Enrique Lucero Movies

Gale (Charles Robinson) is an idealistic and naive young hunter who ignores warnings that no one can survive for long in the jungles of Mexico except the native Indians. He tries to hunt crocodiles but becomes delirious, disoriented and nears death. Sleigh (John Huston) is a veteran hunter living among the natives who rescues Gale just in time. As he recovers in the Indian village, Gale listens to Sleigh's denunciation of the evils of modern society (ie. money, greed and oil). Later on, a former native of the village returns from the oil fields of Texas and presents his young brother with a pair of cowboy boots. Proudly wearing his new boots, the boy falls off the wooden bridge into the river and drowns as the boots, symbolic shackles of civilization, fill up with water and pull him beneath the surface. Sleigh and Gale observe the Indians as they recover the body and stage an elaborate funeral for the dead boy. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

"If they move, kill 'em!" Beginning and ending with two of the bloodiest battles in screen history, Sam Peckinpah's classic revisionist Western ruthlessly takes apart the myths of the West. Released in the late '60s discord over Vietnam, in the wake of the controversial Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and the brutal "spaghetti westerns" of Sergio Leone, The Wild Bunch polarized critics and audiences over its ferocious bloodshed. One side hailed it as a classic appropriately pitched to the violence and nihilism of the times, while the other reviled it as depraved. After a failed payroll robbery, the outlaw Bunch, led by aging Pike Bishop (William Holden) and including Dutch (Ernest Borgnine), Angel (Jaime Sanchez), and Lyle and Tector Gorch (Warren Oates and Ben Johnson), heads for Mexico pursued by the gang of Pike's friend-turned-nemesis Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan). Ultimately caught between the corruption of railroad fat cat Harrigan (Albert Dekker) and federale general Mapache (Emilio Fernandez), and without a frontier for escape, the Bunch opts for a final Pyrrhic victory, striding purposefully to confront Mapache and avenge their friend Angel. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

In this actioner, a gun runner gets a job as a marine biologist while stranded in the Middle East. He quickly finds out that his new employer and his wife are really treasure seekers looking for bullion. Unfortunately, the gold lies in deep, shark-filled water. Tragically, while the movie was being shot, a stuntman really was killed by a shark. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Henchmen of the dictator from an unnamed South American country blackmail Nick Thomas (Ian Hendry) into being a government spy. The former smuggler is to pose as a priest and enter a monastery thought to be sympathetic with rebel guerillas. For his compliancy, Nick is supposed to receive money and his freedom. Marina (Graciela Borges) poses as a prostitute in hopes of being thrown in jail to contact political prisoners. Maurice Evans plays Father James Keefe, suspected of being a rebel conspirator. Enrique Sandoval is sufficiently sinister as the corrupt police chief who follows the orders of the ruthless dictator. The release of the film coincided with real-life events, as Catholic priests continued to be the victims of government persecution throughout Latin America. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

In this jungle adventure, Tarzan is first seen wearing a business suit instead of a loincloth, but when he learns that a young boy who supposedly knows the location of a fabulous jungle treasure has been kidnapped by an evil explorer, he sheds his city clothes and hits the trees. Once in the jungle, he warns the chief who guards the gold mines that the explorer is planning to attack. The villain gets his comeuppance after he is smothered in gold dust. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Sam Peckinpah's 1965 feature Major Dundee was recut and rescored for re-release theatrically in 2005, 40 years after its original release. The "Extended Version," as it is known officially, tells essentially the same story as the original but with clearer motivations for the characters (which often seemed vague or obscure in the 1965 edition) and much greater effectiveness. Major Amos Charles Dundee (Charlton Heston) is a West Point graduate who somehow -- it's not clear -- exceeded his orders while serving in the Battle of Gettysburg and, as punishment, has been taken out of combat and put in charge of a Union prison in New Mexico. He then gets word that marauding Apaches under Sierra Charriba (Michael Pate) have raided an American settlement, slaughtering the troops who were pursuing them and kidnapping three young boys, whom they've taken to their lair south of the Rio Grande (and if this sounds a lot like the plot of John Ford's Rio Grande, it's because they used the same story as inspiration). Dundee assumes responsibility for capturing or destroying the raiders and rescuing the captives, but because he has far too few men, he's forced to recruit prisoners, including his one-time friend, Confederate Captain Benjamin Tyreen (Richard Harris), and other "gentlemen of the South," to fill out his ranks. Tyreen and his men despise Dundee, but agree to serve on this mission in exchange for the chance for possible pardon of commutation of sentence (Tyreen and some of his men are facing the rope, for killing a guard in an escape attempt).

The mission takes them deep into Mexico, where they free the children but now find themselves being stalked by the very Apaches that they were hunting, as well as having to fight off the French troops stationed there. And as they quickly see, the French troops, though white and supposedly "civilized" like themselves, treat the native Mexicans in ways that make the Apaches look almost saintly. In the end, this ragtag group of soldiers, malcontents, deserters, traitors, and criminals finds a larger cause in their quest -- bigger even than their own survival -- as they discover something uniquely fine and honorable in being an American, and in American ideals. It takes the sacrifice and deaths of many to get to that point, but the movie -- in this version -- gets us there convincingly, if in decidedly grim and bittersweet fashion. Though based on fiction and shot under incredibly (indeed, legendarily) chaotic conditions, the movie ultimately proves to be a rousingly disturbing examination of what it means to be an American, and the meaning of American ideals. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

B. Traven, the reclusive author of Treasure of the Sierra Madre, used an old Mexican folk tale as the basis for his novel The Third Guest. The book was in turn adapted for film as Macario. Ignacio Tarso plays a poverty-stricken peasant who goes on a hunger strike, hoping that someone will take pity on him and give him a turkey dinner. Torres' wife Pina Pellecier steals a turkey, and just as Torres is about to wolf down his food, he is visited by Death (Enrique Lucerio). The grim reaper offers to bestow magical powers upon Torres in exchange for part of the meal. Torres is gifted with the ability to restore health to sick people, but he is permitted to utilize this gift only upon persons of Death's choosing. At first, Torres is lauded as a hero, but before long he is being shunned as an instrument of Satan. Torres' last-ditch effort to redeem himself causes him to renege on his bargain with Death--and you know what that means. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this western set in the California territory in the mid-19th century, a rancher tries to protect his Spanish land grant from greedy American landgrabbers. Unfortunately the eastern interlopers bring in a Texas gunfighter to frighten the man. The gunfighter ends up falling in love with the rancher's sister, and decides to spare them. In the end, the gunman is killed during the climactic shoot out. The girl who loved him is devastated. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This typical Mexican melodrama is set in a coastal fishing village where a wealthy fisherman (Pedro Armendariz) lives with his wife (Maria Felix) and young son (Juanito Musquiz). Their lives are turned upside down when an American of dubious morality (Jack Palance) comes into town. The American and the fisherman's wife had been lovers years and years ago -- and now the fisherman begins to suspect that the son he always thought was his, is really the offspring of this foreign intruder. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi