TEPEPA

 

TEPEPA is a 1969 Euro Western, directed by Giulio Petroni (DEATH RIDES A HORSE) and co-written by Franco Solinas (THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS). 

The movie is set during the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s. A dynamic rebel leader named Jose Maria Moran, also known as Tepepa (Tomas Milian) is sentenced to be executed under the supervision of a military colonel named Cascorro (Orson Welles). Tepepa is saved and spirited away by an English doctor named Henry Price (John Steiner). The reason the doctor saved Tepepa is that he wants to kill the rebel himself. As the story progresses, a series of flashbacks reveals how Tepepa became a vaunted figure in the revolution, and why the doctor wants to kill him. 

TEPEPA is a cut above the average spaghetti western. It's over two hours long, and it has an epic scope and feel to it (mainly due to director Petroni's excellent eye for widescreen compositions). While it does feature some fine action sequences, TEPEPA is more about plot and characterization. It also has another fine score from the Maestro, Ennio Morricone. 

While watching TEPEPA those familiar with the Euro Western genre will be reminded of such other films set during the Mexican Revolution as A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL and THE MERCENARY (two other scripts that Franco Solinas also worked on). TEPEPA also anticipates Sergio Leone's A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE in a number of ways. TEPEPA examines the whole point of revolutions, and what those who are involved actually get out of them (Tepepa was sentenced to die by the very government he fought to establish). 

The movie also examines the influence a charismatic revolutionary leader can have. Tepepa is certainly committed to the cause of his people, the poor rural folk of Mexico, but he's no saint, and when it is revealed why Dr. Price wants to kill him, the viewer has to re-examine their thoughts about the title character. TEPEPA asks what's more important--a revolution that supposedly will help many or the lives of individuals--and it doesn't offer up any easy answers. 

Tomas Milian played many similar roles to Tepepa in his long Euro Western career, but he had the screen presence to make these characters engaging and interesting. Milian as an actor also had an element of danger about him--you never could predict what he was going to do, and that certainly applies to Tepepa, who can be charming, philosophical, or crude at the snap of a finger. 

One would expect that a Mexican military strongman played by Orson Welles would have all sorts of flamboyant braggadocio, but Welles underplays the role (either that or he wasn't very happy with being involved in this sort of production). I have to say that Welles looks more Chinese than Mexican here. John Steiner also underplays the role of Dr. Price--instead of seething for vengeance against Tepepa, he calmly allows events to take their course. Usually the main gringo in a Mexican Revolution story made in Europe is either a bounty hunter or a mercenary who is a weapons expert, but Dr. Price is nothing of the sort--he has no interest in politics or money, his matter with Tepepa is personal. 

TEPEPA was much better than I thought it would be. I assumed it was just going to be Tomas Milian driving bad guy Orson Welles crazy all over Mexico, but it's much more than that. TEPEPA, as far as I know, doesn't have an official North American home video release, but it assuredly deserves one. (It is available uncut on the Plex streaming channel.) TEPEPA doesn't have the wild excesses of other spaghetti westerns (well, there is that sequence with the exploding goats....) so that might be one reason it doesn't have a bigger reputation. It is a film that fans of the genre should seek out.