Old Gringo

{{Infobox film

| name = Old Gringo

| image = Old gringo.jpg

| caption = Theatrical poster

| screenplay = Aída Bortnik
Luis Puenzo

| based_on = {{Based on|The Old Gringo|Carlos Fuentes}}

| starring = {{Plainlist|

}}

| director = Luis Puenzo

| producer = Lois Bonfiglio

| cinematography = Félix Monti

| editing = William M. Anderson
Glenn Farr
Juan Carlos Macías

| music = Lee Holdridge

| distributor = Columbia Pictures

| released = {{Film date|1989|10|06}}

| runtime = 119 minutes

| country = United States

| language = English

| budget = $26 million{{cite web | url=https://catalog.afi.com/Film/58214-OLD-GRINGO | title=AFI|Catalog }}

| gross = $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 1985 novel The Old Gringo by Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098022/ Old Gringo] at the Internet Movie Database.

The film was screened out of competition at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.{{cite web |url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/216/year/1989.html |title=Festival de Cannes: Old Gringo |access-date=2009-08-04 |work=festival-cannes.com }}

Plot

American schoolteacher Harriet Winslow goes to Mexico to work as a governess for the Miranda family and becomes caught up in the Mexican Revolution. The Mexicans transporting her from Chihuahua, secretly soldiers in 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. During the attack, a sardonic "Old Gringo," American author Ambrose Bierce, 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, alternating between Bierce and Arroyo. Bierce has come to Mexico to die in anonymity, feeling that his fifty years as a writer have earned him praise only for his style, not for the truth he has tried to convey. Arroyo, by contrast, has returned to the hacienda where he was born. His father was a Miranda who had raped his peasant mother, and 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 among his officers, Bierce burns papers that the illiterate Arroyo considers sacred—documents that supposedly entitle the peasants to the hacienda land. In response, Arroyo shoots Bierce in the back, killing him. Bierce dies in Winslow's arms.

Winslow goes to the U.S. embassy in Mexico to claim Bierce's body and bring it back to the United States. She claims that he was her long-lost father. This puts Villa in a predicament, as a U.S. citizen has been murdered by one of his generals. Wishing to avoid American interference in the revolution, Villa has Winslow sign a statement that her father had joined the revolution and was executed for disobeying orders, as was General Arroyo, who had shot him, and that she witnessed both executions. She signs the statement, is provided with the coffin bearing Bierce's body, and witnesses Arroyo's execution.

Cast

{{castlist|

Jane Fonda as Harriet Winslow
Gregory Peck as Ambrose Bierce
Jimmy Smits as General Tomas Arroyo
Patricio Contreras as Colonel Frutos Garcia
Jenny Gago as La Garduna
Gabriela Roel as La Luna
Sergio Calderón as Zacarias
Guillermo Ríos as Monsalvo
Jim Metzler as Ron
Samuel Valadez De La Torre as Consul Saunders
Anne Pitoniak as Mrs. Winslow
Pedro Armendáriz Jr. as Pancho Villa
Pedro Damián as Captain Ovando

}}

Production

Ennio Morricone was hired to compose the music for the film but left shortly after accepting, because he agreed to work on Cinema Paradiso instead after reading the script proposed by producer Franco Cristaldi.{{cite book|title=Ennio Morricone: In His Own Words|last=De Rose|first=Alessandro|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2019|isbn=9780190681012|page=85|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1veFDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA85}}

Reception

Before its release in theatres, the film was booed at the Cannes film festival.{{cite web |date=22 October 1989 |last=Rohter |first=Larry |title=FILM; Why the Road Turned Rocky for 'Old Gringo' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/22/movies/film-why-the-road-turned-rocky-for-old-gringo.html |website=The New York Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150525123017/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/22/movies/film-why-the-road-turned-rocky-for-old-gringo.html |archive-date=2015-05-25 |url-access=registration }}

Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times said: "There is a potentially wonderful story at the heart of Old Gringo, but the movie never finds it--the screenplay blasts away in every direction except the bulls-eye. ... It's heavy on disconnected episodes, light on drama and storytelling."{{cite web |date=October 6, 1989 |last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |title=Old Gringo movie review & film summary (1989) |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/old-gringo-1989 |website=Chicago Sun-Times }} Janet Maslin in the New York Times said: "... the film's version of romance is no less aimless than its battle scenes. ... The sly, cantankerous character of Ambrose Bierce, an aged cynic surprised and delighted to find himself vibrantly alive and at last in control of his own destiny, reveals in Mr. Peck something vigorous and new."Maslin, " 'Old Gringo' Fuentes Tale, Stars, Peck, Fonda and Smits." New York Times, Oct. 6, 1989. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 46% based on reviews from 13 critics.{{cite web |url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/old_gringo/ |title=Old Gringo |work=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=July 11, 2022 }} Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B on scale of A to F.{{cite web |url= https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/ |title= OLD GRINGO (1989) B |work= CinemaScore |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181220122629/https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/ |archive-date= 2018-12-20 }}

The film was a box-office failure.{{cite web |url=http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=105&sid=3088f895-63db-4cba-beb1-2d211ef529b7%40sessionmgr112&bdata=JmxvZ2luLmFzcCZzaXRlPWVob3N0LWxpdmU%3d#db=lfh&AN=103331AMF13560011000356 |title=The Old Gringo |author=James M. Welsh |date=January 2000 |work=Masterplots II: American Fiction Series |access-date=18 May 2012 }}{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Jane Fonda received a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress for her performance in the film, where she ended up losing to Heather Locklear for The Return of Swamp Thing.{{Cite web |date=2012-07-07 |title=Razzies.com - Home of the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation |url=http://www.razzies.com/asp/content/XcNewsPlus.asp?cmd=view&articleid=29 |access-date=2023-03-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120707044333/http://www.razzies.com/asp/content/XcNewsPlus.asp?cmd=view&articleid=29 |archive-date=2012-07-07 }}