On L List of Movie Reviews
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La Bamba (1987)
Rate:
8
Viewed:
5/05, 5/20
5/05:
La Bamba is a nice but fairly okay biopic about Ritchie Valens, a Mexican-American pop star who died at the age of 17
along with Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 3, 1959.
The movie can be monotonous at times, but it's a delight to watch because of Lou Diamond Phillips. This is the role that
made him famous, and he's perfect. His music scenes are electrifying. However, it's odd to see the attention
going to Bob (Esai Morales) more than Ritchie. Some of his scenes are redundant and pointless, prolonging the running length.
The insertion of symbolisms throughout to indicate of what's to come for Ritchie Valens is patently overdone. Interestingly,
his real family was present during the filming of the fateful scene, and they begged Lou Diamond Phillips not to get on the
plane, thinking it would happen to him, too.
All in all, La Bamba makes for a worthwhile viewing, but let's not forget who the biopic is supposed to be about.
5/20:
Making his motion picture debut in La Bamba, Lou Diamond Phillips becomes a household name.
When idiots talk about the day that music died (which wasn't coined until 1971) on February 3, 1959, they always mention
Buddy Holly and maybe The Big Bopper but never Ritchie Valens who was 17 at the time. Quick, who were the guys who didn't get
on the plane? Tommy Allsup and Waylon Jennings. The pilot wasn't trained to fly in such adverse weather although he hadn't
been properly informed of it ahead of time.
Anyway, I first saw La Bamba in 1987. Since then, I've found it weird that Esai Morales must overshadow Lou Diamond
Phillips. Is the movie supposed to be about Bob or Ritchie Valens? No matter what, it's a good performance by Esai Morales who
should've been Oscar-nominated, and what the heck happened to him afterwards? He just fell off the map, having not appeared
in a movie for two years and nothing else interesting during the 90's.
Lou Diamond Phillips didn't do the singing as most of the music was performed by Los Lobos. You can see the band when Ritchie
and Bob visits a whorehouse in Mexico. Comparing to actual history, the details are generally accurate. The coin toss didn't
happen right outside by the plane but inside the Surf ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. Ritchie wasn't sick that day, but The Big
Bopper was, having taken Waylon Jennings' seat as a favor.
All in all, like Selena, La Bamba is a feel-good film about an up-and-coming Mexican-American singer whose life
was tragically cut short.