General Francisco (Pancho) Villa, D. W. Hoffman, ca. 1912. Dictators – whether in Spain, South Africa, Romania or Syria —retain power for decades. They can seem impregnable and invulnerable.

Raoul Walsh did more than play a young Pancho Villa in the 1914 film "The Life of General Villa" ("A Wild Ride Into Revisionism," by Chris Kraul, Aug. 3).

In HBO's "And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself," Larry Gelbart delivers an ambitious script, based on the true story of a Hollywood film company lensing the pre-WWI Mexican Revolution, that makes ...