The Hunt for Pancho Villa Press Review

‘Hunt for Pancho Villa’ to air on PBS
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS, November 3, 1983
by Jon Burlingame

“The American Experience” (9 p.m., PBS) offers another fascinating historical documentary: “The Hunt for Pancho Villa,” a chronicle of the so-called Punitive Expedition of Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing into Mexico in 1916, to capture or kill the legendary outlaw.

The core of the hour is great archival footage of the time, including rare film of Villa and Pershing, each with his troops; many period photographs; and interviews with several survivors of the time, including two of Villa’s soldiers and a number of observers who recall the incidents. Linda Hunt is the narrator.

“The Hunt for Pancho Villa” carefully details the complex history of United States-Mexican relations and the changing political climate that caused the United States to first support the revolutionary, then oppose him and finally hunt him down in a long and ultimately unsuccessful expedition