"Lauro Puñales" is not your run-of-the-mill Mexican Revolution drama, it has a few interesting aspects to it: Flor Silvestre's remarkable performance, a splendid all-star cast, and a great screenplay by Rafael García Travesí. The poor aspects about it, however, can seem distracting or make the film dismissive. Cardona's bland direction, poor production values, and too many villains (there are three, only two would have been fine) are the reasons why this film is not as great as it could have been.
The realism in Flor Silvestre's performance is really enthralling, as is her beauty. She is truly convincing as Rosenda, an admirably virtuous and patriotic woman who loves the dagger-throwing Lauro González (Antonio Aguilar, Flor's husband). She should have won the 1969 Mexican film award for Best Actress; Flor was versatile in both singing and acting, but she excelled at playing "soldaderas". The other performance that holds the viewer's attention is Alma Delia Fuentes'. The also beautiful actress plays Rosenda's younger sister, Teresa, a fiery, selfish young lady who is in love with a teacher. Fuentes should have won the 1969 Mexican film award for Best Supporting Actress. Other roles worthy of consideration, although less impressive than Flor's and Alma Delia's, are those portrayed by Antonio Aguilar, Elsa Cárdenas, Carlos Cortés, Julián Pastor, Miguel Ángel Ferriz, Guillermo Rivas, Jorge Russek, and the great Carlos López Moctezuma. Jaime Fernández looks distracted as Emiliano Zapata. Comic relief is provided by Eleazar García "Chelelo" and Alejandro Reyna "Tío Plácido".
