Examining the Mexican Revolution in all its chaos and contradictions, Vámonos tells the stories of six rancheros who, in 1914, join Pancho Villa's loyal troops and one by one are led to their deaths. The desertion of a single disillusioned survivor contributes to a portrait of the charismatic Villa as a heartless leader in the face of war's horrors and personal loss. De Fuentes had state support for this first superproduction in Mexican cinema, including a battalion of soldiers as extras and, for the film's thrilling battle scenes, a train-a major protagonist of the film as it was of the Revolution. But if this moving ton of meaning is a cinematographer's dream (look for the night battle lit, by the soldiers themselves, like a film set), the camerawork also lends intimacy to the film's Grand Illusion–like argument for peace on the personal level. Figueroa worked with an early mentor, Jack Draper.