Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Edison Witt The first must-see film of the year.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

TheLittleSongbird Of the Douglas Fairbanks films I've seen so far, there is not one that came across as bad. The Gaucho may be my least favourite of them, it does get a tad too heavy-handed at times and the religious stuff sometimes bogs it down and give off an odd feel. But what makes Fairbanks' films as good as they are are most definitely present in The Gaucho. The sets are some of the most exotic and lavish of any Fairbanks film, and the same can be said of the costumes. The photography is equally beautiful, and the music score is appropriately rousing which make the stunts and such even more exciting than they already are. There is a strong sense of humour that is as fresh and current now as it was then, the director handles things deftly and the story cannot be called routine, if anything of all the films Fairbanks did The Gaucho is perhaps his least conventional story-wise. It is also very briskly paced and with a constant sense of fun and energy, as well as memorable scenes like the aftermath of the healing miracle. It's not a Fairbanks film without mentioning the stunts and they are spectacularly choreographed and dazzlingly executed. And with real athleticism that has not been matched much by many films today standards. Fairbanks steals the show, as he should as he is the star, he is charisma personified and clearly looks like he's enjoying every moment. His stunts are athletic and youthful and he does show some expressive acting like in the healing miracle scene and its aftermath. He is very well-supported by the rest of the cast, the standouts being Lupe Velez, who plays with a lot of appealing spunk and is sexy without even trying, and Gustav von Seyffertitz, whose suave charm but very twisted malevolence makes for one of the nastiest villains of any Fairbanks film. All in all, while not one of Douglas Fairbanks' best it is still a treat. 8/10 Bethany Cox

MartinHafer Technically speaking, this was a good movie. It's obvious United Artists put a lot of money behind this project (and why shouldn't they, as two of the company's creators were the star of this film and his wife!). The sets and costumes were nice, the matte paintings and backgrounds were among the best I've seen in a silent and the stunts were fantastic. However, the overall package was still very weird, as there was an uncomfortably odd combination of various earlier Douglas Fairbanks films along with what looked almost like the Jennifer Jones film "The Song of Bernadette"! Odd to say the least.The film begins with a religious prologue about a young shepherdess falling from a cliff but being miraculously healed by what appears to be the Virgin Mary. Soon a religious shrine is built there.Ten years have now passed. It seems that in this South American nation, a corrupt government is now oppressing the people (just like in "The Mark of Zorro" and "Robin Hood" and "The Black Pirate" and several other Fairbanks films). Fairbanks is a bandit (it's not clear if he steal from the rich and gives to the poor...maybe he just steals) and he and his men take over a small town run by government thugs. However, despite the lovely stunt-work and women who adore him, the Gaucho is a bit of a jerk. When, as the new town's leader, he's mean to someone who has some weird disease (that looks NOTHING like any real illness). As a result, this afflicted person sneaks up on him later and deliberately infects him! And, thanks to some prayers and a re-appearance by the Virgin, the Gaucho is healed and life is good.The story is great to look at but heavy-handed and silly. My advice is first see Fairbanks' more famous films--they are better. Then, if you're curious, try this freaky film. It's good but not among his best by any standard.By the way, speaking of weird, get a load of the 'house scene'. If you see the movie, then you'll know what I mean!!

carvalheiro "The Gaucho" (1927) by F.Richard Jones putting in scene Douglas Fairbanks it was at the time a kind of almost ballet movie, concerning countryside landscapes in Argentine with cattle and horses. Indeed what it was possible also to a busy adventurer like his character brought another time to audience, in such a character of a smiling enraged gentleman. Saving people in local unrest by his phlegmatic pragmatism in the fight for making a quite still concealed justice of land in relationship with sacred ritual of local mingled faith. Instinctively for a better increase of cohabitation with less weaponry and more physical agility of the body on his horse, fighting as a masked creole friend of the poor's, whose sentimentalism was as a kind of internationalism, somewhat displaced from a social liberation struggle like that. Beyond his own measure and compassion, turning out the unrest at his own capacity and getting things to his wife, as though her lover apparently change his mind stopping it, but finally accepted by him after the social turmoil. It seems to be a silent movie already displaced from its stillness as guarantee of something of new coming soon, except the hat of Fairbanks which inspires confidence on the pampas as a kind of brave and peace maker, before it had happened too so briefly as possible and soon or later. What does represent the personality of this character in that movie ? Something of the enthusiasm lost for a while with the transition from the silent pictures, a kind of masked temperament reckoned by everyone of the time as righteous integrity, from a horseman who likes being an intruder on the social turmoil, but from whom the diplomatic intervention is not out of the struggle for free speech concerning peasant local religiosity. As if it was a kind of such a specific and well represented low power against any oligarchy on the pampas, told from the time of the roots linking to such a privileged inhabitants not far away of the still recent influence of colonization from abroad. Even if populism at its beginning also it is as bringing a necessary impulse in the intoxicated souls, as strength for smashing support in civil latent unrest for a small war between contenders of both sides. For all this he is a popular figure in the middle of iconoclasts, representing the request with good conviction for maybe the impossible neutrality, that couldn't facing disturbing spirits like the soul of an impossible twin liberator for any quarrel sharing the way of means of wealth. He represents the prefiguration of the symbolic new life for the countryside, nowhere in South America with the myth of the coming industrialism from North America. He is the gate of the foreigner owner that took the empathy of the local people, as liberal exception still half colonized and masterminded by brotherhood at the place of paternalism. That's it. Fancy as outlooked caricature of such a diversified single hero in his sensibleness and mystery fashion, from the moment that took the weakness of obscurantism and whose own fearless is fighting the most powerful than himself in his melancholy.

Ron Oliver He is feared by men and adored by women - but only one woman will tame him. He acknowledges no creed, but only One Faith will claim him. No jail shall hold him or treasure elude him. He is South America's greatest bandit and soon the fate of the Andes' most venerated shrine will be in his hands. He is THE GAUCHO.Douglas Fairbanks was at the pinnacle of his fame when he made this wonderful adventure film. His buoyant on-screen charm is matched only by his superb & graceful athleticism. He is secure in his position as one of the very greatest of cinema legends.Lupe Velez makes a fiery & beautiful love interest as the Mountain Girl, flirting or fighting with Fairbanks at every twist of the plot; Nigel De Brulier as The Padre & Eve Southern as the Girl of The Shrine are saintly in their supporting roles. That's Mary Pickford in a cameo as the Virgin Mary. And once seen, who can ever forget The Victim of the Black Doom?The sets and the special effects shots - using glass mattes - are exceptional. The very long City of the Miracles set is one of the finest ever created for a silent film.