# Vámonos con Pancho Villa!
**¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa!** (English: "Let's Go with Pancho Villa!") is a Mexican feature film directed by Fernando de Fuentes, adapted from Rafael F. Muñoz's 1931 novel of the same title, that follows a group of peasant friends who join [Pancho Villa](https://www.edgepedia.org/pancho-villa)'s División del Norte during the [Mexican Revolution](https://www.edgepedia.org/mexican-revolution) and are destroyed one by one. Produced by Cinematográfica Latinoamericana, S.A. (CLASA Films) with a budget of one million pesos and government backing, it premiered at the Cine Palacio in Mexico City on 31 December 1936[1](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-vamonos-con-pancho-villa-fernando-de-fuentes-1936/) • [2](https://unamglobal.unam.mx/global_revista/vamonos-con-pancho-villa-en-la-trilogia-de-la-revolucion-de-fernando-de-fuentes/). It is the third film of de Fuentes's Revolution Trilogy and is regarded as a landmark of critical, anti-heroic filmmaking about the revolution[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/93557/vamanos-con-pancho-villa) • [4](https://cineenlinea.filmoteca.unam.mx/?cine_en_linea=vamonos-con-pancho-villa).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / year | Fernando de Fuentes; produced 1935, premiered 31 December 1936 at the Cine Palacio, Mexico City[1](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-vamonos-con-pancho-villa-fernando-de-fuentes-1936/) |
| Source | Screenplay by de Fuentes and the poet Xavier Villaurrutia, based on Rafael F. Muñoz's 1931 novel[2](https://unamglobal.unam.mx/global_revista/vamonos-con-pancho-villa-en-la-trilogia-de-la-revolucion-de-fernando-de-fuentes/) |
| Production | CLASA Films Mundiales, producer Alberto J. Pani; budget of one million pesos, then considered high, with support from the government of Lázaro Cárdenas[1](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-vamonos-con-pancho-villa-fernando-de-fuentes-1936/) • [2](https://unamglobal.unam.mx/global_revista/vamonos-con-pancho-villa-en-la-trilogia-de-la-revolucion-de-fernando-de-fuentes/) |
| Key crew | Music by Silvestre Revueltas, performed by the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional; cinematography by Jack Draper with Gabriel Figueroa as camera operator[2](https://unamglobal.unam.mx/global_revista/vamonos-con-pancho-villa-en-la-trilogia-de-la-revolucion-de-fernando-de-fuentes/) • [5](https://culturaendirecto.unam.mx/video/vamonos-con-pancho-villa/) |
| Lead cast | Antonio R. Frausto as Tiburcio Maya; Domingo Soler as Pancho Villa; Rafael F. Muñoz, the novelist, plays Martín Espinosa[1](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-vamonos-con-pancho-villa-fernando-de-fuentes-1936/) |
| Censorship | Twelve minutes, including the entire original ending, were cut; the ending was recovered in 1973 and first shown on television in 1982[1](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-vamonos-con-pancho-villa-fernando-de-fuentes-1936/) • [6](https://revistafosforo.filmoteca.unam.mx/news/vamonos-con-pancho-villa-90-anos-de-la-revolucion-al-desnudo/) |
| Reception | A box-office failure that nearly bankrupted CLASA; later ranked among the greatest Mexican films[6](https://revistafosforo.filmoteca.unam.mx/news/vamonos-con-pancho-villa-90-anos-de-la-revolucion-al-desnudo/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The story is set in 1913 and 1914, the peak period of the Mexican Revolution, when Villa's victories had become legend. Tiburcio Maya and five friends from the village of San Pablo join Villa's troops as the "Leones de San Pablo" (Lions of San Pablo). Villa receives them warmly while distributing corn to the people, and the friends soon distinguish themselves in combat; an attempt to capture a machine gun costs Máximo his life, and Martín dies in a later battle[1](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-vamonos-con-pancho-villa-fernando-de-fuentes-1936/).
Doubts about the revolt begin to surface among the survivors. A stratagem against federal soldiers fails, three of the men are captured and sentenced to be shot, and Rodrigo dies in the rescue. The remaining men are promoted and absorbed into Villa's personal guard, the "Dorados". In a cantina they play [Russian roulette](https://www.edgepedia.org/russian-roulette); Melitón is gravely wounded and, having said the most cowardly would take the bullet, kills himself to prove otherwise. Only Becerrillo and Tiburcio survive. Becerrillo contracts smallpox, and Villa orders him removed from the train and his body and belongings burned to prevent the disease spreading through the troops[10](https://cultura.cervantes.es/riodejaneiro/es/v%C3%A1monos-con-pancho-villa/125721). General Fierro then orders Tiburcio to kill Becerrillo, and Tiburcio obeys. Villa attends the cremation, tells Tiburcio to wait at the spot until called for, and Tiburcio disappears into the night[1](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-vamonos-con-pancho-villa-fernando-de-fuentes-1936/).
### The censored and restored endings
The version described above was the censored cut treated as the official version from the film's release. Under the Cárdenas presidency (1934 to 1940), censorship removed twelve minutes of footage, the entire controversial final sequence; a rumor circulated that the regime had agreed to cover the company's expenses in exchange for mutilating the film, to keep the newly founded CLASA from bankruptcy[1](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-vamonos-con-pancho-villa-fernando-de-fuentes-1936/).
In 1973 the Filmoteca of the [National Autonomous University of Mexico](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-autonomous-university-of-mexico) (UNAM) restored the original colofón, or closing sequence, which television audiences first saw in 1982[1](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-vamonos-con-pancho-villa-fernando-de-fuentes-1936/) • [6](https://revistafosforo.filmoteca.unam.mx/news/vamonos-con-pancho-villa-90-anos-de-la-revolucion-al-desnudo/). In it, Tiburcio lives the quiet family life he wanted until Villa unexpectedly visits and shares a meal. Afterward Villa kills Tiburcio's wife and their nine-year-old daughter; Tiburcio seizes a rifle to kill Villa but hesitates, and General Fierro shoots him in the back. Villa, annoyed with Fierro because he believes Tiburcio would never have assassinated him, carries off Tiburcio's young son with the shout "ahora sí, ¡vámonos con Pancho Villa!"[1](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-vamonos-con-pancho-villa-fernando-de-fuentes-1936/). The ending was found in 1973 on a badly deteriorated 16 mm copy[6](https://revistafosforo.filmoteca.unam.mx/news/vamonos-con-pancho-villa-90-anos-de-la-revolucion-al-desnudo/).
## Production
The film was the first production of CLASA (Cinematográfica Latinoamericana, S.A.), a new company with strong official backing, and it carried a budget of one million pesos, considered elevated for the Mexican industry at the time[2](https://unamglobal.unam.mx/global_revista/vamonos-con-pancho-villa-en-la-trilogia-de-la-revolucion-de-fernando-de-fuentes/) • [7](https://tesiunamdocumentos.dgb.unam.mx/pd1999/278397/278397.pdf). The government of President Lázaro Cárdenas supplied production elements including weapons, uniforms, troops, and logistics[1](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-vamonos-con-pancho-villa-fernando-de-fuentes-1936/). Its battle scenes were noted for their technical polish, with large shots projecting the scale of Villa's army, and the shoot was among the first jobs as cinematographer for Gabriel Figueroa, who later became one of Mexico's most celebrated directors of photography[6](https://revistafosforo.filmoteca.unam.mx/news/vamonos-con-pancho-villa-90-anos-de-la-revolucion-al-desnudo/).
Sources give different running times for the surviving versions: the Diccionario de Directores del Cine Mexicano lists an original version of 100 minutes and a censored version of 88 minutes[1](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-vamonos-con-pancho-villa-fernando-de-fuentes-1936/), Cineteca Nacional lists 92 minutes[8](https://www.cinetecanacional.net/detallePelicula.php?FilmId=HO00000064), and Filmoteca UNAM's online catalog lists 88 minutes[4](https://cineenlinea.filmoteca.unam.mx/?cine_en_linea=vamonos-con-pancho-villa).
## Themes and style
De Fuentes, who in his youth had served as secretary to the general and later president [Venustiano Carranza](https://www.edgepedia.org/venustiano-carranza), filmed the exercise of absolute power and the futility of heroism with a dispassionate gaze, producing what the Diccionario de Directores del Cine Mexicano calls a forceful masterwork about what he considered the original errors in the ideology of the Mexican Revolution[1](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-vamonos-con-pancho-villa-fernando-de-fuentes-1936/). The film presents a critical vision of the armed movement, projecting Villa, the "Centauro del Norte", as an intransigent figure[8](https://www.cinetecanacional.net/detallePelicula.php?FilmId=HO00000064). Its written preamble paid homage to Villa's valor and loyalty while acknowledging the cruelty of some of its scenes as inherent to combat[6](https://revistafosforo.filmoteca.unam.mx/news/vamonos-con-pancho-villa-90-anos-de-la-revolucion-al-desnudo/).
The battle scenes aim at a realistic rather than glorifying representation: violence, the fall of comrades, anonymity on the battlefield, and the fleeting reward of heroism[6](https://revistafosforo.filmoteca.unam.mx/news/vamonos-con-pancho-villa-90-anos-de-la-revolucion-al-desnudo/). Villa is shown as an ambivalent figure, the charismatic leader who distributed corn to the poor, but also a commander who treated his militias as numbers and was willing to sacrifice loyal soldiers[6](https://revistafosforo.filmoteca.unam.mx/news/vamonos-con-pancho-villa-90-anos-de-la-revolucion-al-desnudo/). The film also carries humor, notably the sequence in which the pianist, played by the composer Silvestre Revueltas, posts a sign asking not to be shot at[1](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-vamonos-con-pancho-villa-fernando-de-fuentes-1936/).
## Place in Mexican cinema
Between 1933 and 1936 de Fuentes directed three films about the recently ended revolution of 1910 to 1920: *El prisionero trece* (1933), *El compadre Mendoza* (1934), and *¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa!*. Though narratively unconnected, they share a clear-eyed view of the struggle for "tierra y libertad" and constitute an informal trilogy[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/93557/vamanos-con-pancho-villa). The trilogy preceded Mexico's Golden Age of cinema, a period of commercial flourishing from roughly 1936 to 1956, and the failure of *¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa!* marked the end of a phase in which socially conscious, politically themed films were prevalent[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/93557/vamanos-con-pancho-villa).
At its release the film reflected the populist movement of the Cárdenas government, and its populist perspective on the 1910 Revolution was in keeping with the new administration's [National Revolutionary Party](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-revolutionary-party), which had begun funding films to promote nationalist social agendas[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/93557/vamanos-con-pancho-villa) • [9](https://search.worldcat.org/title/Vamonos-con-Pancho-Villa%21/oclc/423117156). Mexican audiences, however, preferred entertainments such as de Fuentes's own *Allá en el Rancho Grande* (1936), a nostalgic musical released before *¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa!* that made the singer Tito Guízar a superstar[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/93557/vamanos-con-pancho-villa).
The film's reputation grew over time. The Filmoteca UNAM, which holds the trilogy in its collection and digitally restored the film after photochemical duplication could no longer repair the damaged print, calls it probably the most important work of fiction in Mexican filmmaking devoted to the revolution[4](https://cineenlinea.filmoteca.unam.mx/?cine_en_linea=vamonos-con-pancho-villa).
## References
1. [José Felipe Coria, "¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa! (Fernando de Fuentes, 1936)", Diccionario de Directores del Cine Mexicano](https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com/antologia-peliculas/pelicula-vamonos-con-pancho-villa-fernando-de-fuentes-1936/)
2. [Anylú Ayala, "¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa! en la Trilogía de la Revolución de Fernando de Fuentes", UNAM Global (2019)](https://unamglobal.unam.mx/global_revista/vamonos-con-pancho-villa-en-la-trilogia-de-la-revolucion-de-fernando-de-fuentes/)
3. [Jeff Stafford, "Vamonos Con Pancho Villa", Turner Classic Movies (2005)](https://www.tcm.com/articles/93557/vamanos-con-pancho-villa)
4. ["¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa! - Cine en línea", Filmoteca UNAM](https://cineenlinea.filmoteca.unam.mx/?cine_en_linea=vamonos-con-pancho-villa)
5. ["Filmoteca UNAM. Fernando de Fuentes. ¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa!", Cultura en Directo.UNAM](https://culturaendirecto.unam.mx/video/vamonos-con-pancho-villa/)
6. [Alejandro Herrera Arévalo, "¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa! 90 años de la Revolución al desnudo", Revista Fósforo UNAM (2025)](https://revistafosforo.filmoteca.unam.mx/news/vamonos-con-pancho-villa-90-anos-de-la-revolucion-al-desnudo/)
7. [UNAM thesis citing the CLASA financing of the film](https://tesiunamdocumentos.dgb.unam.mx/pd1999/278397/278397.pdf)
8. ["¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa!", Cineteca Nacional](https://www.cinetecanacional.net/detallePelicula.php?FilmId=HO00000064)
9. ["Vamonos con Pancho Villa!", WorldCat entry with summary](https://search.worldcat.org/title/Vamonos-con-Pancho-Villa%21/oclc/423117156)
10. [Actividades culturales del Instituto Cervantes](https://cultura.cervantes.es/riodejaneiro/es/v%C3%A1monos-con-pancho-villa/125721)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › War and historical films (individual works) › War action and adventure › War action films released through 1999 › Released 1934 to 1962*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license