Possible historical reference?


There's one scene where James Whitmore is giving a ride to the young orphan boy played by Tony Davis. Mr. Whitmore introduces himself as Levi Morgan, and I could swear Tony Davis replies: "Emiliano Zapata!"

Is this a playful "hint" at how Senor Zapata was first inspired to be one of Mexico's most famous pre-WWI revolutionaries?

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yep, that's a hint for the mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata (that Brando played years before in Elia Kazan's "Viva,Zapata") Good bit part by the screenwriters.

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An amusing gag but one that begs the question as to when this film is set.

Note that no real names or dates are mentioned. Hardly surprising since:

-Slater wears a Confederate uniform so possibly the film is set a few years after the civil war (late 1860s)

- Emiliano Zapata was born in 1879. As the kid looks about 10-12 that would make the film occurring in 1889 (ie 24 years after the end of the civil war so Slater can't have fought in it)

- The Federale fort contains what looks like a Maxim-type machine gun in one of the 'turrets' and this would not have been around before the 1890s.

- There was no Mexican Revolution per se between 1867 (after Emperor Maximilian was deposed) and 1910 (when what is commonly known as the Mexican Revolution started).

I think we are in some form of never-never Hollywood land in which Mexicao is always in indefinite 'revolution' during the wild west period.

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