La Bamba
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| Directed by | Luis Valdez | |
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| Release date | May 1987 | |
| Runtime | 108 minutes | |
| RYM Rating | ||
| Ranked | #187 for 1987 | |
| Language | English, Spanish | |
| Genres | ||
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Review
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Cast
- Lou Diamond Phillips
Ritchie Valens - Esai Morales
Bob Morales - Rosanna DeSoto
Connie Valenzuela - Elizabeth Peña
Rosie Morales - Danielle Von Zerneck
Donna Ludwig - Joe Pantoliano
Bob Keane - Rick Dees
Ted Quillin - Marshall Crenshaw
Buddy Holly
6 Reviews
Criterion Collection #1193
Really, I didn't mean for so many of my early movie reviews to be centered upon music-related films. In fact, I didn't even pick La Bamba out of the rows of Criterion Blue-Ray discs at Portland's Music Millennium. It was my wife's choice, as she grew up watching the 1987 biopic.
Weirdly, I had never watched La Bamba before now, but had seen the VH1 staple The Buddy Holly Story -- which I had apparently conflated with the Ritchie Valens-centric film. And... it's fine.
Obviously, La Bamba was a star turn for the young Lou Diamond Phillips, and his performance here is generally pretty solid. However, too many of the film's other portrayals feel like little more than caricatures -- from Valens' ne'er do well brother Bob, to the late-film depictions of Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper.
But that doesn't mean that La Bamba isn't a decent -- and often charming -- watch. As rock biopics go, there are certainly much worse, and -- for better or worse -- this would prove to be an influential entry in the sub-genre.
Rating: 7.3
Published
A good movie, although a bit dull at times. La Bamba is a biography of Ritchie Valens, a boy who happened to die way too early in a plane accident together with Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper. Because Ritchie was so young and innocent, this didn’t have much to tell about him. Instead, I thought his brother Bob was more interesting. He wasn’t fundamentally evil, but still had a small criminal inside of him. Troubled and more fascinating case. His actor, Esai Morales, was better too than Lou Diamond Phillips who played Ritchie. I also liked the mother (Rosanna DeSoto). I also liked the zeitgeist and atmosphere in general. Also the cars were amazing. I like the cars of that era, they ooze beauty and charm. This was good, but a bit easily forgettable movie. I shed a tiny tear in the end though. From the musical numbers, I liked that soul song more than anything that Ritchie made. His music just isn’t for me then. I mostly watched this because I’m interested in 50’s zeitgeist, and latin music.
Published
A pretty good watch. I wonder slightly if honouring the young man himself or the fact that his story was just too good an example of a cruel cinematic twist to pass up was the primary factor in its green-lighting though, because let's face it, with no disrespect to Ritchie Valens' fine talent this wouldn't have worked much as a movie without him dying. Even so, watching this I feel everything I'm supposed to as far as wondering what could've been for him. The ending itself surprisingly is obviously sad but in its own way feels the slightest bit unfinished - an extra layer of symbolism given how untimely Valens' own end was.
Published
I didn’t mean to watch this. It came up on TV and I was too tired to get up and switch it off and go to bed. So I watched it. Now I know what’s going to happen, the same thing that happened when I last watched it over 10 years ago: for the next week I’m going to go around singing La la la Bamba and drive myself demented. The film itself is pleasant enough but not very interesting. The story of Ritchie Valens, it has the problem that Valens became successful and then died by the time he was 17 – there wasn’t much room for all the dramas that make up Walk the Line or Ray. There are tensions with his half brother, but they don’t get beyond the obvious. There are tensions bubbling under around Valens identification as both American and Mexican: his girlfriend’s father wanting her to cold shoulder him; his love of rock and roll but interest in La Bamba, a Mexican folk tune; and his relationship with his brother, Valens as a clean cut American kid, the brother as something more dangerous and foreign. But these are left as hints of themes rather than anything that is worked through. So we are left with an amiable, if slightly dull, movie.
Published
Lou Diamond Phillips is fantastic in the role of Ritchie Valens which is really what makes this film. The story tells of his meager beginning in Paicoma California with his hardworking family. Then as his career starts to take off we get to watch his rise to the top. Also you get the nice romantic angle watching his relationship form with the lovely Donna. Then of course it follows through to his tragic death at the age of 17. The music is fantastic (as expected) although let's face it, Ritchie really only had a few hits but still great performances all around on this one. I didn't think this was as exciting as The Buddy Holly Story or even Great Balls of Fire! but what this does have is authenticity, it feels quite honest and real. It's entertaining, it's warm and it's tragic, a pretty good biopic all in all.
Published
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