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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 spec-tacular ways of dying; in particular death in combat and death by execution. This chapter establishes for the rst time a corpus of revolution-ary 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 sus-pense and drive forward the plot, or to make an indictment of authoritar-ianism 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, espe-cially as remembered and mediated by photographs, gave them the quality of a ritual, particularly an everyday ritual or mythology. (212)

1 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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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 pre-sume 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 execu-tion 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 aes-thetic 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.

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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 photo-graphs 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 image-scape 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 sidesboth literally and metaphoricallywith the authority portrayed as carrying out a just sentence, utilizing the executions performative character to

4 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.

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reinforce the ideology that underpins it (Giraud 2013, 45),5 in The Mexi-can 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 instinc-tively 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 pub-licly 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 lead-ing 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 func-tion 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 audi-ence 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

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the execution which itself is already a staged event, with an audience gath-ered 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 con-nected with the diegetic world, highlighting at the same time the medi-ated 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 combi-nation 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 audi-ence.

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 silves-tre (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 revolu-tionaries 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 build-up 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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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 clos-ing 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 politi-cal 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 revolu-tionits 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 his-tory 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-revolution-ary 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 execu-tion 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 posi-tion 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 ght-ing 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 move-

7 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 Fernndez-Figueroa 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).

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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 strug-gles 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 alle-giances 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 execu-tion 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 revolution-ary 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 Monu-ment to the Revolution in Mexico City. After the opening credits, an uni-dentied male voice in off, that makes the implausible claim to be speak-ing 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 revolu-tion, 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.).

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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 execu-tions 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 nation-building 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 dialogue-laden 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 conversa-tion 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 thirteenis 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).

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remorse expressed in the suicide note found on their dead comrade-in-arms, 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 back-ground 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 execu-tion 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 cine-matic 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 post-revolutionary 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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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. the victim is taken to the execution grounds 2. the victim digs his grave15 3. (if more than one convict:) the victims say good-bye to each other 4. the victim is granted a last wish 5. the victim is brought into position 6. the victim is blindfolded 7. the ring squad takes position 8. the ring squad leader gives orders (Preparen!Apunten!Fuego!) 9. the victim shouts rallying cry / political slogan 10. the ring squad res the shots 11. the bullets hit the victim 12. the coup de grce is red 13. 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 corre-sponds 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 hun-gry 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 unim-pressed by the ring squad. The playful music adds to the suggested light-ness 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 US-American remake The Torch (Emilio Fernndez, 1950), a group of inu-ential 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).

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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 reso-nates 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 execu-tion 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 Fernn-dezs 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

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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 photo-graphed 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) ver-sion 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 discus-sion 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 charac-ters 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 candi-date 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 repro-duction 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).

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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, break-ing 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 accor-dance 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 explo-sive 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 uncompromis-ing; 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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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 inex-tricably linked to death as an outcome and the idea of surviving an execu-tion seemed inconceivable. This suggests that ring-squad executions are offered not as individualized instances of violence but as generic placehol-ders 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 charac-tera 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.

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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 border-line 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 revolu-tionary 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 execu-tion 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 commandsPreparen! 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 ciga-rette, 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 Maxi-milian 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 nine-teenth-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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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 ele-ments 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 composi-tional 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 Mexi-can 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 ico-nography 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-en-scnes 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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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 composi-tion, 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 lmexem-plied 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 lm-making reveal the haunting of a culture. In shooting the shootings, lm-makers 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.

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