 (1933), the rst lm of Fernando de Fuentess
Revolution Trilogy and one of the earliest Mexican feature lms focussing
on the revolution, is remarkable in a number of ways. Produced at a time
when the Hollywood-inspired studio and star system and the political
rhetoric of the 1940s had not yet imposed their imprint, the lm engages
critically with an early phase of the revolution in Mexico City (see Mraz
2009, 92). Unlike in Flor silvestre, where the ring-squad execution of the
protagonist is ultimately at odds with both the plot and the lms overall
agenda, in El prisionero 13 the execution sequence emerges from the
central conict and is convincingly motivated by the characters and events.
Set in Mexico City in 1914, during the short-lived presidency of Huerta,11
the lm entwines the private with the political, playing out an inexorable
destiny reminiscent of classical tragedies (de la Vega Alfaro 1995, 83).
Following the arrest of thirteen rebels involved in a conspiracy against
Huerta, colonel Julin Carrasco is ordered to have them executed at dawn.
Although the list of the condemned has been nalized, the colonel releases
11

To pinpoint the historical setting and mark political afliations, de Fuentes

places a portrait of Huerta on the wall of the protagonists ofce. In El compadre
Mendoza (1934), the second lm of the Revolution Trilogy, this same device is
used repeatedly with comic effect.

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one of the prisoners in return for a bribe, replacing him with a randomly
arrested young man of similar appearance. At this point the second plot
line comes to the fore. The innocent thirteenth prisoner happens to be
Carrascos lost son Juan, whom he has not seen since his wife Marta left
with their son many years ago, to escape from Carrascos drunkenness and
violence. When Marta learns of her sons arrest she rushes to Carrasco.
The colonel realizes that he has sent his own son to be killed and attempts
to stop the execution. At the moment of maximum suspense, as the order
to re is about to be given, the lm pulls out of the execution scene,
showing Carrasco as he awakens from an alcohol-induced nightmare.
Shattered by the vision that he might have killed his own son, he vows to
stop drinking. The banal moralistic ending plays down the scandalous
corruption and inexorable efciency of the federal army exposed in the
lm, dismissing them as the product of Carrascos imagination.
Apparently the framing of the lms main plot as a dreamwhich is both
ethically and aesthetically unconvincingwas imposed by censors at the
time, who considered the lm in its original version, where Juan arrives
too late to save his sons life (Tun 2010, 218), to be denigrante para el
ejrcito (Luz Alba quoted in Garca Riera 1993, 80).
The execution of the prisoners is rst referred to as a possibility about
20 minutes into the lm and sustains the story arc throughout a dialogueladen and rather static further 45 minutes. For maximum dramatic effect,
the actual execution sequence has a slow build-up. The parading of the
twelve prisoners to the execution siteone has committed suicide in the
detention celltakes up the rst ve minutes of the seven-minute
sequence. To further increase the suspense, the prisoners are executed in
three groups of four; Juan is part of the last group. When the rst volley
resounds, the lm cuts briey to Juans mother, who is still waiting to see
Carrasco; the ring of the second round of shots interrupts their conversation and the nal salvo is neither seen nor heard, as Carrasco wakes up at
the dreams climax. Whereas the twelve conspirators have put themselves
on the line in support of the revolution, Juanprisoner number thirteen
is the unlucky one who dies innocent, by his own fathers hand.
In this lm, the cry Viva la revolucin! a split second before the rst
round of shots is red conrms the victims unfaltering dedication to the
revolutionary cause. 12 This demonstrative stance contrasts with the
12

Garca Riera, who considers the execution sequence to stand out against the rest
of the lm (1993, 80), considers this battle cry to be el nico detalle poltico []
de la pelcula (8081), missing the wider political implications of the sequence.
His proposed link with the execution footage included in El automvil gris is
tenuous at best (80).

Executions by Firing Squad

137

remorse expressed in the suicide note found on their dead comrade-inarms, which reads: Comprendo que he cometido un error Yo mismo
me he castigado. The difference between these attitudes in the face of
death is indicative of de Fuentess effort to expose the diversity within the
group of urban conspirators rather than make them appear as incarnations
of some stereotypical idea of the revolutionary. Although all prisoners are
male, they differ noticeably with regard to age, build, posture, diction and
dress (see Mraz 2009, 94); their brief verbal exchanges before and during
the execution sequence further reveal differences in socio-economic background and attitude. This focus on the victims individuality is all the more
remarkable as none of the revolutionaries is seen or referred to outside the
prison cell and the execution grounds. The photography supports this focus
on the victims. Several times the camera travels slowly along the lined-up
prisoners exposing their contrasting physical appearance; or the prisoners
walk past the camera. Of the three consecutive executions only the rst
one is shown in full. We witness how the rst four prisoners are separated
from the group of twelve, escorted to the neighbouring execution grounds,
lined up and shot. Following a number of long shots, once the victims and
the ring squad are in position (Fig. 8-6),13 the scene appears to be frozen
for around 15 seconds. In this moment of maximum tension, captured in so
many illustrations of executions by ring squad, the camera travels one
last time past the prisoners (Fig. 8-7); a reverse travelling shot of the same
length moves along the soldiers in ring position, looking directly into the
gun barrels (Fig. 8-8), before we are briey shown the ring squad from
the side, the guns pointing to the left as the ring order is given (Fig. 8-9).
There is a contrast between the individuality of the four prisoners, who
display different degrees of equanimity in the face of imminent death, and
the threatening uniformity of the soldiers who outnumber the victims
multiple times and whose squinting faces are barely visible behind the
military caps and glistening gun barrels. This contrast underlines the
power divide that separates the autocratic statereduced to its willing
executionersfrom the citizens that have fallen out of favour, represented
here by the urban revolutionaries conspiring against the Huerta regime.
Firing-squad executions often make political comments. The drawn-out
execution sequence at the end of El prisionero 13 serves to intertwine the
plots political strand with its private counterpart, raising the suspense to a
maximum. As an essential component of the plot it also drives home the
13

It is possible that de Fuentes based this and subsequent shots on visual cues
found in Posadas work, just as FernndezFigueroa would ten years later (see Fig.
8-3 and 8-4).

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lms denunciation of the Huerta dictatorship and the blind military

authoritarianism (Garca 1995, 159) more generally. The mise-en-scne
and camerawork demonstrate visually the irreconcilability of the opposing
sides in the revolutionary struggle. Although undoubtedly informed by
visual records of military executions, the ring-squad sequence in El
prisionero 13 stands alone in its cinematic boldness and intensity. Here as
more generally in his Revolution Trilogy, de Fuentes masterfully
exploited the lack of stereotypes and the dramatic conventions of newly
emerging sound lm in order to develop stories with a moral lesson
(Dvalos Orozco 2005, 26). Unlike most execution sequences in later lms
of the Mexican Revolution, de Fuentes steers clear of the sensationalist
details of revolutionary executions such as the impact of the bullets; nor
does he allow for civilian bystanders and the corresponding reaction shots.
His primary concern in this sequence is to highlight the revolutionaries
individuality and humanity in life, rather than their equality in death. In so
doing, he has created one of the most memorable execution sequences of
any lm of the Mexican Revolution. Although certain elements of the
mise-en-scne and camerawork may have inspired later lmmakers, the
sequences length, focus on the victims and urban setting, with hundreds
of soldiers standing to attention as the prisoners are escorted to the execution site, remain exceptional.
In Mexican lm history, the ten years that separate El prisionero 13
from Flor silvestre mark a decisive shift from de Fuentess critical cinematic exploration of a largely uncharted topic in a relatively tolerant era
(Mraz 2009, 92), to Emilio Fernndezs simplistic rural vision of the
revolutionary process as part of the government-sponsored project of postrevolutionary nation building. At the same time, the executions in these
lms share so many common elements that they might be said to follow a
script.

The Execution Script

From a story-telling point of view, lmic representations of ring squad
executions differ from battle scenes in that they can be mapped onto a
series of discrete but closely linked routines. I refer to the complete
sequence of these routines as the execution script. Unlike an execution
protocol, which I take to refer to the historically variable real-world
conventions governing a certain type of execution, the execution script I
am proposing here has been distilled from lmic execution scenes that
may or may not coincide with any real-world execution protocol; it is the

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139

abstract, maximal version of a varied representational practice. The full

script of an orderly execution by ring squad in ction lm consists of the
following routines:14
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

the victim is taken to the execution grounds

the victim digs his grave15
(if more than one convict:) the victims say good-bye to each other
the victim is granted a last wish
the victim is brought into position
the victim is blindfolded
the ring squad takes position
the ring squad leader gives orders (Preparen!Apunten!Fuego!)
the victim shouts rallying cry / political slogan
the ring squad res the shots
the bullets hit the victim
the coup de grce is red
the victims corpse is removed from the execution site or buried

It is unlikely that any lmic representation of an execution by ring squad

would include all the routines of this script. In fact, a closer look at 28
lms from different eras and different countries containing some 60
revolutionary executions by ring squad reveals that lms evoke the script
rather than showing the complete sequence of its routines. This corresponds in the rst instance to the economy of story-telling, where certain
routines are implied rather than represented, because their depiction is
unnecessary and may even obstruct the ow of the narration. Apart from
those routines dropped from the representation, some of the script routines
may not be part of the imagined script behind a given execution in the rst
place: this applies in particular to 2., 3., 4., 6., 9. and 12. On the other
hand, 10. is the scripts core routine, which cannot be omitted from the
execution script without jeopardizing its specic nature. In fact, in order
for an execution by ring squad to be recognized as such, it is sufcient to
represent the situation typically recorded by about-to-die photographsto
borrow Barbie Zelizers (2010) termand history paintings alike: the
execution scene with the ring squad and the victim in position at the very

14

Although formulated in singular, with the exception of 3., all routines of the
script apply potentially to executions of individuals, groups of people and mass
executions alike.
15
In the lms considered, none of the victims is female; hence the use of the male
form.

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moment the shots are red. In some cases, the elements are further reduced
to showing just the victim or the ring squad.

Setting the scene

Frequently, lms of the Mexican Revolution incorporate execution
sequences as a shorthand way of evoking a general atmosphere of brutality
where an individuals life is of little value. While these executions have
little or no bearing on the plot, they often also contribute to characterizing
the observers by showing their reaction or apparent lack of reaction. In Old
Gringo (Luis Puenzo, 1989), based on the novel of the same title by Carlos
Fuentes, the female lead character Harriet Winslow, a naive woman hungry for life, has just arrived in revolutionary Mexico from the United
States. She nds herself trapped on a rich mans hacienda where she
witnesses from afar the execution of several revolutionaries. Harriets
strong emotional reaction highlights her sensitivity and, by implication, the
idyllic, protected life she enjoyed in the United States (Fig. 8-10). In the
Spaghetti Western El hombre de Ro Malo (Eugenio Martn, 1971), on the
other hand, most of the characters witnessing an execution by ring squad
from a passing wagon are themselves hard-boiled bandits who have been
taken prisoner by the revolutionaries. Accordingly, they seem rather unimpressed by the ring squad. The playful music adds to the suggested lightness of the scene in this Western comedy. The execution script is reduced
to a brief point-of-view shot from the bandits moving position on the
wagon, just as the volley is being red (Fig. 8-11), followed by a reaction
shot (Fig. 8-12) and a high-angle establishing shot providing the wider
context (Fig. 8-13). In Enamorada (Emilio Fernndez, 1947) and its USAmerican remake The Torch (Emilio Fernndez, 1950), a group of inuential townspeople, including the priest, are escorted to be questioned by a
revolutionary general whose troops have taken the town. As they cross a
square an ofcer, presumably of the federal army, is being executed. In
both the original and the remake the ring of the shots is visually separated
from the impact of the bullets. First we are shown the commanding ofcer
and the lined-up ring squad taking aim (Fig. 8-14). Immediately after the
crash of the volley a swish pan to the left catches the executed ofcer as he
is falling to the ground. The rapid camera movement mimics the velocity
and violence of the bullets in a moment of vertigo for the viewer. 16
16

This same technique is also used in As era Pancho Villa (Ismael Rodrguez,
1957) and Juana Gallo (Miguel Zacaras, 1960).

Executions by Firing Squad

141

Another swish pan to the left links these core routines of the execution
script to the priests observation, because we see him turning towards the
spectacle from a position that coincides approximately with that of the
camera showing the ring squad and the victim; the agitated music
underlines his inner turmoil. Here, as in El hombre de Ro Malo, the
execution signals the fate that may await the townspeople. In all three
examples the viewer is not informed about the victims identities nor does
their death concern any of the characters personally. In addition to setting
the scene, such execution sequences add to the dramatic tension and
contribute to characterizing the observing charactersHarriet Winslow,
the bandits, the priestby showing their reaction or apparent lack of
reaction.17

Reduction to the Scripts Core Routine

If these representations of an execution by ring squad seem minimalistic,
some lms go even further in reducing the execution script to the very core
routine of the shots being red. In Un dorado de Pancho Villa (Emilio
Fernndez, 1967), 30 minutes into the lm, a long shot shows a lined-up
ring squad. However, unlike in Enamorada / The Torch, where a swish
pan follows the direction of the bullets, moving from the soldiers to the
victim, here the execution script is edited such that moments before the
shots are red a hard cut takes us from the execution scene to what looks
like the interior of a badly damaged church. The crash of the volley resonates in the nearby building, interrupting a conversation between the local
cacique and the military commander about the future of the lead character,
a dorado who has returned to the village in the wake of Francisco
Pancho Villas retirement as a revolutionary in 1920. In the immediate
context of this sequence the execution could appear as a demonstration of
the rigorous, egalitarian justice administered by the new order, represented
here by the seemingly incorruptible military commander. The victims are
not shown and one could even call the mise-en-scne of the perfectly lined
up ring squad aesthetically pleasing (Fig. 8-15). However, as the
narration progresses, this initial reading is gradually undermined by the
17

Further examples of ring-squad executions that are primarily scene setting can
be found in El Siete Leguas o el caballo de Pancho Villa (Ral de Anda, 1955), the
episode El ahorcado of Cuando Viva Villa! es la muerte (Ismael Rodrguez,
1960), Juana Gallo (Miguel Zacaras, 1960), Emiliano Zapata (Felipe Cazals,
1970) and La Generala (Juan Ibez, 1970).

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commanders emerging personal agenda, which turns him into the

dorados deadly enemy. With that in mind, the execution scene now
anticipates the fate that is awaiting the protagonist rather than celebrating
the post-revolutionary order. The unusual suppression of one of the execution scripts core routinesthe impact of the bullets and subsequent death
of the victimcan even be read as a carefully placed void that is only
lled by the dorados assassination in the lms nal sequence.
This execution sequence in Fernndezs rst colour lm differs from
the previously discussed examples by the same directorFlor silvestre,
Enamorada and The Torchin that it omits the victim or victims. It is also
the only one of his execution sequences here considered in which the ring
squad is aiming from left to right. Further, whereas in the earlier examples
the ring squad consists of ve soldiers who are shooting at a single
victim, here ten soldiers are aiming at an unknown number of victims.
Finally, Un dorado de Pancho Villa is the only of the Fernndez lms
discussed in which the executioners are regular soldiers of the federal
army and not revolutionaries. Together these differences point towards a
shift in Fernndezs view of the Mexican Revolution and its legacy. It is
possible that a re-assessment of the revolution is connected with Fernndezs professional marginalization and corresponding disenchantment in
the years following the Golden Age of Mexican cinema (see Tierney 2007,
16071). The early, more complete and realistic execution sequences link
ring-squad executions to the violent years of revolutionary bloodshed,
from which a new Mexico has supposedly emerged. In Un dorado, on the
other hand, the execution draws attention to the continuing injustice and
violence, undermining the idea of a radically different post-revolutionary
order. As a consequence of its abstract minimalism and complete isolation
from the plot, the execution scene both foreshadows the protagonists fate
and turns into a symbol of early post-revolutionary Mexicos violent
authoritarianism.

Thwarted Executions
In ction lm, the general expectation that execution invariably leads to
death is sometimes undermined by setting up an execution that is then
thwarted. Preventing a ring-squad execution from being carried out by
calling it off occurs, for example, in Viva Villa (Jack Conway, 1934), La
muerte de Pancho Villa (Mario Hernndez, 1974) and Vamos a matar,
compaeros (Sergio Corbucci, 1970). In the rst two of these lms, the
aborted executions are ctionalized re-enactments of Huertas historical

Executions by Firing Squad

143

attempt to have Villa executed for robbery andin Viva Villamurder on

4 June 1912. In both cases, the execution is interrupted and aborted by the
timely arrival of a telegram from President Madero in which he pardons
Villa.18 In Viva Villa the rather fragmented execution sequence is photographed from a variety of angles, with predominantly long and medium
long shots, and covers most of the execution scripts routines. We are
shown the crowd of curious onlookers climbing the iron gates and lining
the place of execution, peons with wide brimmed hats digging Villas
grave, soldiers doing a drum roll and the odd emblematic maguey plant;
Villa is escorted to the execution site and placed in front of a rubble wall.
As the ring squad takes position Villa is on his knees pleading with
General Pascal (as he is called in the lm) to spare his life. The revelation
of the presidential pardon and order to go into exile in the United States
leaves Villa, who feels betrayed by Madero, with mixed feelings. The
soldiers of the ring squad receive the news with laughter, a reaction we
will come across again with cases of mock executions. Although loosely
based on historical events, the aborted execution of the protagonist in Viva
Villa is exploited for its inherent drama and potential to stimulate the
viewers empathy with the lead character at a point when the plot has
otherwise reached a at line, some 65 minutes into the 110-minute lm.
In La muerte de Pancho Villa the aborted execution is evoked by the
protagonist himself in an interview situation on his hacienda in 1923. A
weary and sentimental Villa, who sheds tears over the memory of
Maderos kindness, introduces the episode of Huertas attempt to have him
executed with a laconic Ese viejo peln desgraciado, yo no le caa bien.
The re-enactment seems to follow the version given in Martn Luis
Guzmns Memorias de Pancho Villa (193840), which is based on
Villas own handwritten notes. The actual execution sequence is short and
cinematographically unimaginative. After a brief verbal exchange with the
federal soldiers, in which Villa protests his innocence, he is placed against
a wall. Moments before the volley is red, the life-saving telegram arrives
and the execution is aborted.19 Villas melancholic comment in off as we

18

What may appear to be a conventional and, in the context of a biopic of Villa,

predictable deus ex machina, draws in reality on a popular (but unsupported) version of the historical events, which the lms embrace willingly. See Taibo (2006,
14651) for a more verisimilar account of the execution attempt and a brief discussion of the sources.
19
The striking resemblance between the long shot of the ring squad aiming at
Villa and the only surviving photograph of the real-life execution attempt suggests
that Hernndez aimed at re-creating the historical event as closely as possible

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watch his younger self walk away slowly from the execution site leaves no
doubt that he considers this to be the key experience in his life as a
revolutionary: ya conoc el secreto de perder y morir. The overall effect
of the aborted execution in La muerte de Pancho Villa is anticlimactic. On
the one hand, this is due to the distanced and unengaged camerawork. On
the other, the narrative embedding of this sequence as Villas memories
reduces the suspense of a typically dramatic event to a minimum, since the
protagonists survival is clear from the outset.
The Spaghetti Western Vamos a matar, compaeros uses multiple
execution sequences that omit the nal routines of the execution script in
different ways. In one of them, an improvised revolutionary ring squad is
brought in to force the two protagonists to reveal important information.
When they concede, the execution is called off. As in other lms of the
same genre, the execution is here introduced as a device that adds a
moment of suspense and moves the plot forward. More commonly in
Spaghetti Westerns, however, when a ring squad threatens a lead characters life, he miraculously manages to escape with the help of friends or
unsuspected allies. Such is the case, for example, in another scene of
Vamos a matar, compaeros, where the revolutionary presidential candidate with the symbolic name of Xantos is rescued at the last minute by his
supporters, as well as in Tepepa (Giulio Petroni, 1969) and Duck, You
Sucker (Sergio Leone, 1971).20 This least realistic way of thwarting an
execution, characteristic of Spaghetti Westerns story-telling conventions
and uninhibited approach to the Mexican Revolution, is rarely found in
Mexican lms (see Frayling 2006, especially chapter nine). Here, the deus
ex machina tends to be employed only where the unexpected rescue has a
basis in history or popular culture, such as in the two lms on Villa above,
or in Caballo Prieto Azabache (Ren Cardona, 1968). The latter is an

within the parameters of a ctionalized biopic. See Taibo (2006, 150) for a reproduction of the photograph showing Villa in front of the ring squad.
20
Frayling remarks on Francisco de Goyas series of etchings Los desastres de la
guerra (18101814/15) as the visual inspiration for one of the four execution
sequences in Duck, You Sucker, claiming that Leone showed some of the
Disasters of War series to [director of photography] Giuseppe Ruzzolini [], in
order to get the lighting and colour effects he wanted (2006, 137). This anecdotal
evidence is of interest insofar as it shows that there is no single (Mexican or
European) iconographical source informing the cinematography of ring-squad
executions in lms of the Mexican Revolution. However, upon closer inspection,
the actual similarities seem to be rather generic and could just as well be linked to
Goyas painting El tres de Mayo de 1808 in Madrid (181314) or douard
Manets paintings of Maximilian of Habsburgs execution in 1867 (see below).

Executions by Firing Squad

145

enriched adaptation of a revolutionary episode told in the famous corrido

of the same name by Pepe Albarrn. In fact, the lyrics read like a retelling
of the lms execution sequence from the protagonists perspective.
Conceived as a vehicle for the musical performances of the actor-singer
couple Antonio Aguilar and Flor Silvestre, Caballo Prieto Azabache
testies to the decadencia total del subgnero [pico] in the 1960s, to use
the words of Andrs de Luna (1984, 282). Horse breeder Jess Aguilar is
falsely accused of having betrayed Pancho Villa and ordered to be
executed, but his last wish to die mounted on his favourite horse is
granted. Moments before the volley is red he manages to escape, breaking through the ring squad. The horse, however, is badly wounded in the
act and dies shortly after. As Villa and his men catch up with Aguilar, they
nd him embracing his dying horse. Moved by the fugitives protest of
innocence and his love for the horse, the caudillo spares his life. It is clear
from the outset that Aguilar will survive the execution sequence, as the
plot is framed as the horse breeders memories at Villas grave. In accordance with the corrido, the horses death as a consequence of the thwarted
execution is the lms sentimental climax.
In the Spaghetti Westerns of the Mexican Revolution above, the escape
from a ring-squad execution builds on the shock effect of the helpers
unexpected appearance, often in conjunction with the use of some explosive device or vehicle. The focus is on the getaway rather than on settling
the score. A variation of this escape paradigm can be found in Zapata: el
sueo del hroe (Alfonso Arau, 2004), where Zapata and his men come to
the rescue of a group of peasants who are about to be executed by federal
soldiers. This is the second in a close series of executions of the rural male
population in rebel territory, ordered by Huerta to put pressure on Zapata.
While the rst execution results in the death of twelve peasants, here the
soldiers of the execution squad are killed; the cavalrymen are put to ight.
Moments before Zapatas arrival at the execution site, a crane shot shows
from a high angle behind the ring squad a perfectly symmetrical line-up
of ten peasants to be executed (Fig. 8-16). The symmetry is replaced by a
succession of brief shots from a variety of different angles, suggestive of
the chaos and violence involved in the interception. The function of the
two execution sequences in this lm is twofold. First, they characterize
Huerta and by extension the Porrist regime as ruthless and uncompromising; second, they provoke Zapata to seek direct confrontation with Huerta,
thereby driving the plot forward. In both execution sequences in Zapata: el
sueo del hroe Zapata appears as the avenger or rescuer, not the (poten-

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Chapter Eight

tial) victim.21 Apart from Villas historically documented rescue from a

life-threatening situation before a ring squad, in Mexican lms of the
revolution thwarted executions by ring squad are few. It would appear
that throughout the twentieth century, revolutionary executions were inextricably linked to death as an outcome and the idea of surviving an execution seemed inconceivable. This suggests that ring-squad executions are
offered not as individualized instances of violence but as generic placeholders for revolutionary killing more generally.

Mock executions
Another way of subverting the usual script regarding the outcome of an
execution by ring squad is to stage a mock execution. Generally, mock
executions by ring squad play on the difference between what the lm
audience believes it is seeing and what is actually happening on screen.
This information lag will typically include the surviving individual, who
had been expected to die. We nd this situation in the Mexican romantic
comedy La Valentina (Rogelio A. Gonzlez, 1966), where early in the lm
the full execution script is performed, including the removal of the body of
the victim, leading the audience to believe that the male lead character has
actually been killed. However, it turns out that the execution was staged so
that the protagonist can be declared dead and entrusted with a secret
mission. In Juana Gallo (Miguel Zacaras, 1960) one of the execution
sequences mocks the script and the audiences expectations with comic
effect, when after the shots have been red the victim is shown to be a
portrait of the patrn riddled with bullets, rather than the actual human
being.
Two US-American lms, Old Gringo (Luis Puenzo, 1989) and And
Starring Pancho Villa As Himself (Bruce Beresford, 2003), place gringos
before the ring squad in what seems to be a spontaneous outburst of
anger on the part of a revolutionary leader. In Old Gringo, the title charactera ctionalized version of Ambrose Bierceis put up against the wall
in between three enemy soldiers because he refuses to shoot an ofcer
captured in battle. As the volley resounds, the three uniformed victims fall
to the ground dead (Fig. 8-17). A petried Bierce hears the laughter of the
revolutionaries, who never intended to kill him. Villista general Arroyo,
who ordered the mock execution, comments, Here we do not kill our
21

See chapter nine of this volume for a detailed discussion of Zapata: el sueo del
hroe.

Executions by Firing Squad

147

friends. Still stunned, Bierce remarks to his travel companion Harriet

Winslow, It was a joke. The mock execution adds a tense moment of
suspense and, more importantly, highlights two aspects in which Mexican
cultureas the lm suggestsdiffers radically from US-American
culture: humour and friendship. The sequence brings together in a borderline situation death and humour, illustrating what Lomnitz has referred to
as the idea of Mexicans jocular familiarity with death (2008, 55).
Bierces advanced age and adventurous attitude make his trip to revolutionary Mexico a irtation with death from the outset; accordingly he is
more receptive to Arroyos humour than his much younger companion
Winslow. However, Bierce seems to misjudge the type and resilience of
the friendship evoked by the Mexican general, who ends up killing the
gringo in the course of a heated debate. Far from being a simple plot
device, the mock execution in Old Gringo thus proposes two areas of
inter-cultural misunderstanding.
In And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself (Bruce Beresford, 2003)22 the
mock execution targets three members of the US-American lm crew
under lead character Frank Thayer of Mutual Film Corporation. When they
tell Villa that their work has nished and that they will not accompany him
to Torren, the caudillo orders them to be executed immediately, shouting
Here, Pancho Villa is the director. And Pancho Villa says who is nished
and who is not nished. As Thayer arrives at the scene seconds after the
volley is red, he realizes that the execution was a joke and that the ring
squad had instructions to miss the target. Villas men burst into laughter. A
reaction shot on Thayer reveals his bewilderment and disgust. This
sequence is one of several incidents in the lm that characterize Pancho
Villa as violent and impulse-driven. The humour behind the mock execution completely escapes Thayer. In both lms the execution sequence has a
signicant impact on the troublesome relationship between the Mexican
revolutionary leader and the gringo, which ends in disaster.
One of the most disturbing uses of the execution script to stage a mock
execution occurs in the episode La Adelita of Cuando Viva Villa! es
la muerte (Ismael Rodrguez, 1960). Four children of different ages
between about 5 and 10 act out a ring-squad execution using sticks as
makeshift guns. The smallest girl, wearing clothes resembling a federal
uniform, is executed as a traitor by the other three. When the children
notice that their play has been witnessed by their godfather Pancho Villa
they perform a similar mock execution with him. Although visually these
22

See chapter ten of this volume for a more detailed discussion of And Starring
Pancho Villa As Himself.

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mock executions bear little resemblance to proper ring-squad executions,

the childrens untroubled familiarity with the sequence of commands
Preparen! Apunten! Fuego!and other details is chilling and suggests
that they have been exposed to the ritual of such executions. In the context
of the lm, the role play soon reveals its tragic dimension, as shortly after
the childrens father is killed as a traitor by Villas brutal sidekick Rodolfo
Fierro. Unlike in the other lms discussed, here the surprise element does
not involve the mock executions outcome but the proximity of play and
reality, and their nal conation.

Towards an Iconography of Executions by Firing Squad

The execution script offers several routines of minimal movement within a
steady frame, which can be considered equivalent to static representations
of those routines. The aiming of the ring squad just before the order to
re is given, or the very instant of the volley being red, are such moments
of minimal movement that link lmic representations of ring squad
executions to the graphic arts. For early Mexican lms, especially by
Fernndez-Figueroa, for example, the direct inuence of graphic work by
Jos Guadalupe Posada has plausibly been claimed. Similarly, the iconic
photograph showing Fortino Smano, a captain turned bandit, facing the
ring squad in 1917, seems to be a model of bravado and closed, stoic
masculinity in the face of death (Noble 2010, 82) taken up by lms of the
Mexican Revolution. An execution sequence in Juana Gallo (Miguel
Zacaras, 1960) shows one of the two men to be executed smoking a cigarette, smiling deantly at the ring squad, with his hands in his pockets
(Fig. 8-18 and 8-19).23 This mise-en-scne clearly echoes the photograph
of Smano facing the ring squad.
However, models for the visual representation of Mexican executions
by ring squad can also be found in the pre-Porrian era. One of the most
striking and inuential renderings of an execution by ring squad in
Mexico is douard Manets series of paintings of the execution of Maximilian of Habsburg in 1867.24 A good 50 years after Goya evoked in El
tres de Mayo de 1808 en Madrid (181314) the execution of Spanish
23

See Giraud (2013, 4246) for a discussion of this and other photographs of
revolutionary ring-squad executions.
24
Earlier examples of non-photographic images of executions carried out in nineteenth-century Mexico comprise those of independence ghters Miguel Hidalgo
and Jos Mara Morelos in 1811 and 1815, respectively, and that of Agustn de
Iturbide in 1824.

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149

insurgents against the French occupationand possibly inspired by the

Spaniards workManet took on a major political event of the time,
painting the moment of Maximilians death. Among the representations
circulated at the time in Europe and Mexico, we nd a rather crude
composite image of this incident, based on several photographs taken
before and after the actual execution (see Noble 2010, 91; Wilson-Bareau
1992, 58).25 Drawing on this photographic record and other documentary
sources, Manet produced a more sophisticated artistic representation of
Maximilians execution (cf. Wilson-Bareau 1992, 4862). Of particular
interest for this chapter is the fact that in the third and nal painting of this
series of about-to-die paintings Manet integrates the complete set of elements that constitute an orderly execution by ring squad: the victims, the
ring soldiers, the commanding ofcer, the soldier responsible for ring
the coup de grce, the wall in front of which the execution is carried out
and the crowd of curious onlookers.
Manets painting of Maximilians execution was the model for the
beginning of the Spaghetti Western A Bullet for the General (Damiano
Damiani, 1966). The lms opening sequence consists of a series of mostly
medium shots and medium close-ups that introduce the staple elements of
an execution scene, withholding a complete view of the setting. Only
moments before the guns are red a long shot shows these fragments in
their spatial context. First, a tracking shot follows four men of different
ages walking quickly past a white wall. The attentive viewer will notice
the black writing in the background pushing through the frame: Viva
Carranza el pacicador! Having turned the corner to the left, the men stop
facing away from the wall. The two younger men embrace each other; the
oldest man covers his face with a handkerchief while the fourth is standing
still with an expressionless stare on his face. A low angle shot shows two
boys with straw hats climbing a white wall from behind and looking down
in the direction of the four men. Next we see the faces of ve soldiers in
uniform lined up. Several women of different ages are climbing a metal
gate from behind, shouting and gesticulating in the direction of the four
men. At this point we are already 24 seconds into the 40-second execution
sequence, but there is still no clear indication of what is about to happen,
25

Andrea Noble has identied the composite image of Maximilians execution in

1867 as the prototype for a grammar of visual design for the multiple ring-squad
images that were made repetitively throughout the revolution (2010, 91). This
may indeed be the case with respect to the elements included in subsequent still
images (the victim, the wall, the ring squad and onlookers, 91). However, the
mise-en-scne of ring squad executions in ction lm seems a long way removed
from that rather unsophisticated composite image.

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for only now does the camera distance allow us to identify the uniformed
men as a ring squad (Fig. 8-20). The shouted order Apunten! triggers
the next routines of the execution script: the shots are red, all but one of
the victims fall to the ground; the surviving man is killed with a coup de
grce. Immediately after the rst volley a fast zoom in on the face of a
foreign-looking bystander links the execution sequence to the gaze of the
lms unmoved lead character, El nio, a US-American hitman who
says he does not like Mexico. Simultaneously a voice-over narrator gives a
simplistic synopsis of the Mexican Revolution. Allowing for differences in
historical context, attire and location, with regard to its iconography, this
execution sequence can be read as an extended, linear version of Manets
famous painting. Like all about-to-die images of executions, Manets
painting refers to the execution script metonymically by representing one
of its routines. In his rendering of Maximilians execution the compositional elements are simultaneously present and available for observation.
The lm, on the other hand, uses these same elements to gradually build
up a visually complex scene, which is only revealed in its entirety as the
execution reaches its crucial moment. What is more, although the lms
mise-en-scne corrects the paintings awkward perspective, some of the
compositional elements are remarkably similar. Damiani takes Manets
painting as a point of departure for composing his lmic execution
sequence. From a European perspective in 1966, removed from the Mexican Revolution in both space and time, neither Damiani nor his audience
can be expected to possess a heightened awareness of the historical details
of the civil war in Mexico. By the same token, while to Mexicans the iconography of revolutionary executions is more varied, drawing on a range
of pictorial sources, to the European lmmaker the iconographic model at
hand is Manets painting: an Italian looking through a Frenchmans eyes.
Although it is possible to identify clusters of lms whose mise-enscnes of ring-squad executions bear certain similarities, overall no
single iconographic source can account for the diversity of representational
practice across the corpus of lms considered. Each lm, in turn, adds to
the pool of available options and is a potential source of inspirationlms
beget lms, to use Jay Leydas famous book title.

Conclusion
Taking its cue from the concept of the execution as ritual, this chapter
denes how ring-squad shootings were shot by lmmakers portraying the
Mexican Revolution. From execution sequences inspired by historical

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151

events or the interpolation of documentary footage, to the most boldly

imaginative or unlikely or mocked-up executions, the corpus demonstrates
functions both aesthetic and political. By staging executions, ction lms
express collective attitudes to the revolution, to Mexican national identity
and to the public spectacle of ritualized human killing. They create moving
images so visually stunning that they form an iconographic tradition both
deriving from collective memory and further generating it. Firing-squad
executions on lm come to incapsulate the Mexican Revolution in the way
that piles of victims cast-off shoes in museums incapsulate the holocaust.
Having examined the political implications of the execution sequence as
everyday savagery, generation conict or individualized victimhood, and
having examined the aesthetic implications of the execution sequences
vivid sensationalism, dramatic suspense and memorable visual composition, this chapter posits the execution script as a means to pinpoint and
analyze representational practice. Firing-squad execution on lm is taken
here to be a ritual, an established procedure for a rite, the observance of a
set form of public behaviour, and a solemn ceremony consisting of a series
of routines in a prescribed order. As a framework for analysis, the thirteen
routines of the execution script posited here allow otherwise diverse lms
of the Mexican Revolution to be assigned a precise place in the corpus in
terms of their utilization and omission of the routines that make up the
execution ritual. The innovation of the script reveals execution by ring
squad to be much richer in cinematic possibilities than a mere stock trope,
whilst also elucidating the related representations of thwarted executions
and mock executions, which would otherwise be dismissed from the
corpus. What emerges from the script-lead reading of the lms is a sense
of the graphic heritage behind the impact of the executions in lmexemplied by the resonance of Posadas images, the Smano photograph and
Manets Maximilian painting. Above all, however, the orderliness and
structuredness of the lmed executions, the perpetuation of their graphic
routines, alongside their wide dissemination in Mexican Revolution lmmaking reveal the haunting of a culture. In shooting the shootings, lmmakers in Mexico created what with Derrida (1994) we could refer to as
the master spectre of revolutionary violence.

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Works Cited
Films
As era Pancho Villa. 1957. Directed by Ismael Rodrguez. Mexico.
El automvil gris. 1919. Directed by Enrique Rosas. Mexico.
A Bullet for the General. 1966. Directed by Damiano Damiani. Italy.
Caballo Prieto Azabache. 1968. Directed by Ren Cardona. Mexico.
El compadre Mendoza. 1934. Directed by Fernando de Fuentes. Mexico.
Cuando Viva Villa! es la muerte. 1960. Directed by Ismael Rodrguez.
Mexico.
Un da de vida. 1950. Directed by Emilio Fernndez. Mexico.
Un dorado de Pancho Villa. 1967. Directed by Emilio Fernndez. Mexico.
Duck, You Sucker. 1971. Directed by Sergio Leone. Italy.
Emiliano Zapata. 1970. Directed by Felipe Cazals. Mexico.
Enamorada. 1947. Directed by Emilio Fernndez. Mexico.
Flor silvestre. 1943. Directed by Emilio Fernndez. Mexico.
La Generala. 1970. Directed by Juan Ibez. Mexico.
El hombre de Ro Malo. 1971. Directed by Eugenio Martn. Spain / Italy /
France.
Juana Gallo. 1960. Directed by Miguel Zacaras. Mexico.
The Mexican Joan of Arc. 1911. Directed by Kenean Buel. Kalem Film
Manufacturing Company. USA.
Old Gringo. 1989. Directed by Luis Puenzo. USA.
La muerte de Pancho Villa. 1974. Directed by Mario Hernndez. Mexico.
El prisionero 13. 1933. Directed by Fernando de Fuentes. Mexico.
Los rollos perdidos de Pancho Villa. 2003. Directed by Gregorio Rocha.
Mexico.
El Siete Leguas o el caballo de Pancho Villa. 1955. Directed by Ral de
Anda. Mexico.
And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself. 2003. Directed by Bruce Beresford.
USA.
Tepepa. 1969. Directed by Giulio Petroni. 1968. Italy / Spain.
The Torch. 1950. Directed by Emilio Fernndez. USA.
La Valentina. 1966. Directed by Rogelio A. Gonzlez. Mexico.
Vamos a matar, compaeros. 1970. Directed by Sergio Corbucci. Italy /
West Germany / Spain.
Vino el remolino y nos alevant. 1950. Directed by Juan Bustillo Oro.
Mexico.
Viva Villa. 1934. Directed by Jack Conway. USA.
Zapata: el sueo del hroe. 2004. Directed by Alfonso Arau. Mexico.

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