Classic Movie Review La Bamba

La Bamba (1987) 

Directed by Luis Valdez

Written by Luis Valdez

Starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Esai Morales, Joe Pantoliano, Elizabeth Pena

Release Date July 24th, 1987

Somehow, despite having seen the movie La Bamba more than a dozen times in my life, watching the movie on its 30th Anniversary felt brand new. La Bamba was a film of my youth; I was 11 years old when the film hit theaters in 1987. I watched it repeatedly when it was on pay cable and free TV in the later 80’s and 90’s and then the film fell from my memory. You might be wondering how I could have allowed something I must’ve treasured to leave my memories. The answer is more complicated than I had imagined.

La Bamba, the movie, we will get to the song later, tells the story of teenage rock star Ritchie Valens who nearly became a footnote in musical history when he was killed in a plane crash alongside the legendary Buddy Holly and fellow rising star The Big Bopper, on February 3rd, 1959, after having released only 3 hit singles and being a mere 17 years old. Though his popularity was rising in 1959 with people comparing the young Chicano rocker to Elvis, Valens wasn’t nearly the star Buddy Holly was and could have been preserved in history only by his family and community had it not been for this remarkable 1987 biopic.

Director Luis Valdez is a legend in his own right and in his own unique way. Desperate for an outlet for his plays, Valdez approached legendary California union activist Cesar Chavez about creating a theater troupe among the striking migrant workers. Chavez agreed only after Valdez devoted time to union organizing, time which he also took to recruit actors and performers from among the striking union to join him. He founded a troupe called El Treato Campesino, The Farmworkers Theater, which has become the creative home for Mexican Americans of many talents over the past 50 plus years.

Read my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Horror in the 90s The First Power

The First Power (1990) 

Directed by Robert Resnikoff 

Written by Robert Resnikoff 

Starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Tracy Griffiths, Jeff Kober, Mykelti Williamson 

Release Date April 6th, 1990 

Box Office $22.4 million 

Right off the bat in The First Power, we are off to a bad start. The film begins on a massive info dump of exposition. A Nun, Sister Marguerite (Elizabeth Arlen), is speaking to a group of Priests, her church leadership, one can infer. She lays out the state of the universe. 15 people in Los Angeles have been murdered and their bodies have been mutilated with a symbol of the Devil, the pentagram. Sister Marguerite believes that this a sign, a symbol of, perhaps, the rise of Satan and the start of an apocalypse. The church leaders dismiss her concern and send her back to her convent. 

We know, by knowing the movie that we've chosen to watch, that this Nun is right, and the Devil is indeed inspiring this killer to kill. So, why dump exposition like this? Laziness? Clumsiness? A disrespect for audience intelligence? Yeah, probably. Making things infinitely more insulting however is how awful the acting is in this moment. Now, to be as fair as possible to Elizabeth Arlen, no actor, of any level of skill could deliver this kind of dialogue while emoting and trying to communicate a character and come off well. She was at a grave disadvantage. 

Why choose to start what is supposed to be an atmospheric chiller about a demon possessed serial killer like this? No music, neither the main character or the killer is on screen, and reams of exposition delivered by a main character to several non-characters. It doesn't tell us anything about the church, it tells us little about Sister Marguerite aside from how much her actor is struggling to fight through the scene. Writer-Director Robert Resnikoff has done a grave disservice to Ms. Arlen by placing the burden of starting the movie entirely on her when he has a movie star, Lou Diamond Phillips, at the ready. 

The scene immediately following the opening is WAY more intriguing and effective. Detective Logan (Lou Diamond Phillips) is looking over a map of recent killings. He has crime scene photos laid out, a visual indication of who he is and what he is doing. Logan gets a phone call from a mysterious woman whom we will learn, eventually, is a psychic named Tess Seaton (Tracy Griffith). She tells Logan that she knows where the killer is and will tell Logan if he promises not to kill him, and not to push for the death penalty when he captures him. Logan agrees and the two agree to meet. 

Who is this woman? How does she know what she knows? The crime scene photos tell us he's a killer, the phone conversation tells us he's dangerous and has a very specific M.O. Logan crosses lines on a map based on what the woman on the phone has said, the X's marking the map are places where bodies were found. Each can be connected with lines that come together to form a Pentagram. In less than 2 minutes of cryptic but intriguing visuals and dialogue, we've been brought into The First Power far more effectively that in the opening scene. 

Find my full length review at Horror.Media