In the period of national reconstruction following the Mexican Revolution, the production of adventure films converged with efforts to forge a distinctly national culture that spanned regional, ethnic, and class divides. Incorporating scenic landscapes shot on location and incipient national icons like the charro (cattle wrangler), adventure films figured prominently in emerging discourses of film criticism. Journalists presented the staging of onscreen violence as a newsworthy spectacle while debating portrayals perilously close to stereotyped images of Mexicans in Hollywood films. In the latter half of the decade, El tren fantasma (The Ghost Train, 1926) and El puño de...