LA BAMBA
A film review by Ellen Eades
Copyright 1987 Ellen Eades
When it comes to movies, I'll admit it. I'm a wimp.
By this I mean that it's very difficult for me to really enjoy a movie that contains masterpieces of scary-monster makeup, things that go bump in the night, or sex that is so steamy I start feeling vicariously sore, or that acquaints me intimately with things that should have stayed inside human bodies rather than being exposed to the light and heat of the camera. (I've had EMT training, but gore in movies is quite different from gore in reality). It's hard for me to separate out the *quality* of a movie (good direction, good acting, good script) from the emotions it evokes. Thus, I tend not to go to many movies because I know what to expect and that I won't like it.
I saw LA BAMBA this Saturday and really loved it. It has a certain quality which is best summarized as the triumph of the spirit over all obstacles, including death. There is a real love between the characters here which is rare in movies today--love between brothers, love between children and parent, love of young people for one another, love of music and the sharing between performer and audience.
It's not rare for me to cry at movies; I cried during THE MISSION and HAIR and, so help me, ROMANCING THE STONE. It is rare for me to feel as though there could be a smile behind the tears. Despite tragedy, LA BAMBA brings me a feeling of hope, not least because its message seems to be that music will always be remembered long after the musicians have gone, as with all art.
The only criticism I can make of LA BAMBA is that it is often heavy-handed in its foreshadowing of Ritchie Valens's death. The movie opens with a plane crash, and this theme repeats often. Despite this (and the heavy-handed treatment of the Yaqui charm Ritchie wears), it was possible to forget at times that tragedy was coming. In particular, the performances of Esai Morales as Ritchie's brother and Lou Diamond Phillips as Ritchie himself were very convincing. The performance scenes were very well done in the style of the period. I've learned to expect very good things from Luis Valdez, and this is no exception.
On a scale from 0 to 10, this is very close to a 10 for me.
Ellen Eades
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