The story of Emiliano Zapata, ‘the Little Tiger’, is, Steinbeck wrote, ‘one of the strangest I have ever come across’. The champion of the peasants during the Mexican revolution, Zapata was a man of the people who became a great military leader and revolutionary hero. His story has everything, encompassing violent struggle and sudden death, the allure of power, love, betrayal and martyrdom. But Steinbeck’s original narrative Zapata also captures the complex man beneath the mythic figure. This volume contains Steinbeck’s full script for the classic film Viva Zapata!, starring Marlon Brando, for which he received Academy Award nominations for best story and screenplay. Notes by the film’s acclaimed director, Elia Kazan, are also included.