American schoolteacher Harriet Winslow goes to Mexico to work as a governess for the Miranda family and becomes caught up in the Mexican Revolution. The Mexicans transporting her from Chihuahua, secretly soldiers in Pancho Villa's army, use her luggage to smuggle weapons to the servants at the Miranda hacienda. The servants, in turn, aid the attacking revolutionary army of General Tomas Arroyo. During the attack, a sardonic "Old Gringo," American author Ambrose Bierce, joins the fighting on the side of the revolutionaries; he operates a railway switch that sends a railroad flatcar laden with explosives to its target.
After the Miranda hacienda is taken, Winslow becomes romantically attracted, alternating between Bierce and Arroyo. Bierce has come to Mexico to die in anonymity, feeling that his fifty years as a writer have earned him praise only for his style, not for the truth he has tried to convey. Arroyo, by contrast, has returned to the hacienda where he was born. His father was a Miranda who had raped his peasant mother, and later in his youth, Arroyo murdered his father.
While his army enjoys previously unknown luxuries on the war-damaged palatial estate, Arroyo becomes obsessed with his past. Transfixed by childhood memories of his family buried there, he fails to move his army when ordered by Villa. To bring Arroyo to his senses and avert a mutiny among his officers, Bierce burns papers that the illiterate Arroyo considers sacred—documents that supposedly entitle the peasants to the hacienda land. In response, Arroyo shoots Bierce in the back, killing him. Bierce dies in Winslow's arms.
Winslow goes to the U.S. embassy in Mexico to claim Bierce's body and bring it back to the United States. She claims that he was her long-lost father. This puts Villa in a predicament, as a U.S. citizen has been murdered by one of his generals. Wishing to avoid American interference in the revolution, Villa has Winslow sign a statement that her father had joined the revolution and was executed for disobeying orders, as was General Arroyo, who had shot him, and that she witnessed both executions. She signs the statement, is provided with the coffin bearing Bierce's body, and witnesses Arroyo's execution.
Ennio Morricone was hired to compose the music for the film but left shortly after accepting, because he agreed to work on Cinema Paradiso instead after reading the script proposed by producer Franco Cristaldi.[4]
Reception
Before its release in theatres, the film was booed at the Cannes film festival.[5]
Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times said: "There is a potentially wonderful story at the heart of Old Gringo, but the movie never finds it--the screenplay blasts away in every direction except the bulls-eye. ... It's heavy on disconnected episodes, light on drama and storytelling."[6]Janet Maslin in the New York Times said: "... the film's version of romance is no less aimless than its battle scenes. ... The sly, cantankerous character of Ambrose Bierce, an aged cynic surprised and delighted to find himself vibrantly alive and at last in control of his own destiny, reveals in Mr. Peck something vigorous and new."[7] On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 46% based on reviews from 13 critics.[8] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B on scale of A to F.[9]
